The best part of this creation is that you can find the buckets themselves and most of the items we used at your local dollar store and one of our most favorite places, Target's Dollar Spot.
Before you hit the store, decide whether you're going to make a park pail or a beach bucket or BOTH. We live in AZ so it's park all the way for us. However, we can turn our park pails into beach buckets when we go on beach vacations as it's easily
interchangeable. Below is a shopping list so you know exactly what to buy for your park pail and beach bucket.
Click Here or on the picture for the Shopping List Freebie.
Grab your favorite bucket and decorate the handles with stylish ribbon. All we did was tie knots around the handles with our favorite printed ribbon, tulle, and lace. Since we both have girls, we are obsessed with all things watermelons + pineapples at the moment so those are the themes we went with for two of these buckets.
Next, personalize the bucket by using stickers or vinyl. This is completely optional, we used our vinyl cutter to cut out the names.
Want to save time? You don't have to tie ribbon or personalize the bucket. As you can see, the yellow bucket is still fashionable just on its own.
Add the {essentials} to the bucket.
We add chalk, bubbles, + Duck Food to the park pail.
Duck Food is :simple: Pour whole grain cereal into a canister and voila! Now you don't need to worry about having bread on hand. For more detailed instructions on how to assemble the Duck Food,
Click Here.
For the beach bucket, we add a beach ball, sand toys, Searchin' for Seashells Tote (mesh bag), + bubbles.
Now that the {essentials} have been added, we are going to show you how to make six simple activities for the buckets that will take you only a couple of minutes each to assemble.
Find the {Treasure}
Aargh Mateys! The littles love to go on treasure hunts so our Find the {Treasure} activity is a perfect park or beach game.
Gather a small container, jewels, gold coins, eye patch, compass, and a small piece of paper rolled with string.
Add them together in the container, and DONE. As an added bonus, we added a game card which makes for a fun visual.
Click Here to print out the game card.
Goin' on a Dinosaur :Dig:
Allowing kiddos to explore their imaginations is a must! Let them pretend they are archaeologists and dig up fossils with this activity.
These adorable dinosaur fossils were found at our local dollar store, similar fossils can be found on Amazon or even Target.
We added a paintbrush and dinosaur dig shovel to top this activity off. This is single-handedly our little's most favorite park game!
Searchin' for Seashells
Have your little(s) search for seashells at the beach or rocks at the park for this beach themed activity. Toddlers especially enjoy picking up items and putting them in a bag so this game is perfect for your little collector. We love these mesh bags found on Amazon or often times Jane.com. Challenge your little to pick up seashells or rocks and sort them by size, color, textures, etc.
ABC Look & Find
Practicing the alphabet is a must for the kiddos so we wanted to turn it into a game by adding this activity into our buckets.
Gather magnetic letters or foam letters. If using foam letters, add magnets to the back if you'd like to stick your letters onto metal playground equipment. If your playground doesn't have metal equipment to stick the letters on, hide them throughout the play area or in the sand on the beach.
Have your babe collect the letters in alphabetical order. To make this more challenging for the older kiddos, have them collect all of the vowels and then the consonants.
Place the letters in a paper bag with washi tape and a label to add a special touch.
Goin' Buggy
Kids LOVE bugs... Pretend bugs that is. We found a small bug house container at our local dollar store and added in a pack of fake insects. Add a vinyl label for a little flair or even have your little apply stickers to it and the game is made.
Have the littles search for bugs in the sand or around the park. They can find them based on attributes such as colors, antennas/no antenna's, number of legs, etc.
Seashell Tic-Tac-Toe
A beachy game is essential for the buckets. Draw a grid in the sand and play away using seashells. All you need is a drawstring bag + shells (in two colors). For detailed instructions on how to put this together,
Click Here.
Look at how AMAZING the buckets look with all of the activities!
Don't forget your
Shopping List.
You can find more activities for the littles, decor tips, + DIY projects on our blog
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Thank you for checking out our post and we hope you come back to visit soon for future DIY activities. Happy Summer!
xo,
Lauren + Kelli
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