Intro
Recreate the color, shapes and excitement of fireworks with this explosive activity!
Children will practice creative skills and motor skills while also gaining experience
working with different colors and shapes. The results are explosive!

Set Up Ideas
You may wish to begin with a demonstration of firework videos for a little inspiration. You
also may wish to use portioned paint cups and to work over art trays to reduce messes.

Let’s Get Started
For this explosively fun activity, you only need a few simple materials. Simply gather pipe
cleaners, paper and paint and you are ready to get started.

Tips and Tricks
Add glitter, glitter poms and other sparkly materials as desired to make this activity an
exciting recreation of real fireworks.

Follow up Activity
Fireworks are a popular symbol of the 4th of July, along with the Statue of Liberty.
Complete our Statue of Liberty Crown and Torch activity for a fun way to recreate this
famous symbol of liberty.

Children can have very different reactions to fireworks. Some find them exciting, while
others find them scary. Discuss what the children like and don't like about them, as well
as the interesting colors and shapes produced by fireworks.

Steps:

1. Pour three different colors of paint onto a sheet of paper near one another, but not mixed
   together.
2. Put the pipe cleaners together with ends spread out to create a star design. Wrap another
   pipe cleaner around to firmly hold the shape.
3. Press the pipe cleaners down into the paint. Make sure they are covered with paint before
   lifting them out.
4. Lift the pipe cleaners from the paint and place them down onto the cardstock paper to
   make a print. Repeat this while moving around the paper to create what looks like
   colorful, explosive fireworks.