fun with foil! summer play the GRAND way!

11 hours ago
8 min read

Friday, June 19, 2026

Who says summer fun requires fancy toys or elaborate supplies?

Not us!!!

Sometimes the most memorable moments begin with the simplest things

already tucked away in our household drawers!

In fact, one of our favorite things about spending time with our Littles

is watching their imaginations take the lead!

Give a child an everyday item…

a cardboard box, a stack of plastic cups, a wooden spoon, or ???

and suddenly it can lead to something entirely new!

That's why, in today’s post, we're kicking off another summer series for 2026,

Summer Play the GRAND Way!

In these posts, we'll be celebrating the simple joy

of turning everyday materials into extraordinary adventures!

For our first installment we’re featuring…

a roll of aluminum foil!

When Laurie’s son was little,

he would find a roll of aluminum foil in his stocking every Christmas morning!

He loved to create with it and this gift brought hours of fun!!

So, when Laura and her hubby were returning from a road trip earlier this week,

they planned to stop off and visit their daughter and her family for the night.

Since she didn’t have her usually GRAND Bag of goodies with her,

Laura stopped at the convenience store and picked up a handy roll of tin foil!

And isn't that what summer is all about?

So grab a roll, gather your Littles, and get ready for some shiny, simple fun!

As you'll quickly discover, there are many ways Littles can use aluminum foil.

Who knew something usually reserved for leftovers and baking pans

could become the star of a summer afternoon filled with creativity and fun?

Here are some of our favorite ways to play with foil!

Puzzle Play!

This is SO FUN and SO easy

and will keep young Littles busy longer than you’d think!

In fact, Littles as young as toddlers will enjoy the activity

and older Littles will love it, as well, with a few adaptations!

It’s a game, fine motor and sensory play activity combined!

Ahead of time, wrap each piece from a wooden puzzle in some tin foil.

Put the wrapped pieces in a basket or in a pile.

Let your Little unwrap one piece at a time and find its place in the puzzle!

Don’t be surprised when your Little wants to wrap the pieces back up again

and then start all over again!

(NOTE: Save the foil and use it to wrap the pieces at least one or two more times!)

Fun Variations!

#1 - Instead of puzzle pieces, wrap up toy animals or toy cars. Draw a few color circles on a large sheet of paper and let your Little(s) sort the toys as they unwrap!

#2 - In an Instagram post this past spring, Laurie gathered up several of her Littles’ favorite puzzles and wrapped all the pieces in foil, and put them in a basket and laid the empty puzzles out on a bench. The basket of wrapped pieces was set down in a nearby room to build a little movement into the activity, as well. The Littles would run to the basket, unwrap a puzzle piece, run to the puzzles on the bench and find the place where each piece belonged.

The Littles kept this going

until all the pieces had been unwrapped and put in place

and this activity was on repeat throughout the afternoon!

#3 - If you have older Littles you can give them an equal number of pieces and have them race to be the first to finish. If you have fewer puzzles, hide the wrapped puzzle pieces around the house and let your Littles hunt for them.

We hope you enjoy these fun and new ways to use your puzzles!!

A Guessing Game!

Earlier this week Laura played this guessing game with her Littles!

Again, another SIMPLE activity that's totally engaging,

PLUS…

Toddlers and preschoolers LOVE wrapping and unwrapping things

and this activity gives them lots of opportunities to do both!

Preparing this game was easy! A few interesting and familiar objects were collected from around the home and wrapped in a sheet of tin foil. You can mould the tin foil around each object to emphasise the shape of each - this would provide an additional clue. Or, you could also simply wrap each object in the foil with no extra clues provided!

Little L and Little P had such fun with this game.

In fact, we had to play the game multiple times

ONLY Little L was in charge of finding the objects and wrapping each up!

Foil Sculptures!

Some of the foil from the Guessing Game above could be recycled

so we used it to create some sculptures!

We chose to make animal sculptures but let your Littles lead the way!

Even Grandpa got involved in this activity!

There’s no directions to follow. Just start creating!

Here were three of our animal sculptures?

Can you tell what we created?

From left to right, we’ve got a lion (with a big mane), a pig and an elephant!

Sink or Float Foil Boats!

The other project we did during our recent visit had us experimenting!

We used our foil to create boats!

While Little P (two years old) needed a bit of help,

Little L could form her own boat!

Once our boats were built, we put them in a bin filled with water.

We soon discovered that… our boats could float!

Then we wondered what would happen if we put something in our boats…

We found some coins and started adding them to our boats - one at a time!

Little L loved counting and watching!

Before we knew it, our boat sank!

When we were done experimenting, the fun didn’t stop!

Little L was quite intrigued by the different coins. She wanted to know more

and then had fun sorting them as she cleaned and dried them all!

Foil Art - 2 Ways!

Since our visit was short, we didn’t pull out the art supplies this time around,

but we thought we’d share two past projects, both using aluminum foil!

USE FOIL AS YOUR CANVAS!

Painting on foil is a fun experience your Little will want to try! The surface is slippery so the paint seems to dance across it and the light from the room reflects off your artwork! You can certainly use paint brushes but when Laura did this project with her great nephew and niece, they had fun using cotton swabs (Q Tips) instead!

You will need aluminum foil, cotton swabs, tempera paints and liquid dish soap, like Dawn. (NOTE: The dish soap will keep the paint from flaking off the aluminum foil!) You will also want to cover your Littles work space!

Tear off a piece of aluminum foil for each Little. Then, have your Little choose a few colors of paint. (At this point, we talked about what my nephew was thinking of making and what colors he thought he’d need.) Put a dollop of each color on a plate or on a tray and add a few drops of dish soap to each. Stir together with a Q-Tip. Then your Littles are all set to begin creating!

Since the artwork is quite reflective we suggest adding a piece of colored construction paper behind it to finish it off!

USE FOIL TO PRINT YOUR ARTWORK!

Laura has tried this project a few times during the last year. Little L enjoyed both experiences! For this project, you use washable markers to draw designs or patterns on the foil. Then, using a spray bottle, you spray water on the foil, lay your paper on top of the foil, press down and make a print of the marker drawing!

This is a photo I took last summer.

Sadly, I didn’t take any other photos that day of the process or the result!

Ahead of time I'd used a permanent marker to draw simple objects on white copy paper,

(I drew a flower, a butterfly and a fish).

Then, I used washable markers to color several designs on foil as samples.

(Your Littles can definitely help with this step and should!)

Little L and I sprayed water on the foil and then pressed each picture onto the foil,

transferring the marker colors/design to the drawn artwork.

(I wish I had photos to show you what the final product looked like.)

Then earlier this spring, Little L and I had fun making a flower garden using a similar technique. This time, I cut out flower shapes from white paper ahead of time and we printed on those!