--- title: "Rainy day activities for kids: 10 ideas, screen and kitchen" description: "Ten rainy day activities for kids aged 4 to 10: five messy experiments on screen, five real ones in the kitchen with cupboard ingredients." source_name: "Game Tailors" source_url: "https://extreemtekenen.nl/en/for-parents/rainy-day/" site_home: "https://extreemtekenen.nl/" source_description: "The drawing app where the paper is real. No ads, no accounts, no data collected." locale: "en" legal: - "Game Tailors · Schieweg 15Y-40, 2627 AN Delft (NL)" - "KvK 92437702 · VAT NL866044474B01" - "info@gametailors.com · +31 6 4227 5919" copyright: "© 2026 Game Tailors" published_at: "2026-10-24T00:47:40.680Z" modified_at: "2026-10-24T05:05:22.524Z" --- # Rainy day activities for kids: 10 ideas, screen and kitchen ## Raining again? Here's the whole afternoon Ten indoor ideas for children of about 4 to 10. Five are messy experiments you'd rather not do in your kitchen, so they happen on screen. Five are real ones for the kitchen table, with things from the cupboard. Each links to its own step-by-step page. [Play in your browser]()[The kitchen ideas](<#kitchen>) - Ages 4 to 10 - Cupboard ingredients - With an adult for the real ones ![Painted illustration of a parent and child at a kitchen table watching baking soda fizz up pink, with paints and a rainbow drawing, rain on the window.]() ## How to use this list Mix them. Start with one on screen while you clear the table, then do a real one together. Or pair them up: the cola geyser on screen, then a baking soda volcano in a tray. Ask whether the real thing will behave like the game, then find out. ## Five on screen: the mess stays in the tablet ![Painted illustration of the painter peering through a magnifying glass at bread and a strawberry with fuzzy mould spots, beside a calendar with three days crossed off.]() ### [Grow mould in three days]() Drop ice cream, fruit or ketchup on the paper and tap **Wait 3 days**. Mould colonies bloom, the food dries and the flies arrive. No smell, no bin. ![Painted illustration of a cola bottle on the grass shooting up a tall fountain of foam as mints drop in, the painter in goggles laughing beside it.]() ### [A cola geyser on the carpet]() In the **Science** tab, set off cola and mints. A fountain shoots up and rains sticky brown drops all round. If the ants are out, they come for the sugar. ![Painted illustration of a bottle on a tray pouring out a fat foam snake in pink, yellow, blue and white stripes, the painter in goggles leaning back, amazed.]() ### [Elephant toothpaste]() A fat, stripy snake of foam pushes out of the bottle and piles up on the paper, and the bottle's spot gets warm. The real version needs an adult; this one doesn't. ![Painted illustration of the painter pouring purple red cabbage juice into a row of glasses that go from pink through purple and blue to green, with a lemon and baking soda.]() ### [Paint on red cabbage paper]() Dip the whole sheet in red cabbage juice, then paint with vinegar \(pink\) and dish soap or baking soda \(blue to green\). The colours follow the real cabbage chart. ![Painted illustration of the painter scratching through black paint with a wooden stick to reveal a rainbow rocket, planets and stars.]() ### [Scratch art]() Crayon a rainbow, paint dark paint over it, let it dry, then scratch a drawing through with a toothpick \(in the full toolbox\). The real one works with crayons and poster paint too. ## Five in the kitchen: real, and with an adult ![Painted illustration of the painter touching a dish of milk with a soapy cotton bud while red, blue, yellow and green food colouring swirls outwards.]() ### [Magic milk]() Milk on a plate, a few drops of food colouring, then a cotton bud dipped in dish soap. The colours burst away and swirl. About ten minutes, hardly any mess. ![Painted illustration of the painter pouring red vinegar onto a heap of baking soda on a tray, which fizzes up into pink foam.]() ### [A baking soda volcano]() A heap of baking soda in a tray, then vinegar with a drop of food colouring. It fizzes up into coloured foam. Do it in a tray and keep the vinegar away from eyes. ![Painted illustration of the painter dripping blue, pink and yellow paint onto a salt-covered glue star and flower on dark card, the colour spreading along the salt.]() ### [Salt painting]() Draw with white glue, cover it with salt, shake off the rest and touch the lines with watercolour. The colour races along the salt. Let it dry flat overnight. ![Painted illustration of paper strips and a coffee filter in glasses of water, where black marker dots have spread into blue, pink and yellow bands, watched by the painter.]() ### [Find the colours in a black pen]() A dot of washable black felt-tip on a coffee filter, the tip of the paper in a little water, and the black slowly splits into other colours as the water climbs. ![Painted illustration of the painter spraying water on cress sprouting in a heart shape on damp kitchen paper, with a seed packet and seeds.]() ### [Start a cress garden]() Cress seeds on damp kitchen paper or cotton wool, kept damp. The rain will have stopped long before you can snip it, but it sprouts within days, which makes a good thing to check each morning. A few kitchen rules - A grown-up stays at the table for every real experiment. - Work in a tray or on an old towel, and keep vinegar and soap away from eyes. - Nothing from an experiment gets eaten, unless the page says it's food. - Fire, bleach and the magnifying glass in the sun stay on the screen. Never at home. What can kids do on a rainy day at home? Mix a little screen time with real kitchen experiments: magic milk, a baking soda volcano, salt painting, finding the colours in a black pen and starting cress all use things most kitchens already have. Which of these is least messy? Magic milk and the black pen colours are the tidiest. Salt painting and the volcano need a tray. The messiest ones, like the cola geyser and mould, are the on-screen ones. Which ideas suit a 4-year-old? Magic milk, salt painting and starting cress work well with little ones, with you doing the pouring. On screen, everything on the list works for any age. Are the on-screen ones free? The mould, the cola geyser, elephant toothpaste and red cabbage paper are all in the free part. Scratch art needs the toothpick, which is in the full toolbox. ## More indoor ideas ![Painted illustration of the painter, goggles on his beret, studying a bottle foaming over in stripes, with red cabbage juice in pink and green glasses and fizzing baking soda.]() ### [All experiments]() Every kitchen science experiment, on screen and for real. ![Painted illustration of the painter brushing blue watercolour over paper, revealing a white crayon fish and bubbles.]() ### [Art techniques]() Salt painting, crayon resist, marbling and more. ![Painted illustration of the painter finger-painting a big sheet covered in hand prints, paint splats, a toothpaste squiggle, glitter and a cracked egg.]() ### [Messy play]() All the mess, none of the cleaning up. ## Start with the one on screen It's already on the tablet. No download, no account. [Play in your browser]()[All parent questions]()