2 Easy Elf On The Shelf Activities with Free Printables

The holiday season is here and now it’s time for your Facebook feed to blow up with creative Elf On the Shelf ideas! While Brielle is a bit too young to understand this concept, I did help an elf find it’s way to my sister’s house last year to make sure my nephews were being nice and not naughty.

Since she’s due with baby #3 soon and may be a little fried in the creative mommy field, I prepped two easy ideas their elf can do to with her boys. Both took 5 minutes or less to prep with only $1 spent on a watercolor set. They include a poem to describe the action which I turned into a free printable for your use!

Color Hunt:

This one is super easy and only involves my printable poem and a piece of red and green construction paper. Encourage kids to roam around the house and try to find objects of these two colors and place them on the paper. If they have a lot of fun, pull out a sheet of other colors and continue to make a rainbow. Hopefully after the fun, they’ll put everything back where is goes, right?

Secret Message

This next one takes about five minutes of prep. Grab a white crayon out of your box and write a message on white paper. If you look hard you’ll be able to see it but it’s otherwise pretty hard to read.

Cut the paper up in large pieces. Once painted with watercolor paint (I got this cheap kit at the dollar store) a message will be revealed. The white crayon acts as a resist so the paint won’t stick. It’s much like our Father’s Day sticker resist frame Brielle made for Derek this year!

Once all the pieces are painted, arrange to read the “secret” message left by the elf! Kids will get a kick out of this crafty activity.