Kentucky Derby Printable Activities for Kids
Here are a few easy and fun activities to help celebrate Derby Day! There is a paper Derby hat to color, cut, and create as well as a free coloring page. I also made some pool noodle horses for the kids to race with (see brief tutorial below). I hope it can be helpful to you in celebrating Derby Day in your home or classroom!
This file is best printed out onto cardstock, given to your child to color, embellish as desired, cut, and pasted together to form a wearable and totally fashionable paper hat for Derby. One of the funnest things about Derby is seeing all the outrageous hats and fascinators worn by the attendees. My preschooler enjoyed coloring rainbow roses to glue onto her colorful hat. I also printed this out onto mixed media paper (which I had to cut to size before feeding through the printer) and my kindergartener had a blast using watercolor paint to make her hat pictured above.
Derby is said to be the most exciting two minutes in sports. The winning horse receives a blanket of hundreds of roses thus the phrase “Run for the Roses” was coined. Feel free to print multiple copies of this to pass out for the kids to color and help decorate for Derby Day. I create more coloring pages here.
This was really a quick and super inexpensive craft to make. Pinterest has loads of different ways to make these. I used Dollar Tree pool noodles and felt that I already had and created these in the same fashion as the pool noodle ponies I made last year for my daughter’s My Little Pony Party. This time, I found an easier way to make their eyes. Instead of trying to cut out imperfect white circles, I simply used adhesive velcro dots. I love adhesive velcro and use it often in my kids’ reward charts and busy books.
Simply gather all your supplies pictured above. Of course you will need two eyes. Cut everything to size. Fold your 9″X16″ piece of felt in half lengthwise and cut some fringes to create the horse mane. Craft felt usually comes in pieces of 9″X12″ which you certainly can use too. To make the mane longer, you would just need to buy an additional sheet. I just happened to have a yard of black felt. I prefer the quality of felt that you purchase by the yard to the craft felt sheets. Bend your pool noodle to create the horse head and tie your long strip of felt (you could also use a piece of fabric or ribbon) to secure it, then adhere everything else onto your horse with hot glue. You are done! These ponies are also safe and can withstand quite a bit of rough play as my kids who managed to break “shatterproof” ornaments last Christmas can attest.
You may also be interested in:
Derby Party Ideas (with free printable banner, photo props, horse puppet craft, and party signs)
I create more printable activities for kids here with the goal of helping to grow kids who love to learn.
If you use these printables in your home or classroom or make these Derby hats or pool noodle ponies, I would love to see it! Please use #sodangfun on social media, tag me @sodangfun on Instagram, or post to my Facebook page.
I hope this post can be helpful to you in celebrating Derby Day with your kids!
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