Tag Archives: kids craft

Jun27

Rainbow Mobile

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Colouring a rainbow.

Colouring a rainbow.

Paper plates, again, so versatile! I cut some paper plates in half and I coloured one half in using markers to form a  bright rainbow on one side. I coloured the other side with crayons, which made a pale rainbow. A liked the bright marker rainbow better, so she chose to use the markers for her rainbows. It was easy to make the arch of the rainbow by following the shape of the plate, though for some reason, A’s rainbows have more stripes than normal, and they are a bit jagged and spiky. She is no perfectionist!

Colouring the second rainbow.

Colouring the second rainbow.

Once she had finished colouring in two rainbows, she punched a hole into the top of each plate. She also punched a hole in the rainbow I coloured in, as she wanted to use it on her mobile. I helped her to tie some white string to the rainbows, and then attached them to a plastic hanger. I collected a handful of these hangers from some clothes I had bought the children a few weeks back. I knew they would come in handy, and they are perfect to use as the top of our mobile.

Very proud of her mobile.

Very proud of her mobile.

She was very pleased with her mobile, and asked me to hang it up in our lounge room.

Jun25

Paper Lanterns

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IMG_0727Paper lanterns are a quick and easy craft activity, great for rainy days!

A cutting her paper.

A cutting her paper.

The kids each picked out a sheet of coloured paper and folded it in half lengthways. They cut into the paper from the folded edge, parallel to the short side of the paper, until about 1cm from the non-folded edge. The cuts continued at roughly 1-2cm intervals down the length of the paper. Though A’s cuts were a little wobbly, she was very careful not to cut all the way through.

The cut paper.

The cut paper.

Once the cutting was finished, they unfolded their sheets, and with the folded edge facing out, they curled one short edge around to join the opposite edge in a circle. We used sticky tape to secure the two edges together, but staples or glue would have also worked. The kids used some strips of paper in other colours as handles for their lanterns, attaching them with tape to the top.

A's big lantern.

A’s big lantern.

We had a packet of coloured squares too, which we used to make some mini-lanterns. L thought these little lanterns were very cute, and has hung some of them in her room.

Having the packet of little squares out led A to ask about making a flame for inside her lantern. She picked out some orange and yellow squares, and scrunched them together to form a flame. I helped her tape her flame into the base of her big lantern.

A's lantern flame.

A’s lantern flame.

The flame inside the lantern.

The flame inside the lantern.

 

 

 

 

 

Talk of flames led to talk of campfires, and next thing I know, L has made a fire from red, orange and yellow paper squares, and A has cut up a piece of black paper to form the sticks of a camp fire. A carefully arranged her sticks, and then placed the fire on top of them. She put her little puppy toys next to the campfire and pretended that they were having a little rest next to the warm fire. I love it when the kids have some spontaneous pretend play.

The campfire.

The campfire.

The puppies enjoying the warmth of the campfire.

The puppies enjoying the warmth of the campfire.

Jun23

Paper Worms

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IMG_0723It was raining this afternoon, and we were all feeling a little tired after school, so we picked a nice easy activity to do. We cut coloured paper into strips, and then used them to make worms.

L folding up a worm.

L folding up a worm.

A made some just by folding a single strip of paper up like a concertina, and then adding eyes. L made hers using two strips of paper. She started by lining the ends up perpendicular to each other, and then taping the strips together in a right angle. Her first worm was blue and red, so she folded the blue over the red, then the red over the blue, and then the blue back over the red in the opposite direction, and so forth until she reached the end of the strips. It was a bit like plaiting the paper together to form a spring-like tube. She taped the ends together so that her worm didn’t unravel, and then she stuck on some eyes.

A's concertina.

A’s concertina.

 

A two strip worm.

A two strip worm.

A's concertina worm.

A’s concertina worm.

I love these eye stickers, they are so easy for the kids to use, and we don’t have to wait for any glue to dry. A likes the eyes that have eyelashes, because all her creations “are girls and need pretty eyelashes”. A had difficulty making worms using two strips of paper, so L made her a worm to add eyes to, which was very thoughtful.

The kids took their little worms off to bed with them tonight, and L even made her worms a special sleeping place on her desk where they would be warm and comfy.

Jun22

Paper Plate Collage

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Collage materials ready for use.

Collage materials ready for use.

A used a paper plate as the base for her latest collage. She chose a range of collage materials and I placed them on a tray for her to use. She had feathers, cardboard mosaics, felt flowers, sparkly fabric shapes, cut up straws, matchsticks and buttons.

Using Clag glue, A pasted her items onto the plate. I helped her glue down the buttons and pom poms with craft glue, which is stronger than Clag. She was very careful about where she placed each item, and wanted to make sure that everything was visible, and that she had just the right amount of each shape (for her own standards!). She was very pleased with her finished collage.

After it had dried, she wrote a birthday message on the back for Big L, and gave it to him as a birthday card. He said it was one of the best birthday cards he had ever received.

Putting on glue.

Putting on glue.

Making the finishing touches.

Making the finishing touches.

 

Jun5

Button Rainbow

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Feeling the buttons.

Feeling the buttons.

A made another rainbow today, this time using buttons. We have a big jar of old or odd buttons that are great for crafting with. A tipped the jar all over the mat, and enjoyed running her fingers through the buttons. She looked for unique or special buttons, such as shiny ones or particularly large ones.

Sorting into colours.

Sorting into colours.

She sorted the buttons into piles of like colours in preparation for making her rainbow. This was a good sorting activity for A, where she sometimes had to decide what colour a particular button was. For example, she had to decide whether some of the buttons were more orange and should go in the orange pile, or were they more red and go in the red pile. Picking up the buttons and placing them was also good for her fine motor skills.

Placing the buttons.

Placing the buttons.

A laid out the buttons on a piece of paper to form her rainbow. She started with the green buttons on the bottom because green was the least numerous colour, which she could tell from the size of the pile. Then she worked her way out through the colours. She didn’t glue the buttons down though, so she could reuse them for something else later.

Once A was finished, she packed up all of the buttons very carefully back into their jar.

Jun2

Wooden Peg Dolls

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Wooden pegs.

Wooden pegs.

A friend gave me an old tin full of wooden dolly pegs recently, which are just perfect for making little dolls.

L and A each took a peg, and then went through our fabric scrap bag to find something to make some clothes. A made her doll a dress by wrapping a strip of floral fabric around her peg. I helped her tie a thin ribbon around the doll’s waist. L used two strips of fabric to make a shirt and some shorts.

A's lovely hair.

A’s lovely hair.

They used some craft doll’s hair to give their dolls lovely flowing locks. I had to help A gets her hair glued down so that it only covered the back of the head. L also had a bit of trouble getting the hair onto her doll, as once it hit the glue, it stuck to her fingers as well.

L drawing on a face.

L drawing on a face.

A added some pipe cleaner arms to her doll, and L made shoes out of pipe cleaners for her doll. L decided her doll did not require arms. They both used markers to draw on a face, but A’s went wrong, and she ended up colouring the whole of her doll’s face in black. So we added some tiny googly eyes on, which make the doll look a bit scary, but A was very happy with it.

L also added some details to her doll’s outfit using the markers. She said this doll would be the perfect size to use as a worry doll. L sometimes likes to use a worry doll to help keep herself calm when she knows she will be in a stressful situation, such as going to the dentist or having a vaccination.

A's doll.

A’s doll.

L's doll.

L’s doll.

 

May16

Mosaics Rainbow

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This rainbow was made using cardboard mosaic squares. A made arches of glue and then placed the squares onto the glue to create the rainbow. It took a while for her to do this, but I think it is a lovely rainbow.

Placing mosaic squares.

Placing mosaic squares.

This turned out to be an excellent activity for A’s fine motor skills, as she had to pick up a single mosaic square, and then carefully place it where she wanted it. Sometimes she had to lift a square up and place it down again if she missed, or move them about in the glue to get them into position. She was getting a bit tired towards the end of the rainbow, and I helped her finish the last arch of red squares.

Sticking on some clouds.

Sticking on some clouds.

A chose to make clouds using cotton balls. She packed the cotton balls in so the clouds are very fluffy.

When it dried, the paper under the rainbow became a bit crinkly where the glue had dried. As is A’s tendency, she did use rather a lot of glue, but it looks fine on the wall next to some of her other rainbow pictures.

May16

Pipe Cleaner Rainbow

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Placing the pipe cleaners.

Placing the pipe cleaners.

Another rainbow made by A. This time she glued pipe cleaners onto some paper to form a rainbow. She chose the order of the colours, and I helped by applying craft glue (the bottle is almost empty). A bent all the pipe cleaners into arches herself. When she was finished placing the pipe cleaners, I used sharp scissors to cut the bottoms of the inside colours to even the bases up a little.

Making clouds.

Making clouds.

Gluing the clouds on.

Gluing the clouds on.

Rolling the pipe cleaners up like spirals to form the clouds was A’s idea, and I think it worked well. She rolled up some white pipe cleaners for this.  I was impressed by how carefully and neatly she did this.

Once she had some clouds finished, she glued them at the bottom of the rainbow.

Painting the sky.

Painting the sky.

Having made the rainbow on white paper, A decided that it should really be in the sky, so the paper should be blue. I suggested she could use some watercolour paints to paint her sky. A liked this idea, so out came the paints. She carefully painted around the rainbow and clouds, making a lovely blue sky for her rainbow.

May12

Flower Bouquet

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L’s bouquet.

Fabric flowers.

Fabric flowers.

I bought these fabric flowers on a bit of a whim, with no idea what we might use them for, I just liked the look of them. Seeing all the flower bouquets in the lead up to Mother’s Day made me think of our fabric flowers, and how we could use them to make our own bouquets.

Two flower shapes on one stem.

Two flower shapes on one stem.

Each of the flower shapes have a little hole in the centre of them, just perfect for threading onto pipe cleaners. We cut some green pipe cleaners in half, and used these as the flower stems. There were three sizes of flowers in the pack, and the kids used these layered from largest to smallest on their stems. Some of their flowers had only one flower shape, while others had three layered on each stem. We twisted the end of the pipe cleaner over on itself at the centre of the flowers to prevent the flowers from coming off their stems.

Placing the flower shapes onto a stem.

Placing the flower shapes onto a stem.

Once they had finished making their flowers, they bundled them together, re-arranging them into a bouquet with all the flowers facing out or up. We bent some of the pipe cleaner stems to help shape the bouquets. Once they were happy with their bouquets, we tied them up with ribbons.

A's bouquet.

A’s bouquet.

L and A combined their flowers into a vase for the dining room table, where they look very pretty.

 

May12

Paper Bowl Spider

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IMG_9905A harmless spider made using a paper bowl and some pipe cleaners.

Painting the bowl.

Painting the bowl.

Hole punched side ready for legs.

Hole punched side ready for legs.

First A painted the bowl on the outside, and once that was mostly dry, she turned the bowl over and painted the inside of the bowl. She used a thick black paint. Once the paint was dry, I used a single hole punch to make four holes down each side of the bowl. A inserted half a black pipe cleaner into each hole, bending them a little on the inside and taping them down. I helped A to bend these legs into the shape she wanted, with little feet.

Adding googly eyes.

Adding googly eyes.

I thought googly eyes on the top would finish off the spider, but A wanted it to be a red-back spider, which are quite common here, so she also added a red feather to the back of her spider. A said that this spider is the Mummy spider, and she has asked to hang it in her room with her baby egg carton spiders.