artS & crafts

You can make these cute paper strip rainbows in less than 10 minutes.

This is a great way to use up your construction paper – and they’re

SO PRETTY!

What You’ll Need to Make This Rainbow Craft:

• Construction Paper (Rainbow Colours)
• Scissors
• Stapler
• Cotton Balls

You’ll need one sheet of construction paper from all the colours of the rainbow. The shape of these rainbows looks the nicest when you use 6 different colours.

• Instructions
  Cut a 1 inch strip from the shorter end of a piece of 12 inch by 9 inch construction paper. The strip should be 1 inch by 9 inches.
• Cut a 1 inch by 9 inch strip from the rest of the colours of the rainbow so you have red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple strips.
• Trim each colour so it’s about 1 inch shorter than the colour before it. Red: 9 inches (full length), Orange: 8 inches, Yellow: 7 inches, Green: 6 inches, Blue: 5 inches, Purple: 4 inches.
• Place the strips of paper in the order of the rainbow, one on top of the other. Line up the ends of the strips on one side then staple through all 6 strips, about a 1/4 inch from the end.
• Line up the ends of the other end of each strip of paper. Start by matching up the ends of the two shortest strips (purple and blue). Then one by one, line up the end of the next colour until all of the ends are together.
• Again, staple together the strips of paper, about a 1/4 inch from the end.
• Your strips of paper should arch just like a rainbow.
• To make the clouds, you’ll need to fluff up a cotton ball. If your cotton ball doesn’t pull apart easily use scissors to make a small cut on one side of the cotton ball.
• Then stretch it and pull it apart into a cloud shape.
• Place one end of the rainbow in the middle of the cotton ball. Then fold the cotton ball up on each side and staple it to the rainbow to hold it in place.
• Repeat for the cotton ball on the other side of the rainbow, and your rainbow craft is complete!

 

What you need

• craft sticks (pre-coloured, or coloured green)
• zig zag scissors
• green pipe cleaners
• small wiggly eyes
• black marker
• glue

If you got an uncoloured craft stick, first colour them green and let them dry completely. Once dried take a green pipe cleaner and place it in the middle of the craft stick.

Start wrapping the pipe cleaner around the craft stick, working your way toward one end of the stick.

Once you wrap to the point that a quarter of the stick is still “unwrapped” stop. Make legs. Repeat the whole process on the other end of the stick.

Cut the teeth with zig zag scissors from paper. Glue them on the bottom of the craft stick. Stick on two googly eyes. Draw nostrils with marker.

Have fun!

Tic Tac Toe is one of those games that is classic and timeless.

• Supplies:
• Pipe Cleaners – Two long strips in Green, Orange &
• Purple Colors each.
• Scissors
• Magnetic Sheet ( optional)

Instructions:
Let’s make the Tic Tac Toe grid first. Cut the Green pipe cleaners in half to make 4 pieces of equal length.

We simply ran the pipe cleaners from one end to the other and twisted it in place where they overlapped.

Continue this process so that you have two pipe cleaners running in each direction. This will create your nine space grid.

Make the X’s and O’s out of pipe cleaners. The O’s are simple. Cut each pipe cleaner into 4four equal parts and twist the ends to form an O.

For the X’s I just cut two pieces the same length and then cross them over and twist to make them stay.

That’s it. Your Tic Tac Toe is ready. Those of you who are passionate about traveling know how important it is to find miniature versions of things, ones that you can easily pack and take everywhere with you. If you love playing tic-tac-toe there’s no reason to give it up while you travel! Just pop the pieces in a drawstring bag and you are ready to go!

Once the Pipe Cleaner Tic Tac Toe game board and pieces are ready it’s time to play! We cut a magnetic sheet in the size of the grid that formed our board. The magnet helps keep the grid and playing pieces stuck and hard for kids to lose while in motion.

SUPPLIES:

• styrofoam produce tray (sterilized in dishwasher)
• blue paint (for fun, we blended 2 shades together)
• paintbrush
• pipe cleaners
• an assortment of beads
• cotton balls
• hot glue gun

INSTRUCTIONS:

1 – rep Styrofoam Tray
Paint your styrofoam produce tray with blue paint. For fun, use 2 or 3 shades of blue, and observe what happens when the blues blend together.

Set your tray aside to dry (or give it a blast with a hairdryer to dry it quickly).

2 – Thread Pipe Cleaners
Using pipe cleaners in rainbow colours (ROYGBV), have your child thread matching beads on to each pipe cleaner, leaving some space at the end of each pipe cleaner.

This is where you can talk to your child about colour families (darker and lighter shades of one colour). For example, turquoise, navy and light blue beads can all go on the blue pipe cleaner. Magenta, red and burgundy beads can all go on the red pipe cleaner.

3 – Put in Rainbow Order
Once all of your pipe cleaners are threaded with beads, you’ll lay them out in rainbow order (also known as spectrum order). Remember good ol’ Roy G. Biv? That’s the mnemonic for remembering rainbow order. R=Red, O=Orange, Y=Yellow, G=Green, B=Blue, O=Orange, V=Violet.

4 – Glue to Tray
Bend the red pipe cleaner into an arc and glue it to the styrofoam tray using a few dabs of hot glue.

Follow with the orange pipe cleaner, then yellow etc., nestling each one close to the pipe cleaner next to it and gluing in place.

You’ll notice as you go along that you’ll have to trim the inner pipe cleaners so all of the pipe cleaners will be even on the bottom. Another teachable moment!

5 – Add clouds
To finish, stretch and fluff a few cotton balls and glue them in a way that they hide the ends of the pipe cleaners.

And now you have a colourful piece of beaded rainbow art to display in your home or classroom.

Bubbles are great fun for kids of all ages.

Who can blow the biggest one, or which one will pop last are

always games I hear my kids playing.

These bubble wands literally take minutes to make and

the kids can make them whatever colours they want.

What you need

• Pipe cleaners
• Beads
• Bubbles
• Small dish

How to make Bubble Wands

Place the two ends of a pipe cleaner together and twist the bottoms together, leaving the top in a circle shape.

Start placing beads onto the bottom two pipe cleaner ends and pushing them to the top, you can create any colour pattern you’d like.

Once you fill the wand with beads, fold the end of the pipe cleaner up to hold the beads in place.

Fill up a small dish with bubbles and dip the circle end of the wand into the bubbles and blow on the wand to make bubbles.

Supplies

• Whitepaper
• Coluored Printer Paper
• Tape Runner
• Scissors
• Paper Cutter (optional)

1 – Print the jar label on white paper.
2 – Cut out the label for the front of the jar, there are two options available. Also, cut out the circle template for the top of the lid.
3 – Use the tape runner to affix the label to the front of the jar. The circular label fits in between the lid pieces, but use a little tape to make sure it’s secure.
4 – Print the ideas on the colored paper. Cut them out using the paper cutter to make this quick.

5 – Use a round marker or pen to help roll the ideas up & shove them into the jar.

These cute pipe cleaner and bead dolls

are easy to make and hours of fun to play with!

MATERIALS:

• Pipe cleaners
• Wooden beads (large ones for the head
• and smaller ones for the body)
• Paper straws
• Yarn
• Black marker pen

HOW TO:
Wrap some yarn around a piece of card to make a thick bundle then remove the bundle of yarn from the card. Fold a pipe cleaner in half and trap the yarn in the middle twisting the pipe cleaner together to secure the yarn. Thread the ends of the pipe cleaner through the large bead, pull the bead to the top trapping the yarn. Trim the looped ends of the yarn to make the hair.

Add a small bead to make your dolls neck and bend the pipe cleaner ends out to make the arms. Fold a second pipe cleaner in half and put it over one of the arms to make the body and legs.

Now add beads to make the body.

Add beads and straws to make the arms and legs. Fold the ends of the pipe cleaners over to secure the last beads.

Have fun playing.

These little rainbow striped sailboats, or possibly rafts with sails,

can be made in so many ways, the main object being that they

actually float when placed in the water.

Oh, and of course using materials that won’t fall apart

when exposed to a capsize here and there certainly is a good idea.

You’ll Need:

• popsicle sticks
• wine corks
• a milk carton or milk jug
• wooden skewers, both flat and round
• a hot glue gun

How To Make Popsicle Stick Sailboats

There is really no right way to do this!

You can glue the popsicle sticks directly to the corks, or glue the posicle sticks to two parallel skewers, and then attached the corks to that.

Have an adult cut a slice of a cork, and make a hole in the middle of it with a sharp object in order to serve as a base for the round skewer mast.

Cut open a milk carton to make your waterproof sails, and affix them to the mast with hot glue. You can also use a piece of plastic from a large plastic jug of milk or juice, or a piece of craft foam.

Put your boats in the water and enjoy!

This popsicle sticks craft project is pretty easy to do

and will require very little help from adults

What’s Needed

• Coloured Craft Sticks
• Glue
• Velcro Dots
• Coloured Markers
• Red Felt
• Glitter Glue
• Googly Eyes
• Buttons (optional)

How To Make

Arrange 4 or 5 craft sticks in the order you want them to be for your snake body.

Take Velcro dots and stick them to the sticks on each end, either the top or the bottom depending on how you ordered your sticks.

For the snake’s head, cut one stick into thirds. Lay the end pieces side by side, and glue the middle third to the back of them so they are secured together.

Using the red felt, cut a small rectangle about 2”x ½”. Then cut a small “V” shape out of one end of the rectangle. Glue this to the back of the snake’s head.

Now decorate all your sticks with the markers, glitter glue, and buttons.

Let dry for about an hour. Make all different colours and styles of sticks and interchange them.

Have fun!

Make a gorgeous yarn butterfly craft using this simple

weaving technique.

This is a fun kids craft and the finished butterflies could easily

be given as a handmade gift.

How to make a yarn butterfly craft

You will need

• Craft sticks standard size – 2 per butterfly
• Pipe cleaners – 1 per butterfly
• Yarn in more than one colour
• Beads (affiliate link) – 2 small and one larger one for the head per butterfly

How To

Place your craft sticks into an uneven ‘X’ shape and wrap yarn around it until it holds the sticks in place securely. This is your butterfly frame and you are ready to begin weaving.

Wind the yarn around the outside of one half of the stick frame at first, then switch to a figure 8 pattern as soon as you get to the gap between the sticks.

To tie the thread off mid-weave, tuck it into the winding. It gets packed so tightly that the loose end stays in place pretty well once you begin winding on the next colour.

Begin your next colour and commence the figure 8 weave again. Change colours 1-2 times before you get to the end of the wing. Repeat the same pattern on the opposite side of the butterfly frame.

For the final tie-off tie a double knot at the end of the last colour used.

To create the butterfly’s body, bend a pipe cleaner in half and wind it around the centre of the ‘X’ shape with a couple of twists to keep it in place. Thread two small beads onto the bottom and one large bead for a head onto the top.

Curl the ends of the pipe cleaners into antennae and you’re done!

This easy kids craft is perfect for pretend play,

spring decor or even to be placed in your garden!

All you need are popsicle sticks, some glue and paint.

Follow the simple instructions to make this adorable mushroom house.

Your kids will love creating AND playing with it!

Craft Supplies:

• Jumbo Popsicle Sticks
• Mini Popsicle Sticks
• School Glue
• Paper Craft Scissors
• Small Paper Plate
• White Craft Paint
• Red Craft Paint
• TWO Foam Paint Brushes
• White Cardstock Paper
• Black Cardstock Paper
• Gray Cardstock Paper
• Black Sharpie Marker

Directions:

– First assemble the base of your mushroom house. This step is done by laying four jumbo popsicle sticks next to each other, then gluing the two remaining mini popsicle sticks the opposite direction, to create a fence shape.
– Set aside your popsicle stick shape to allow it to dry completely.
– While that is drying – grab your small paper plate and scissors.
– Cut the paper plate straight up the center to make two equal halves.
– Grab one half for your mushroom house and save the other for a rainy day {or to repeat this craft later!}
– Now grab your red craft paint and foam paint brush.
– Squirt some paint on the paper plate half.
– Use one of your paint brushes to paint the paper plate piece completely red.
– While the paint is still wet, go ahead and either punch out or cut out a few small hearts from the white cardstock.
– Lay those pieces on the wet paper plate, to give the mushroom some dimension. If they don’t stick, use some school glue.
– Now set aside the paper plate piece till the last step.
– Go ahead and now grab your popsicle stick shape from earlier, along with the white craft paint & another paint brush.
– Squirt some white craft paint directly onto the assembled wood piece.
– Use the paint brush to paint it completely white.
– Again, set it aside to allow the paint to dry completely.
– On to the last few steps – grab the remaining cardstock sheets, your scissors again and your black Sharpie marker.
– Cut out a small door, some windows, chimney etc. for your house.
– Use the marker to draw on dimension on each piece {like window panes, door knob, chimney bricks etc.}
– To finish off the Popsicle Stick Mushroom House – glue the “roof” which is the paper plate piece, to the top of the painted popsicle stick shape.
– Follow that up by gluing the remaining paper pieces in place {FYI – the chimney goes on the back of the paper plate roof half!}
– Then set aside again to let it dry completely before displaying proudly!

This is such a simple idea that you could duplicate it

with many different materials.

The instructions are pretty self-explanatory here.

Just stick the sticker onto the top of the popsicle stick.

You could also hot-glue it to make it stay better,

but the backing on the stars was good enough.

Write the letters of the child’s name onto each star.

The lighter stars obviously work better here.

Don’t forget to make a “name guide” popsicle stick so the child will know how to line up their popsicle sticks!

I stored ours in a ziplock bag.

So easy!

Invite your little ones to explore nature and have fun

making their own adorable suncatcher craft.

You won’t believe how simple it is to make,

you only need a few household items and a free afternoon

to spend outside with your little ones exploring nature and

doing some crafting.

Supplies:

• Coloured popsicle sticks
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Press’N Seal (contact paper also works)
• Twine rope
• Leaves, twigs, flower petals, etc…

How to make your Nature Suncatcher Craft
STEP 1: Make your popsicle stick frame.

The first thing you need to do to make your suncatcher craft is create the frames from popsicle sticks. You’ll need two frames as you’ll need to glue them together to keep the nature and Press N Seal in place.

For each frame take 4 popsicle sticks and glue them with a hot glue gun to make a square-shaped frame.

STEP 2: Measure and cut Press’N Seal.

Next, cut a long piece of Press’N Seal. Lay one frame on top to measure, then fold the Press’N Seal over creating a closed square and cut it to size. Next, open the Press’N Seal back up, and lay it flat.

STEP 3: Time for a nature hunt!

Invite your little ones to go on a nature hunt and let them collect their favourite flower petals, leaves, small flowers etc. The more colourful the better!

STEP 4: Put together your design and press.

Go back to your craft station and help your kids to press each of nature’s findings onto one side of the Press’N Seal.

Next, fold the other side of the Press N Seal over making sure the flower petals and other nature findings are enclosed within the Press’N Seal sheet.

STEP 5: Add the twine rope.

Now you need to take the twine rope and cut a long piece of it, this piece has to be long enough to hang your frame!

STEP 6: Put the frames together.

Then, take your hot glue and attach the rope to one of the frames. Put a bit of hot glue to each corner of the frame that has the twine hanger and carefully lay your nature sheet on top and secure it with hot glue.

STEP 7: Final step!

As a final step, add glue in each corner of the other frame and lay it flat on top of your nature findings sheet… And that’s it!

Your nature suncatcher craft is complete.

Kids of all ages will love painting kindness rocks

to hide around the local area or gift to loved ones.

It’s super easy to do and a great outside activity!

Supplies for rock painting:

• Rocks
• Acrylic paint pens
• Clear sealer (optional)

Directions for rock kindness craft

STEP 1: Prepare your supplies

Before you get started, gather up your supplies so you’re ready to start painting! If you don’t already have rocks you will need to head outdoors to find some, this is a great activity for toddlers, preschoolers, and older kids to participate in. You’ll want to look for rocks that are big in size and have a smooth surface for painting.

Make sure that your rocks have been cleaned and dried before beginning your rock painting.

STEP 2: Start painting kindness rocks

Now that you got everything you need, it’s time to start painting kindness rocks to hide! You’ll want to create kind, happy, thoughtful, and positive messages for others to find. Kids of all ages can help with this. Older kids may want to come up with positive phrases while younger kids can paint happy colours on their rocks.

To paint your kindness rocks simply use your paint pens to write words and draw simple designs on your rocks. Use our images as inspiration, but be creative and use your imagination to see what you can create.

If you’re finding it hard to think of short positive messages, try these kindness rock painting ideas:

“Kindness”
“Hope”
“Be happy”
“You are awesome!”
“Make this world a kinder place”
“Smile and the world smiles back”
“You’ll never regret being kind”
“You matter”
“Be you”
“Be brave”
“Love wins”
“Life is tough but so are you”

Drawing hearts, smiley faces and rainbows will also always make people smile.

Please note that if you’re wanting to do multiple layers of colour on your rocks, you will need to wait for each colour to dry before using the next colour so they don’t blend together.

If you want your painted rocks to last a long time during all weather conditions it is a good idea to spray them with a sealer.

STEP 3: Hide your rock painting craft

Once you’ve finished painting kindness rocks, it’s time to hide them for others to find! It can also be fun to hide them where loved ones will find them.

You’re going to love this no-sew sock bunny craft

perfect for kids of all ages.

It’s perfect for using up all those socks who lost their match,

too.

Supplies

• Unmatched socks
• 1 cup uncooked rice per sock bunny
• Rubber bands
• Black Sharpie
• Coloured ribbon
• Scissors

How to Make a Sock Bunny

STEP ONE: Fill your sock with rice

After you have all your supplies, the first step in making your sock bunny craft is to fill your sock with rice. To make this easier, put the sock over the top of a tall glass as shown below.

Then pour the rice into the sock using a measuring cup.

STEP TWO: Tie the sock with rubber bands

The next part is to create the bunny by adding rubber bands in various spots. Start by tying a rubber band around the sock near the top of the filled rice to secure it into place.

Next, add another rubber band towards the middle of the filled sock to create a separation between the body and head.

Once you’ve done that, pull a small portion away from the sock towards the bottom and tie it with a rubber band. This will resemble the cottontail on the bunny sock.

STEP THREE: Trim the sock with scissors

The next part is to make the bunny ears! Trim off some of the excess material at the top of the sock, leaving a few inches. If you’d prefer long floppy ears, cut off a little less.

Next, make a cut towards the center and trim any excess until you like the shape of your bunny ears.

STEP FOUR: Add the final details

Now for the final details!

Draw the bunny’s nose and eyes using a Sharpie. Optionally, draw a mouth on your bunny.

Then, tie some ribbon around the bunny’s neck and the base of the ears. Your bunny is now complete!

 

DIY Sock Bunny Variations

Here are some other fun ideas to try for your sock rabbit craft:

• Use brightly coloured socks for a more colourful touch
• Try adding glow-in-the-dark fabric paint to the socks or ribbon
• Use a variety of sock sizes to create a family of sock bunny rabbits
• Create fun accessories from felt, ribbon, or other craft supplies to glue to your bunny
• Use googly eyes and a small pom pom instead of drawing on your bunny’s nose and eyes
• Glue a pom pom to the bottom of the sock for the bunny’s tail instead of pulling the material through

Creative kids will enjoy adapting this snow globe

paper plate to their preferences.

There are lots of fun ways to switch things up with the snowy scene.

Supplies

• 2 paper plates
• Scissors
• Paintbrush
• Paint – light blue
• Construction paper – brown, white, blue, light green, dark green
• Double-sided tape
• Glue stick
• Pom poms – light blue
• Markers – orange and black
• Pom poms – light blue

How to make

STEP ONE: Prepare the paper plates

Start by cutting the centre out of one of the paper plates and painting it with light blue paint. Set it aside to dry.

Next, cut a large circle shape from blue paper to cover the centre of the other paper plate. Attach it using double-sided tape or a glue stick.

STEP TWO: Create the snowglobe scene

Now that your paper plates are ready, it’s time to create the scene for your snow globe! Start by cutting two round oval shapes that are curved on one side. Additionally, cut two tree shapes from different shades of green paper.

Glue them in place. You’ll want the round shape to be towards the bottom and the trees in the left corner.

Next, put together the snowman by cutting two small circles from white paper and gluing them in place. Cut a hat shape from the black paper and glue it on the top circle. Then, use markers to draw the final details.

Glue the snowman in place off to the right side. Glue the other oval shape so that it looks like snowy mountain hills.

STEP THREE: Assemble the snowglobe

The last part is putting together the snow globe! Cut a snowglobe stand shape from brown paper and glue it towards the bottom of the paper plate.

Glue the other paper plate that you painted and left to dry in STEP ONE in place using a glue stick.

Finish off the craft by gluing some pom poms along the bottom edge of the snow globe scene.

 

Snow globe paper plate craft variations

For even more fun with your paper plate snow globe craft, try these other ideas:

• Make a dancing snowman by gluing your cut-out snowman to a craft stick and leaving an opening at the bottom of your snow globe!
• Add some glitter to your oval shapes for a shimmery look to your snow.
• Make the snow look more textured with cotton balls, crumpled tissue paper, or white pom poms glued in place
• Cut out more shapes to add to the scene. You could cut out a cloud shape, snowflakes, or any other ideas you have.
• Glue additional pieces of white paper on the trees to make them appear to have snow on them.

You can really get creative with this paper plate snow globe craft. Why not use these directions as inspiration, but design your own winter scene for inside your snow globe!

This handprint dragon needs four to five handprints

and a few paper fasteners.

You can trace your kids’ handprints on coloured cardstock

and cut them out.

Otherwise, you can also use white cardstock and paint your little one’s hands to trace the handprints before cutting them out.

This is super easy to make and is so much fun watching the dragon wiggle and dance.

Supplies you need to make a Handprint Dragon craft

• Cardstock
• Crayons or color pens or color pencils
• Paper fasteners
• Glue
• Popsicle stick
• Double sided sticker
• Scissors
• Dragon head (draw your own animal head – your imagination is the limit)

How to make

Step 1
Trace your kid’s handprints on colored cardstock and cut them out. We made 5 handprints on cardstocks of different colors. You can also paint inside your kid’s hands and let them place their hand on white cardstock to make the handprints.

After you have made the handprints, cut out the same number of rectangles from cardstocks. We cut 5 rectangles out of the same cardstocks we used for making the handprints. The rectangle size is approximately 3.5 cm x 10 cm.

Get a few paper fasteners to connect the rectangle pieces of cardstock together. For 5 handprints, you will need 4 paper fasteners. Start attaching the rectangle cardstocks one by one using paper fasteners.

Connect all the rectangle cardstocks together at around 2 cm away from the shorter edge.

Step 2
Stick the handprints one by one over the rectangle cardstock.

If you have used the same color cardstocks for both the rectangles and handprints, this is an excellent color matching activity for younger kids to learn colors. Ask kids to find the matching handprint and stick it on the corresponding rectangle piece of cardstock using a glue stick.

Finish sticking all the handprints together.

Step 3
Now, time to stick the dragon face (or whichever animal you have chosen)!

Print the animal face on white A4 cardstock and paint it.

You could use crayons or colour pencils.

Cut it out and stick it beside the last handprint we glued onto the rectangle cardstock. A small part of the dragon’s face will overlap the handprint a bit.

Draw the shape of a fire on red cardstock, cut it out and stick it behind the dragon’s mouth.

Step 4
Lastly, let’s make this handprint dragon into a toy puppet. Get two popsicle sticks and using double-sided stickers, stick them behind the dragon. You can stick one popsicle stick behind the dragon’s face and the other one behind the third or fourth handprint.

tep 5
The dancing handprint dragon puppet craft is ready!

Now, grab the two popsicle sticks attached to it and move them forward, backward, up, and down. Can you see the dragon wiggle?!

This paper dragon puppet craft is an easy craft

you can make with kids.

This dragon craft is made of accordion folds

with paper straws beneath it.

Moving the paper straws makes the dragon dance!

This is a great recycled craft by the use of a toilet paper roll for the dragon’s face.

Supplies you need
1. Toilet paper roll

2. 2 A4 papers (We used pink and blue)

3. Pencil and ruler (If you don’t want to draw, you can use the printables we have provided. You can access our printable library by signing up for our newsletters below.)

4. Scissors

5. Googly eyes

6. Tissue paper

7. Glue stick

8. Paper Straw

9. Hot glue or PVA glue

10. Clear tape/ Duct tape (optional)

 

How do you make

Step 1
Get two A4 construction papers and draw 3 lines (5.25 cm apart) dividing each of them into 3 equal columns.

Now, cut along the lines and you will get a total of 8 paper strips. We are going to make the accordion folds with these paper strips.

Step 2
Pick two paper strips and stick them together at a 90-degree angle. we chose one blue strip and one pink strip. Younger kids might need some help to get it at the correct angle.

Step 3
This is the fun part. We are going to fold the paper strips in an accordion manner. This type of folding is a great fine motor activity for kids.

How to accordion fold the paper strips?
Fold the bottom strip over the top strip and crease the fold. Again, take the bottom strip over the top strip and crease the fold. Repeat it till you reach the end of these strips. Now, put some glue at the ends and stick the next set of paper strips to it. Do the folding again and continue the process until you run out of strips.

Now, secure the ends at the last fold by adding a dab of glue. You have got the accordion folding for the dragon’s body.

Stick two paper straws using duct tape or hot glue at both ends of the accordion. You may already get the tendency to wiggle the accordion by moving the paper straws! But wait, let’s keep it aside for a few more minutes and make the dragon’s head.

Step 5
Get a toilet roll and paint it. Once the paint is dried, press one end of it flat to form the dragon’s mouth.

We need to make it a fire-breathing dragon. For the fire coming out of the dragon’s mouth, cut some tissue paper strips and glue them inside the mouth.

Now, cut out two horn shapes from construction paper. Or you could print the horn shapes from the free dragon printable template. Stick these shapes to the sides of the toilet roll. Stick the googly eyes at the bottom of it where it joins with the face.

Get the accordion from Step 4 and fix the dragon’s head on one end of it using hot glue or PVA glue. You will have to hold them together for a minute to make it really secure. Make sure the paper straws point down and the dragon’s face points up while gluing them together.

Our accordion dragon puppet is ready now!

 

How do you make the paper dragon dance?
Move the paper straws on the accordion dragon craft up and down and your dragon will dance and wiggle. This dragon puppet is super fun to play with.

This shaker is made from paper plates

and is lots of fun for kids to decorate.

Materials

• Popsicle stick
• 2 Paper Plates
• Crushed pasta or rice
• Confetti & Other Embellishments
• Red Craft Paint
• Glue
• Stapler
• Scissors

Instructions
Start by cutting the paper plates to remove the outer edge. You should be left with just the inner circle.
Paint each plate red, allow to dry.

Once the plates are dry, place them on top of each other paint sides out. Staple around the edges leaving
a space at the bottom.

Pour the crushed pasta or rice into the shaker (or into a bag that will sit inside the shaker). Staple the whole closed.

Put a dot of glue on the tip of the popsicle stick, slide the popsicle stick in between two of the staples.

Firmly press down and reinforce the hold by putting a staple through the shaker into the popsicle stick.

Add confetti, sequins , glitter glue and other fun colourful embellishments. Allow to dry.

Have fun making music.

Kids will love the making fun as much as they will playing

with their finished kaleidoscope with this easy kids craft project.

All you need are a few basic craft supplies and

a sheet of mirror card to give this a go.

To start off you’ll need two cardboard tubes – we’ve used the tubes from the inside of a kitchen roll and toilet roll.

You will need:

• Cardboard tubes (2)
• Mirror card
• Sellotape
• Scissors
• Beads
• Card or paper (To decorate the outside of the tube) (A4 sheet)
• Plastic tub (We used an old fruit carton from our recycling bin)

Step 1
Cover the larger cardboard tube with black or coloured card or paper. This is just for decoration so if you don’t have any paper or card, you can just decorate with pens or paints instead, or leave it blank.

Step 2
Cut three strips of mirror card and stick them together along their long edges (shiny sides facing inwards) with sellotape to form a triangular prism, which we’ll be inserting into the main cardboard tube.

You may need to play around your strip sizes to get the perfect fit before you begin – a good tip is to try it with some scrap paper first until you’ve got the right fit, then use this as a template for your mirror card. We’ve used three strips that each measure 19cm x 4.3cm to form a prism that fits the inside of a kitchen roll tube (the tube measures 10cm tall and 4.5cm across). If you’re using a smaller toilet roll tube and you live here in the UK, try cutting your strips to measure 9cm x 4.1cm each (this would fit a tube that measures 10cm x 4.5cm).

Step 3
Insert the prism into the middle of the cardboard tube. You should leave a space about 1cm from the end.

Step 4
Cut the edge of the second, smaller tube to create a ring that’s 2m tall. This should fit snuggly inside the larger tube at the end to form an end cap later. If the smaller tube doesn’t fit inside the larger tube, simply cut it along it’s short edge and use sellotape to turn it into a smaller tube that does just fit into the main tube. You don’t want it to be too loose so that it will fall out, but small enough to fit inside the tube.

Step 5
Use your ring from step 4 as a template to cut two circles of plastic from a plastic carton.

Step 6
Sellotape the first plastic circle to one of the outer edges of the ring. Leave the other edge free for the next step.

Step 7
Fill the end piece with beads and sequins.

Step 8
Sellotape the second plastic circle to the other edge of the ring, sealing the beads and sequins inside.

Step 9
Insert the finished end cap into the main tube so it rests up against the edge of the triangular prism.

Your kaleidoscope is ready! When you look into it and twist the end piece, you’ll see the bead and sequin shapes dancing in front of your eyes!

This cheery project will brighten up windows

and is a great kids craft activity.

It creates a fab stained window effect,

and you can be as neat or messy as you like with it (so it’s great for making with both toddlers and older children), then once you’re done just pop it in your window with some blue tack!

You will need:

• Card (A4 black card) (2 sheets)
• Contact paper
• Tissue paper (several colours)
• Scissors
• Pencil (white)
• Large circular plate
• Small cup
• PVA glue (optional)

Step 1
Place a large plate so it lies half on top of a sheet of A4 black card to create a semi-circle shape and trace around the edge to create the outer rainbow shape.

Create your rainbow frame by tracing around the plate

Step 2
Now repeat with a small cup in the centre of the bottom edge to create the rainbow shape.

Now do the same with the cup to create the inner edge

Step 3
Repeat to make 2 rainbows and then cut them out.

With adult supervision, cut out the inner space within each rainbow using scissors to leave a black card outline of the outside of the rainbow x 2.

Step 4
Take a sheet of sticky transparent contact paper and stick one of the rainbows on top of it.

Then cut off the excess sticky transparent contact paper.

Step 5
Take a few sheets of brightly coloured tissue paper and snip them into small squares. Kids will love helping with this bit with child-friendly scissors. Don’t worry about being too neat. You can go large and scrappy for younger children or cut small, precise squares if older children want to try a mosaic effect.

Step 6
Stick the tissue paper squares to the contact paper sticky inside area of your rainbow to fill it in with colour.

Step 7
Trim around the edges of the rainbow to remove any bits of tissue paper that overhang the outline.

Step 8
Optional – Use PVA (white school glue) glue to stick the second black outline to the back of your rainbow for a neat finish.

Step 9
Use blue tack or tape to stick your rainbow your window.

From bobble hats to bunting – you can’t beat a good pompom!

These sweet balls of fluff are relatively easy to make

and can be used in all sorts of projects.

When you’re learning how to make a pom pom out of yarn, there’s no hard and fast rules as to which yarns are best, but we’d suggest using a DK or Aran weight yarn for your first pompoms. The type of fibre and thickness of the yarn you’re using will all make a difference – Aran weight wool pom poms will be more likely to fluff up and be nice and plump, whereas 4ply cotton pom poms may be a bit limp and heavy – but part of the joy of crafting is experimenting, so why not try making a range of different yarn pom poms and see which is your favourite!

How to make a pom poms with cardboard

You will need:

• Wool
• Scissors
• Cardboard
• A coin
• Foil ((optional))

Step 1
Trace out a a circle on a piece of cardboard. The size of your circle will be the size of your pom pom. I used a measuring cup that was around the size I wanted to trace the circle.

Step 2
Cut out circle

Step 3
Draw a smaller circle within the circle.

Step 4
Cut out the little circle.

Step 5
Make a small “v” where you cut out the little circle to make the yarn easier to pull through. Repeat steps 1-5 to make a second circle.

Step 6
Hold the two circles together and wrap the yarn through the notch and around evenly around the sides of the circle.

Step 7
Wrap the yarn until the circle in the middle is filled in.

Step 8
Use a pair of scissors to cut the yarn between the two circles all the way around.

Step 9
Cut a length of yarn and tie a tight knot around the middle of the pom-pom. Bring the yarn around the other side and tie another, the tighter the better!

Step 10
Trim the pom pom to make it round and even… and that’s how to make pom poms with wool – Making a pom pom has never been so easy!

 

The beauty of this method of using cardboard to make pompoms is that you can make them as big as you like! Try using a medium-sized plate to set your circle size (make sure you allow a large enough central hole for all your yarn), then double up your yarn to make winding it easier – and before you know it you’ll have a huge pompom – perfect for parties!

Make a drawing board with your child

to learn, practice and draw the alphabet letters.

SUPPLIES NEEDED

• Foam board or poster board, 11 in. x 14-in.
• A4, Letter size, or 9 x 12-in. paper
• Any transparent A4, Letter size, or 9 x 12-in. plastic sheet (e.g. acetate sheet, clear contact paper, or thermal laminating sheet)
• Crayons or colored pencils
• White glue
• Scissors
• White board markers

STEPS

1 – Laminate a sheet of A4, Letter size, or 9″ x 12″ paper. There are 3 ways to do this:

Contact paper – sandwich the paper between 2 contact paper sheets.
Acetate sheet – glue the edges of the paper onto a sheet of acetate film.
Thermal laminating paper – go to a copy center and have them hot laminate the paper.

2 – Prepare the backing board.
Use any dark-colored foam board or poster board. Cut it so that it is at least 1 inch bigger than your laminated paper on all sides. You can also match the foam board or poster board you buy with that of your paper so that you won’t need to cut it. For instance, if you used 9″ x 12″ paper, then an 11″ x 14″ foam board or poster board would be the perfect-sized backing.

3 – Glue the laminated paper.

Glue the laminated paper at the center of the board.

4 – Make some alphabet Letters.
Print out any of the alphabet sets below, use alphabet stickers or foam shapes, or write and draw your own.

5 – Colour the alphabet templates.
Colour the letters and objects.

6 – Cut out the letters.
Cut around each letter.

7 – Glue the letters.
Glue the letters around the drawing board. You can position the letters prior to gluing to ensure that they are somewhat evenly spaced around the board. Let the glue dry completely.

8 – Use the drawing board.
Use white board markers to write and draw. Practice writing the alphabet letters and draw objects that start with those letters or draw anything anything on it. Use a whiteboard eraser or a piece of tissue to erase and start again.

In this shapes learning craft,

kids combine shape various cut-outs to create a picture.

SUPPLIES NEEDED

• Construction paper
• Craft foam, construction paper or colored paper
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Craft punches (optional)

STEPS

1 – Cut paper for the background.

For the background, use a 9″ x 12″ construction paper. For a quirky-shaped picture, cut a large sheet of construction paper (e.g. 12″ x 18″) into a big square, triangle, circle or heart.

2 – Make paper or foam shapes.
Cut various-sizes of circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, ovals, trapezoids, hearts, stars and ther shapes on colored paper or craft foam. You can use craft punches to make tiny shapes.

Instead of making your own shapes, you can buy a bag of foam shapes or paper shapes.

3 – Combine shapes to make an image.
Try combining shapes to create an image. Give kids lots of time to play, explore and be creative with their shape combinations.

4 – Glue the shapes.

When you’re done playing and coming up with lots of images, decide which ones you want to put on your picture. Glue the shapes onto the background paper.

 

• This winter picture with a cute snowman and lots of pine trees is made up mostly of circles and triangles. A few rectangles, ovals and a trapezoid, complete the picture.
• Four triangles and an oval define the main shape for this lovely butterfly. A variety of small colorful shapes gives it a distinct character.
• A picture of an airplane flying at night can be created from just a few basic shapes.
• This triangle picture has an entire landscape of shapes, including a house, a girl, a couple of trees, mountains in the distance, and a bright shining sun.