Crafts Archives - Page 5 of 20

Grinch Craft -How to Make His Heart Grow

December 9, 2016 By Deirdre

In the book the How the Grinch Stole Christmas in the Grinch has a heart that is two sizes too small. Your children will have fun making this Grinch craft. When they open the Grinch craft, his heart will grow.

Last week I shared with you a Christmas decorated tree snack that was made with cheese wedges. The wedges can in a cool round box. I knew we could make something with it so I didn’t throw it away.

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Over the weekend I was reading that it was the 50th anniversary of the Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas television show. I decide it would be fun to make a Grinch craft with the box. It would be fun to make after reading the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas! or watching the show.

How to Make the Grinch Craft

Supplies

Round box from cheese wedges
Green, black, red, and yellow construction paper
Scissors
Glue stick

Directions for Making the Grinch Craft

Getting the Construction Paper Ready

You will need to cut out a large number of green squares out of construction paper.

Then you will need to cut the two eye sections out of black and yellow construction. If you think the black arches would be hard to cut out, circular pupils would be fine.

Next you will cut out his sly smile. You could wait and draw on a smile later if you like.

Finally you will work cut out the heart section. You will need to cut out a large heart and two strips of red paper.

Constructing the Grinch Craft

Creating the Face

You will start by covering the lid of the box with green squares. There isn’t a wrong way to put them on.

Then you will need to glue on the mouth and eyes. We found it is easier to glue the eye arches to the yellow eyes before gluing it to the box top.

Creating the Heart

You will need to glue the two ends of the strips together. Then fold one strip over the other over and over again. This will create the heart spring. When you each the end of the strips, glue those ends together.

Then glue the heart unto one end of the spring. The end of the spring without the heart is then glued onto the inside of the box.

Owl Craft Based on the Book Owl Babies

November 2, 2016 By Deirdre

This week started with my sharing with you an owl eyesight viewer. It could be used to look at the world through the eyes of an owl. Today I want to share an owl craft with you. Both activities could be done after reading the wonderful book Owl Babies.

Creating the Owl Craft

Owl Craft Supplies

brown paper lunch bag
white and black paint
cotton balls
fine grain sandpaper
wiggly eyes
dental floss
scissors
hole punch
pipe cleaner

Putting the Owl Craft Together

Cutting

You will start by cutting out to large ovals out of the brown paper lunch bag.

While you are cutting, you might as well cut a beak and two feet out of the sandpaper.

Painting the Owl Craft

Now you will use cotton balls to paint the front of the two owls. You will probably want to give your children own cotton ball for the white paint and one for the black.

Hole Punching

When the ovals are dry you will stack them on top of each other. Next you will have your children punch a ring of holes on the outside edge of the ovals. Your children will need to place single hole in the top of each of the owls feet.

Creating Facial Features

Then you will glue the wiggly eyes and the beak onto one of the ovals. This will be the front of the owl.

Sewing the Owl Craft

Now it is time for you to sew the top and bottom ovals together. You will need to wrap one end of the dental floss around a pipe cleaner. Your children will you this pipe cleaner needle to sew around edges of the ovals to create a pocket.

When they get to the bottom of the owl, they will line up the hole on each foot between the front and back layers. They will set the feet between the layers. Then the will continue around the oval until they close to where they started.

It is now time to stuff the owl with cotton ball. You may want your children to flatten out the cotton balls.

You will probably need to help your children tie the ends of the floss together in a bow.

If you like this owl craft, here are some more owl activities you will like:

Owl Eyesight STEM Exploration

Fall Owl Crafts

Little Owls Night Craft and Snack

Owl Hand Puppet

Owl Eyesight – STEM Exploration for Kids

October 31, 2016 By Deirdre

Did you know that owls have unique eyes? They have something called binocular vision. No wonder they have to turn their heads almost completely around to see the world around them. This unique owl eyesight keeps them from seeing well from side to side.

The link below is an affiliate link.

This week the Virtual Book Club is exploring the book Owl Babies Today’s I am going to share an experiment with you that focuses on owl eyesight.

Constructing Your Owl Eyesight Viewer

You may decide that you want to construct one owl eyesight viewer that the whole class can use although you could have your children construct their own eyesight viewer.

Supplies:

three paper plates per owl eyesight viewer
one long cardboard tube per viewer
scissors
glue sticks
brown and gold paint
two plastic forks

Putting Your Owl Eyesight Viewer Together

Cutting Out the Paper Plate Sections

You will start by cutting out the main headpiece by removing the bottom fourth of two of the paper plates. The top fourth will be your use for your viewer.

Then cut eye holes in one of the paper plates. Trace the location of those eye holes onto the second headpiece paper plate. Next cut out all the eye holes.

You will cute the third paper plate into fourths. Two of the sections will be used to create the eye sections for the viewer. The position of the eye holes in the main headpiece will need to be traced onto them and then cut out.

Finally, you will cut a beak and two ears out of one of the remaining paper plate sections.

Painting the Paper Plate Sections

You will use a fork to paint the beak section of the paper plate gold. The remaining sections will be fork painted brown.

Getting the Cardboard Tube Ready

The cardboard tube will need to be cut in half. One end of each of the tubes will need to have three or four slits cut into it. These slits will be folded backwards so the tubes can be attached to the plates.

Constructing the Owl Eyesight Viewer

You will start by gluing the eye sections and the beak onto the front of the paper plate.

You will place the long end of the tubes through the eye holes in the unpainted plate. Then you will glue the flaps onto the front of that plate.

Next, you will glue the painted paper plate to the side of the unpainted plate that has the flap section on it.

Finally, you will glue on the beak and the eye sections to the painted plate.

Another Owl Mask Option

If you would prefer to have your children decorate an owl mask template, you can download this Free Printable Owl Mask Template.

STEM Exploration

Your children can try to look through the tubes to look around. They will notice that they have to turn their heads the same way an owl does to see thing that are not right in front of them.

More Owl Activities

Letter Roll & Color from Sea of Knowledge
Owl Babies Book Craft and Alphabet Activity from Mosswood Connections
Counting Playdough Mats with Owls from Preschool Powol Packets

Whooo are you? Writing Activity from Craft Create Calm
Owl Alphabet Game from The Educator’s Spin on It
Owl Puppets from Powerful Mothering
Movement Tricks to Help Ease Separation Anxiety from Sugar Aunts
Scratch Art Owl from School Time Snippets
Dissect an Owl Babies
Build a Nest STEM Activity for Kids from Views From a Step Stool
Owl Babies Sponge Painting from Adventures of Adam
Owl Babies Shape Activity for Preschoolers from Rainy Day Mum

Anansi the Spider Shape Craft for Kids

October 17, 2016 By Deirdre

Anansi the Spider is a tricky character from an African folktale. We love the Gerald McDermott version of the tale. It has amazing illustrations that display great characters built with shapes. I thought it would be fun to come up with a craft that children could create based on Anansi.

This Anansi the Spider shape craft has been simplified so younger children can construct it. Older children can create the same basic craft and add more details to it.

Creating the Anansi the Spider Craft

Supplies

Cardboard from a Cereal Box
Various Colors of Construction paper
Scissors
Glue Sticks

Getting the Supplies Ready

You will want to cut narrow strips out of a old cereal box. Then you can decide if you want your children to cut of the shapes for the spider’s body on their own. If you have young children, you will probably want to cut out the shapes for them.

Here are the basic shapes that you will use in the craft:

black teardrop for Anansi’s head
black circle for the spider’s body
long black rectangles for the spider’s legs
various small shapes in a variety colors for the spider’s facial features

Constructing Anansi the Spider Craft

Children will start by gluing cardboard strips on a piece construction paper. Young children can randomly glue the strips down. Older children may want to weave the strips over and under each other before gluing them in place.

Then they will glue the head, body, and legs on top of the cardboard strip web. It doesn’t matter where they glue them on the web.

Finally they will glue small shapes onto the teardrop head shape. We glued on eyes, a nose and a mouth. Your children can glue down any facial features they like.

Here are some more spider themed activities for kids. Many of these are based on the children’s book The Very Busy Spider: Read Together Edition (Read Together, Be Together). I will be sharing two activities based on it later this week.

Alphabet activities

Printable Spider Web Letter Match Activity – Artsy Momma
Spider Writing Tray – Adventures of Adam
Alphabet spider sticky wall- Toddler Approved

Numbers activities

Simple Web Abacus WH Big Owl Little Owl
Spider Web Fingerprint Counting (FREE PRINTABLE)
Hands-on Spider Counting Activity— School Time Snippets

Sensory activities
Spider Web Sensory Bin + Counting Activity – My Storytime Corner

Science activities

A Very Busy Climbing Spider: DIY Toy and STEM Activity
Spider Types Matching Cards – Kori at Home

Colors activities

Feed the Spider Color Catapulting – Preschool Powol Packets
How to Make a Rainbow Spider Web – Powerful Mothering

Pre-writing activities

Spider Web Sensory Bottle Activity – The Educators’ Spin On It
Web formation lines for writing fluency Kara Carrero

Movement activities

Spider Web Obstacle Course – Mama Smiles

Shape activities

Spider Shape Craft
Spider Counting Puzzles – Sea of Knowledge

Spider Crafts for Preschoolers

October 14, 2016 By Deirdre

With Halloween right around the corner I thought I would share with you some wonderful spider crafts for preschoolers. You may decide that you don’t want to use them for Halloween. You may decide that you want to use them while you are exploring insects and arachnids. You may decide that you want use them to explore a nursery rhyme like Little Miss Muffet. No matter when you decide to create them with your children. They will have great time making each of these preschool spider crafts.

Preschool Spider Crafts

Handprint Spiders from Thriving Home

Simple Paper Plate Spider Craft from Modern Preschool

Pom Pom Spider Craft from Buggy and Buddy

Toilet Paper Roll Spiders from Crafty Morning

Craft Stick Spider Craft from Making of a Mom

Very Busy Spider Web from The Crafting Chicks

Itsy Bitsy Spider Finger Puppet from LalyMom

Balloon Print Spider Craft from I Heart Crafty Things

If you like these preschool spider crafts, here are some more wonderful spider themed activities you can do with your children.

You can make a spider plastic disk toss. Instead of using the spider I created for the game, you can use some of your homemade spiders.

Your children can create a button spider. This was designed to be a fine motor activity.

Spider web eggs are fun to make. When you peel the eggs you will find a web design of the surface of the egg.

You can make a spider web letter swat game. My son still talks about swatting letters with a fly swatter spider.

Creating cardboard shape webs is lots of fun. We created Christmas ornaments with the shapes my son made webs on.

You will find more fun spider crafts on my Crafts for Kids board on Pinterest. I add new craft ideas to that board often. You will find new things shared every time you stop by.

Five Little Pirates Pirate Craft and Printable

September 14, 2016 By Deirdre

Whether you are getting ready to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19th or you exploring pirates with your children, the Five Little Pirates rhyme will be fun to sing. I thought your children might like to have a pirate puppet of their own to sing and dance to the song. I created a puppet pirate craft that children can decorate.

Before I share with you some decorating ideas, let me share the Five Little Pirates rhyme with you.

Five Little Pirates Rhyme

Five little pirates heading from the shore

One jumped overboard

And now there are four

Four little pirates now out at sea

One jumped overboard

And now there are three

Three little pirates with nothing to do

One walked the plank

And now there are two

Two little pirates having lots of fun

One drank all the first mate’s juice

And now there is one

One little pirate sitting in the sun

He decides to abandon ship

And now there are none.

Pirate Craft Supplies and Decoration Ideas

Supplies

Pirate Puppet Printable
Scissors
Material or Cut-Up Bandanas
Crayons, Markers, or Colored Pencils
Glue Sticks

Getting the Pirate Finger Puppet

First, you will need to download the set.

Pirate Finger Puppet

Second, if you don’t have Acrobat Reader you will need to download it. The algorithm page is an Acrobat Reader PDF file.

Third, you must go to your download file and open the page. You may be asked if you want the file to open right after you download it. You won’t have to hunt for it in your download file if you are.

Steps for Putting the Puppets Together

First, you will need to decide if you want to cut the puppets out for your children or cut them out for them in advance.

Next, you can have your children color in their puppets with whatever drawing materials you like. I thought you might use crayons, markers, or colored pencils. You may have other drawing materials would like for them to use.

Then you could have them cut and paste material onto their puppets to give them texture if you like. They could give their pirate a felt eye patch or mini bandana made of part of a real bandana.

Once your children have their puppets completed, you can work on the rhyme.

Tip: My son and I tried having more than one of the puppets on our hands at the same time. It was fun to try and make all of the puppets dance at the same time.

If you like this pirate craft, here are some more crafts based on Five Little rhymes and songs.

5 Little Crows
Five Little Apples
5 Little Firefighters
Five Little Starfish

Back to School Crafts and Books

September 5, 2016 By Deirdre

Earlier this summer I shared a number of Back to School crafts based on favorite children’s books. I thought you would enjoy getting to see them all together. Each of the Back to School crafts is a paper plate mask. If you don’t want to turn them into masks. You could have your children create a puppet or stand-alone craft.

You can make the craft a puppet by adding a stick to the back of your paper plate. Your children could hold up the puppet when they do story retellings. The stand-alone craft could be hung up in your classroom or home. It would be fun to have a set of Back to School crafts hanging near children’s books.

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Back to School Crafts and Books

Let me share with you a little about each of the Back to School crafts and the books they are based on. After you find the crafts you want to make with your children, you can click its link and learn more about how to put it together.

The Kissing Hand

The Kissing Handwas a favorite of my son’s K4 teacher. She read it to him during his first week of school. I just love that Mrs. Racoon helps her son remember he is loved even when they are apart. When he is a school and he feels lonely at school, all he has to do is press his hand to his cheek to feel the warmth of his mother’s kiss.

This is one of the simplest Back to School crafts. It doesn’t have a lot of sections and used only two colors of paint. There is a mask template available here.

Llama Llama Misses Mama

Being in a new place without the comfort of a parent with you is hard. Llama Llama Misses Mama shares that it is okay to miss your mom during the day.

This is the simplest of the paper plate crafts. It uses only one color of paint. The craft has very few pieces for you to put together.

If You Take a Mouse to School

Your kids will love the rhythm and flow of If You Take a Mouse to School. Many of them will start to guess what will happen next.

Your children will have fun adding facial features to their brown-painted plates. You can have the pieces pre-cut or have your children create their own. The template for this mask can be downloaded here.

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books! is part of a fun series of Old Lady books. In this book, she inhales a number of school supplies.

Of all the Back to School crafts, this one has the most pieces. It also uses four different colors of paint. You can download this mask template if you don’t want to make your own.

Pete the Cat Rocking My School Shoes

Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoesis just one of the Pete books that have a school theme. You could create this craft to go with a number of his books. The template for this mask is available here.

Wheels on the Bus Song Inspired Craft

August 5, 2016 By Deirdre

The Wheels on the Bus song was taught to me by my Aunt Yvonne when I was a little girl. I thought we were singing about a city bus back then. By the time I sang it to my son I knew it could refer to a school bus too. With school starting here soon JDaniel and I created a craft based on the Wheels on the Bus Song. We made a paper plate school bus.

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This Wheels on the Bus Song inspired craft was a true collaboration. JDaniel consulted with me on the look of the craft. Researched school bus crafts. (I love that he found a school bus round up we have craft in. ) He also found a fun children’s book based on the Wheels On The Bus song. When bus was put together, he had input there too. A key element for him was having the wheels move.

Creating the Wheels on the Bus Song Craft

Supplies

Paper Plate
Scissors
Yellow Paint
Red and Black Felt
Black Construction Paper
Brass Fasteners
Hole Punch

Putting the Bus Together

You will need to start by cutting the outline of a bus out of the paper plate. Your outline will need to include two wheels. We have two windows on our bus, but you can have more windows on your bus if you like.

Next you will paint paper plate yellow. We used yellow tempera paint to paint ours. Your children can paint the wheels. We left our wheel unpainted.

Adding the Wheels to the Bus

You will need to cut out two wheels out of black felt for the bus. We traced a small lid onto the black felt with pencil and then cut the wheels out. You can have your children trace wheels, have the cut them out freehand or have the cut out for them.

Next you or your kids will need to punch holes in the middle of the wheels on the bus. Then they will punch holes in the middle of the felt wheels. You can do this for them ahead of time if you like!

Finally you will attach the wheels to the bus with brass fasteners. By punching holes in the plate and the felt wheels you will find that the wheels will spin. Your kids will love that they can go round and round!

Final Bus Details

In his research JDaniel determined that our Wheel on the Bus song inspired craft was going to need a black stripe and a stop sign. It just had to have them. I bet your children will want them added too.

We cut a long strip out of black construction paper for the stripe. I cut a square out of red felt. Then diagonally cut out the corners of the square to make an octagon.

More Back to School Crafts

Back to School Circle Crafts

If You Take a Mouse to School Mask

The Kissing Hand Craft

Pete the Cat Paper Plate Mask For Kids

August 3, 2016 By Deirdre

This post contains affiliate links.

Pete the Cat was introduced to us in a Mommy and Me class when my son was little. The book had just come out. The librarian who taught the class was so excited about sharing it with us. When I was looking for Back to School themed books to share with you, two Pete the Cat books came to mind. Both Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes and Pete the Cat: Too Cool for School are fun Back to School books I am excited to share with you.

After reading one or both of the books to your children, I thought it would be fun to make a Pete paper plate mask. Last week I shared a few other paper plate masks. There was an If You Take a Mouse to School , a There Was an Old Lady, a Llama Llama and a Kissing Hand raccoon masks.

Making the Pete the Cat Mask

Supplies

Paper Plates
Scissors
Blue, Gold, and Black Paint
Glue Stick
Plastic Fork
Paint Brush

Directions for Cutting Out the Mask

First you will cut a paper plate in half. The top half of the plate will be the face portion of the mask. The bottom half of the plate will be used to cut out the ears and the nose. Next your will cut out the four almond shaped eyes sections out of half of a second plate. Two will cut smaller and they will be glued on top of the larger sections later on.

Once you have all of the mask pieces cut out of the paper plate, you will cut the eyes out of the face section. You will find it is easier to cut the eyes out before you paint. Then you will trace the shape of your eye holes onto four almond shaped sections. Next you will cut eye holes out.

Directions for Painting the Mask

You will start by painting the face section and the ears blue. We used a fork to paint those sections of our mask.

Then you will paint the large almond shaped eye sections gold. You can fork paint them or use a paintbrush.

Finally you will paint the small almond sections black.

The cat’s nose is white and so is the plate. You will not need need to paint the nose. You may want to outline the nose with black at the same time you are creating nostrils on it.

Final Mask Creation Steps

The final step is to glue each of the sections to the facial part of the mask. You can glue the ears anywhere on the top of the head that you like. The black eye section will be glued to the gold section. Then the gold section will be glued to the plate. If they eye holes don’t match up anymore, you can trim them a little.

If you make a mask, please share a picture of it on my Facebookpage.

Llama Llama Misses Mama Craft for Kids

July 29, 2016 By Deirdre

This is the third in a series of five Back to School book and craft posts. First, a mask to go along with the book The Kissing Hand was shared. The second book was If You Take a Mouse to School. Today we will look at the book Llama Llama Misses Mama.

It features a little llama that reminds me a lot of a preschooler I once had to drop off at school. You may have children who struggle with having parents drop them off at school too. It can be so hard to be away from people you know at first.

Creating the Llama Llama Misses Mama Mask

If you have children who are having trouble adjusting to being away from a parent, they may be able to share feelings while wearing a mask. You can have them create the Llama Llama mask. Then they can start by talking about how the llama was feeling. Next, they can share how they are feeling.

Supplies

Paper Plates with Ruffled Edges
Scissors
Brown Paint
Brown Marker
Glue

Cutting Out the Mask

You will start by folding a paper plate in half vertically. Then cut out a skull shape out of the plate. This will be the llama’s head. Next, cut out for eye holes. You can use a lid or cap to trace the eye holes before cutting them out.

The ears are cut out of a second plate. We tried to include part of the ruffled edge in each ear. It makes the ear look a little furry.

Painting the Mask

You can use brown paint to paint the ears and the face of the Llama Llama Misses Mama mask. We used a picture of brown and white paint to make his fur. It will be up to you to decide what is best for your kids.

Adding Details

Adding an outline can give a craft a finished look. You can outline the llama’s head and ears with a brown marker. Next, the same brown marker can be used to give the llama eyebrows, nostrils, and mouth. We didn’t outline the llama eye holes, but you could if you like.