Crafts and Activities
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Welcome to our Craft & Activities Page! This is a place for daycare providers and parents to share ideas for ways to entertain and educate young children.
We need your help!! If you have an idea for a craft project or other fun activity, please take a moment to share it with us! We need your ideas!
Please feel free to browse the activities
below:
| Educational
Activities
100 Things |
Games
Reverse Musical Chairs |
Holidays
Valentines Day Card |
Miscellaneous
Nature Walk/Collage Scrapbook |
Puppets
Sock Puppets Paper Bag Puppets Popsicle Stick Puppets |
100
Things
Submitted
by Christina
of Freeport, Illinois
Materials
Needed:
Anything that adds up to the number 100 or number of your
choice.
Let your little one decide.
Instructions:
Items around your house you can turn into a project. Find
items
(toothpicks, buttons, beads, seeds, beans, ect.) around your
home.
Then be creative and turn them into something! Toothpicks can
be
glued into a house.
Buttons can be glued onto a t-shirt. Beads, seeds and
macaroni
can be glued into shapes on paper.
Let the kids be creative and make their very own project!
Reverse
Musical Chairs
Submitted
by: Linda in Prescott, AZ
Materials
Needed:
Chairs
Music
Instructions:
Everyone is familiar with regular Musical Chairs, where chairs are
removed and children are "out" if they don't make it into a
chair.
This is more of a team-building/problem-solving game... no one ever is
"out"!
Set up the chairs as usual for musical chairs, with one chair less than the number of children. The children walk around the circle while the music plays. When the music stops, everyone has to find a chair or a lap to sit on. For the next round, remove a chair and repeat until only one chair remains. Kids usually have great fun trying to get everyone onto one chair! Everyone wins!
Valentines
Day Card
Submitted
by Jenn in San Diego, CA
Materials
Needed:
Construction paper, red, white, and pink
Glue sticks
Instructions:
Ahead of time - cut out a bunch of red and pink heart shapes in a
variety
of sizes. Fold a piece of white construction paper in half
(one for
each child). Older children can do the cutting and folding
themselves.
Let each child use a glue stick to glue the hearts all over the front and inside of their card like a collage. For younger children, you can write a message in the card for mom and dad. Older children can write the message themselves.
Nature
Walk/Collage
Submitted
by Geni in Phoenix, AZ
Materials
Needed:
Paper Bag
Heavy Paper
White craft glue
Instructions:
Give each child a paper bag and take them for a walk (around the
neighborhood
or in the backyard). Children can place things they find into
the
bag (leaves, seeds, pebbles, twigs, bark, etc). Younger
children
may need you to help by pointing out things and letting them pick them
up. Then, the children can use glue to attach their found
treasures
to the paper to make a nature collage.
Scrapbook
Submitted
by Chris
in Freeport, Illinois
Materials
Needed:
paper (any size/color)
staples or yarn
cardboard (for front and back)
crayons/markers
various objects for scrapbook
glue/tape Add heavier paper stock to front(for cover page) and back
Instructions:
To make book, either staple along edges or 3-hole punch and tie with
yarn.
Let your child draw pictures of their favorite activity, food, animal
or write words/letters of the alphabet.
They can also glue/tape items like favorite birthday cards, a leaf
they find outside or a special picture/photo inside. They
should
write, on each page, about the item they are placing on the page.
Materials
A sock for each child
buttons / beads
yarn
felt pieces
craft glue
Instructions
Let the children be creative! They can use buttons or beads
for
the eyes, yarn for hair, felt pieces for ears, clothes, or
whatever!
Once the glue dries, put on a puppet show!!
Paper
Bag Puppets
Materials
Needed:
Paper Bag
Paint, crayons, or markers
Googley eyes or buttons
yarn
craft glue
Instructions:
Have the children paint or color a small paper bag. Then
(once
the paint dries), they can glue on eyes and yarn hair.
Materials
Needed:
Popsicle sticks
Old magazines
Scissors
Glue stick
Instructions:
Have children look through old magazines for pictures of people or
animals. Cut out the picture they choose. Let the
child use
the glue stick to glue the picture to the popsickle stick.
Then they
can play with their puppets! Help them make up a story for
their
puppets.
Butterfly
Magnet
Materials
Needed:
1 coffee filter (for each child)
1 clothes pin
1 set of googley eyes
pipe cleaner
paint
1 magnet (for each child)
INSTRUCTIONS
Let the kids paint the coffee filter, (if you add a little water to the
paint it will look like water colors).
Make sure to paint on the outer part (as this will be seen more than
the middle).
Tell them not to paint too much in one spot, this will tear the
filters.
Let the filters dry and then gather them to the middle, insert them
into the part you have to open.
Add eyes and a two short (about 1/2 inch) pieces of pipe cleaner for
the antenna.
Glue the magnet on the back and now they have a great butterfly magnet
to hold their art work in.
-Robin in AZ
Secret
Pal Memo Board
INGREDIENTS:
6 5/8" x8 5/8" wood framed chalkboard
white, yellow, light blue, and green acrylic paint
1 yard of 5/8"w blue grosgrain ribbon
2/3 yard of 1/4"w blue grosgrain ribbon
one box of chalk
paintbrushes
household sponge
pencil with new eraser
black fine-point felt-tip pen
masking tape
hot glue gun
DIRECTIONS:
paint wood frame of chalkboard white and allow to dry
cut a 3/4" square from sponge. Use sponge square and blue paint to
stamp checkerboard design on frame and allow to dry.
for each flower, dip eraser in yellow paint and stamp three dots close
together around the board, and allow to dry. Use green paint to paint
stems and leaves between flowers. Use pen to outline flowers and draw
detail on stems.
Place masking tape 1/4" from inside edge of chalkboard frame. Use
yellow paint to paint border on chalkboard, and allow to dry.
For streamer, cut 20" length of 5/8"w ribbon, old in half. Leaving a 1
1/2" loop at top, glue streamer to center back of chalkboard. Cut a 12"
length of 5/8"w ribbon, tie into a bow and glue over loop of streamer.
For chalk holder, glue one end of 1/4"w ribbon to the back of the
chalkboard. Tie remaining end around one piece of chalk.
Write a message.
-Estelle - KY
Flowers
For MOM
ITEMS NEEDED
Yellow, Pink, Light Blue, Red, Purple, and Green felt pieces
two blue felt pieces
yellow and red embroidery floss
polyester fiberfill
tracing paper
embroidery needle
assorted buttons
WAY PUT IT TOGETHER
Trace flower, leaf, and heart patterns onto tracing paper and cut out.
Use patterns to cut eleven flowers, ten leaves, and eleven hearts from
felt pieces.
Leaving a opening for stuffing, use six strands of red floss to sew
blue felt pieces together. Stuff with fiberfill, sew opening closed.
Use six strands of yellow floss and cross stitches to sew hearts and
flowers to one side of pillow. Use running stitch to sew leaves in
place.
sew buttons to flower centers and hearts as desired.
Daddy's
Caddy
NEED
1/8 yard of brown paint fabric
1/4 yard of black and white print fabric
3/4 yard of brown plaid fabric
3/4 yard of fusible interfacing
1/2"w single fold bias tape
black thread
DIRECTIONS
Caddy- cut two 8" x 24" rectangles from plaid fabric. For large pocket,
cut two 7 1/2" x 8" pieces from black and white fabric. For small
pocket, cut two 4 1/2" x 8" pieces from brown print fabric.
Follow manufactures' instructions to fuse interfacing to wrong side of
one of each side of fabric pieces. Matching wrong sides and raw edges,
place each pair of fabric pieces together.
For pocket bindings, cut two 8" long pieces of bias tape. Follow
manufactures' instructions to bind top edge of each pocket.
Placing small pocket on large pocket, stitch a vertical seam through
center of small pocket.
Position pockets on one end of caddy, sew in place.
Use bias tape and follow manufactures' instructions to bind edges of
caddy.
- Chris - Florida
