Hi Moms!
I realize it isn't even Halloween yet, but I need ideas for a Holiday craft for my daughter's class at school. It needs to be something appropriate for children ages 3-5 and something we can do in about 45 minutes. Any cute suggestions out there? I tried doing a quick web search, but didn't really find anything I was crazy about. Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.
Go to this GREAT website for craft ideas that are age appropricate:
On the menu bar, you will see "Crafts". Click on that and then click on "Theme" to find holiday crafts. They also divide up the crafts by ages.
The great thing about it is that they have crafts designed especially for the very young children. Most crafts I see are only suitable for older children.
Hi,
Every year I buy a plain reef and have my kiddos make decorations for it. One at time we glue it on and hang it on the door! Easy, quick, fun, and personal! They could totally hang it on the class door! Its really cheap to. My kids are 5,3,and now we have 10mth old! Hope this helps
Hi Amy!
There is so much you can do. You can get the paint stirrers from hardwood stores and make them into reindeer. Use the handle part as the top of their head. Use pipe cleaner for the antlers and wiggly eyes and a red, brown, or black pom for their noses. You can dress them up in any way your can imagine from there. Something else you can do is shirts. This one is kind of messy and probably reqires a few adults dependig on how many kids are in your daughter's class. You will make a reindeer on the shirt using the foot as the face and hands as antlers. I have tons of other ideas, just send me a message if you need some more. Good luck and let us know what you choose.
S.
Last year I went to Michael's and got little precut wooden snowflakes, and let my 3 year old paint them. I got glitter red and green and silver and gold paint. I just let her paint. Then when they were dry I used glitter pipe cleaners to make loops which I hot glued to the back for hangers and we had a bunch of home made tree orniments. I signed each on the back with my daughter's name and the date. Relatives LOVED them!
you can go to www.orientaltrading.com and either buy from them (very reasonable) or just get the idea .
www.marthastewart.com has tons of ideas. notmartha.org also has quick crafty things. family circle mag. is full of quick and easys. also oriental trading mag has lots of crafts for the different holidays.
Hi Amy,
I used to work at a preschool and we would make cinnamon gingerbread man ornaments. You use 1 1/2 cups ground cinnamon, 1 cup applesauce, and 1/4 cup elmers glue. Mix this all together and it should be like a thick dough. Flatten the dough and take gingerbread cookie cutters and make the gingerbread men. Get a pencil or pen and put a small hole in the top of the ornament. This will allow for yarn or ribbon to go through. Let the ornament dry and give out as gifts. Its fun for the kids and the ornaments make everything smell so good. Have fun.
HI Amy, I teach pre-k in a public school and have done several successful holiday projects. One involves making reindeer with handprint antlers. Cut out, or have the kids cut out triangle shapes from light brown paper. These will be the faces of the reindeer. next ,have the kids glue the reindeer face to a white backing paper and have them make hand print antlers with their hands. Lastly, they can glue on wiggly eyes and a pom pom red nose and they have rudolf the red nosed reindeer. The other project is for a holiday gift. Have the kids make a handprint wreath in green paint with their hands. They use their thumbs to make berries. Type up this poem to put in the middle of the wreath: " My hands made this wreath, my thumbs made the berries. I hope that you have a Christmas that's merry!" You can add small pics of the kids inside the wreath too. I hope this helps. J. K.
You can make a holiday place mat. It will take about 45 min from start to finish. You read a holiday story and afterwards have the kids draw a picture about the story, you can have cut outs of the different animials,people etc... in the story also. Have the kids color and glue these objects on the paper. After the paper(mat) is finish and glue has dried, then the (mats) could be laminated.
Hope this helps it will take more on your part with prep work but, it is fun when the kids finish, they all have great imaginations!
My favorite is an Angel. Use a trace of their hands for the wings, trace the feet for the body. Toes make the scallop of the dress. And then attach a recent photo of the child for the face. I got this from www.makingfriends.com Our scout troop made them and put them on a Christmas tree for public display.
There is a poem that we put on the belly that I can't remember but it should be on the website.
At this age, I love anything that uses their hands/feet trace.
I will be posting alot of ideas on my website in the next week or so about crafting and homemade Christmas crafts for children. My daughter is 3 so most of these projects will be for her age group. be sure to check out the site www.holidayearound.com
45 mins is a LONG time for kids that age... but you can make paper snow flakes- Just fold a piece of square or round paper of any size, keeping track of the center and making little cuts that when opened will look like a snow flake.
Paper bells- cut out 2 bells per child, cut a slit on the op of one, the bottom of the other so that they fit together (or cut 4, fold and glue together to make a 3d bell) have the kids color them before putting them together.
Christmas trees- cut large, long triangles out of heavy cardboard (NOT corrogated) and glue jigsaw pieces onto the triangle and paint green. Add sequins for ornaments.
Lots of easy, quick stuff out there.
Good luck!
