Nothing is more challenging than being cooked up in the house with kids who are bored stiff. As a matter of fact, why should any kid be forced to endure idleness in the home when there are so many interesting crafts that they can become involved in? With creative imaginations, you and your child can create so many wonderful arts. Here are five kids’ craft ideas to give you a jump start on your ideas.
Craft #1: Coloured Paper Airplanes
Most kids have active imaginations and enjoy the task of making aeroplanes out of plain paper. So why not make colourful ones instead?
What you need:
1. Coloured Paper
How-To Instructions:
1. Select your preferred colour paper.
2. Fold the paper in half the long way and make a crease and ensure the edges do not touch one another.
3. With the paper opened again, fold the top two outer corners inwards and let them meet the middle of the crease.
4. Take the sides of the paper and fold them both in to meet the centrefold.
5. Fold along the centre line, making certain to hide the other folds inside.
6. Fold the point that was created in step 5 down to the crease where the flaps are tucked under the fold.
7. Repeat with other papers and have an aeroplane game. Enjoy!
Craft #2: Labeled Stick-Figured Dolls
Let your kids make their own labelled dolls–the stick figured ones
What you need:
1. Coloured paper
2. Popsicle sticks
3. Glue
4. Scissors
5. Pencil
6. Stick-on clothing labels
7. Sharpie marker
How-To Instructions:
1. Take your pencils and preferred coloured papers and draw the faces. Let your child use his or her imagination on creating the faces.
2. Cut out the faces from the paper.
3. Glue each face to their own popsicle stick.
4. Glue another popsicle stick horizontally under the face to make the arms.
5. Glue a third popsicle stick at the bottom of the left side of the body diagonally to make one leg and a fourth on the right side diagonally to make the second leg.
6. Using a Sharpie marker, make up a name for each doll and write it on each stick-on clothing label.
7. Stick each label on the back of each doll’s stick body.
8. Have fun playing with your newly created dolls.
Craft #3: Portrait of a Turkey
This is for the little ones who enjoy sticking their hands in paint.
What you need:
1. Hand paint
2. Coloured paints
3. Plastic containers
4. Coloured paper
5. Paintbrushes
6. Water
How-To Instructions:
1. Pour each needed coloured paint in separate containers.
2. Put the preferred coloured paper in front of your child.
3. Dip your child’s hand in the container of paint.
4. Move his or her hand with paint and put it down on the paper. The result will be a painted hand imprint on the paper.
5. Let them paint the other features of the turkey with a paintbrush, making sure they dip the paintbrush in water after each colour use.
Craft #4: Colored Sand Hourglass
Remember those ancient hourglasses that were used by our ancestors to track time? Well, your kids can make a colourful one!
What you need:
1. Sand
2. Food Coloring
3. Two plastic water bottles
4. Masking tape
5. Water
6. Plastic containers
How-To Instructions:
1. Pour sand in the needed containers. For instance, if you want three different colours, use three separate containers
2. Pour just enough water into each container to cover the sand.
3. Pour four to five drops of the desired food colouring to each container of sand and stir.
4. Drain the water out of the containers and let dry.
5. After each container of coloured sand is dry, combine all colours in one container and mix together with your hands.
6. Pour the colourful sand into one of the plastic bottles.
7. Take a long strip of masking tape and with the first bottle standing up, wrap the opening of the second bottle around the opening of the first bottle with the tape.
8. You now have your colourful sand hourglass. Enjoy and have fun!
Craft #5: Coloured Toothpick Message on Paper Plate
Let your kids create that “Stay Out Message” or any other message from colourful toothpicks!
What you need:
1. Toothpicks
2. Paint
3. Containers
4. Paper plate
5. Clear glue
6. Fan
How-To Instructions:
1. Pour the necessary colours of paint in their separate containers.
2. Apply each toothpick in its preferred colour.
3. With care, take each toothpick out one by one and hold in front of a fan for fast drying. Note that this step may be time-consuming.
4. Once all coloured toothpicks are dried, make your message on the paper plate and glue the toothpicks on the plate.
5. Let your child hang his or her message on a plate anywhere they want.
Alternative:
Instead of using toothpicks to make the message on a paper plate, you can use stick-on personalized clothing labels. You can either use colourful Sharpie markers to write your message on each label or you can print your custom message using a printer.
Kids’ crafts are fun and enjoyable ways to keep your child’s mind entertained. These five craft ideas are a few of many activity ideas out there. Enjoy and let your child’s imagination run wild!