Easter crafts

I have been working with adults lately in a very different setting. I craft with these adults when I can, they enjoy it. So we used large white paper, crayons, watercolor, construction paper, scissors and glue sticks and created bunny eggs!

Tons of Turkeys

With Thanksgiving right around the corner. The elementary school age teachers of America unite on the craft frontier to make, turkeys. Lots, and lots, of craft project turkeys. So here are three of the turkey projects I have been working on.  One is the turkey wreath. This is made with paper plates, construction paper and glue. I found it a little advanced for the kindergarten kids in my after school program but they could do it with some one on one assistance.

The second one that is lots of fun is the paper cup turkey, which is good for all age groups. You will need: paper bathroom cups, brown paint (tempera or acrylic),
 google eyes, construction paper, scissors, glue, cotton balls or craft pompoms and construction paper in brown and yellow. If you are doing this with a group I highly recommend precutting the construction paper pieces.

ho ho holidays

So the holidays are upon us and the holiday crafting with the kids started in Dec 1st. I will not recap on all that we have done but here are two quickies you can try with your little ones to let them make some things they can give as gifts.

Stamped wrapping paper use plain white butcher paper or news print sheets. You can use some sponge stamps and paint or some foam or rubber stamps and stamp pads. The example below use chunky foam stamps I found at A.C. Moore for $1.00,or go after the 26th and get them on discount for a lot less then save for future projects) I also picked up some $1.00 stamp pads.

 

Pop up cards. Use basic construction paper and fold into four equal sections. On the inside fold cut two small slits about one inch apart. Use another color of construction paper and cut out small trees, stars or other shapes then "pop up" or pull the cut section up and away from the top layer and glue the shape onto the fold of that section.

"Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons"

my example

 We read Pete The Cat and his four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin Created and illustrated by James Dean. The projects Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons based on this book was pretty simple just making button shirts to go with the book.I folded construction paper in half to make symmetrical t- shirt cuts and pre-cut the shirts and the buttons for the kids.

In the book the Cat has a shirt with four big bright buttons on it but one by one they pop off.
We focused on the buttons being on the shirt for the project but I also thought that we could have done this with pipe cleaners and some tape so the buttons actually popped off the paper shirt back ground.

Of course in this project as with any variation in the projects in pretty interesting. Some kids colored the shirts while other did not and some only wanted three buttons, some did not want the buttons in normal button placement.

 

Tissue paper cat collage

Based on the book "There are Cats In This Book" by Vivanne Schwartz. We used red and blue tissue paper to create a collage background. We used a mixture of glue and water and a paint brush to apply a layer of glue and water to the white paper background then brushed another layer on top. We created the collage tissue paper backgrounds and then drew cats from yellow construction paper to glue with a glue stick on top of the tissue paper background. You can add two or three cats if you like and in the children's drawings of the cats you will get great variation. Below is a you tube video clips of this awesome interactive pop up book.This book is great fun to read to a young child.This is also a great way to review primary colors.