Christmas
This was supposed to be a craft just for my daughter, but when my son and his friend saw what we were doing they jumped in too. I was not planning on 3 kids doing it all at once so it was a little chaotic but the playroom and all the kids survived… remember to use washable paint . The kids have all used bubble wrap to print on things before so switching it so they painted the bubble wrap was new and a big hit.
- Gather your materials. You will need some bubble wrap, paint, painter’s tape, paint brushes , heavy paper ( paper grocery bags are perfect), a pencil and scissors.
- Start by taping the bubble wrap to the work surface with the painter’s tape.
- Next paint the bubble wrap with green. For my toddler I gave her a big brush for the green to encourage coverage. She was encouraged …
- Next add the lights colors. Let kids decide which colors they want, this helps with color recognition too.
- Ok this is when the boys busted in pretending to be Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader ( I know impossible right… not for two imaginative 5 year olds! ) and grabbed some brushes.
- Keep painting the wrap.
- Draw some trees on the paper and cut out.
- Press the paper into the wrap and peel back carefully.
- For my toddler I left the paper big so she could do as much as possible herself , the small tree would have probably gotten ripped. Leaving it big let her do it herself feeling the wrap under the paper and “bang banging” her hand to make the print.
- Let dry and cut out the tree shape for the toddler.
- Hang up and show off the fun ( and wee bit of chaos…) remember washable paints!
This activity is perfect for busy days that you want to do a fun holiday themed activity but you don’t have much time. I used Play-Doh instead of making my own but here is a great gingerbread playdough recipe if you want to make your own. Also if you have kids sensitive to gluten try our awesome gluten free playdough recipe ( it’s my favorite). It’s important for me to find ways of making one activity appropriate for both my kids and their vastly different developmental stages and I think we managed with this gingerbread people play.
- Gather your materials. I used play-dough ( hard to beat under a buck for a pack when you are short on time!), colored popscicle sticks from our sponsor craftprojectideas.com , and cookie cutters for my toddler. We added some buttons, pieces of yard and bakers twine , scissors, beads and googly eyes for my preschooler.
- For toddlers just have fun feeling, squishing, and introducing the cookie cutters. We talked about body parts and the color brown.
- She attacked it with popscicle sticks and we talked about red and green.
- And of course she just explored.
- With my son I had it prepped for him to play while I read to my daughter nearby. I had an example because he likes having a guide and doesn’t seem to feel the need to follow, he is still creative. If your child is one that feels the need ot replicate the guide exactly I would simply give them oral instructions. Every kid is so different always adjust for your child.
- He liked cutting them out more than decorating so we squished some of the already cut ones back together and cut a bunch.
- Decorated a few with eyes.
- He was rather proud of these baker twine candy canes too.
- Projects like these are great because you can re do it if it was a hit or use the items for other play if it wasn’t.
Do you remember paint by numbers? I used to love doing them but mixing the numbers up ( yeah I was that kid) my son however is all about numbers and this was a fun way to make something festive but also let his interest in math be spotlighted. You could do this with shapes, or letters too. I didn’t tell him that the final result was a Christmas tree so it was fun to have him “decode” the craft as we went.
- Gather your materials. You will need some pom-poms in different colors, cups to sort them in, construction paper, glue and a marker.
- Start by sorting your pom-poms by color into different cups, write different numbers on each cup. I wrote 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 on mine since we’d just been chatting about counting by 10s. To have your child help sort the pom poms just put on of each color in one cup to use as a guide.
- Write out the numbers on the paper in a design. I did green outline, with random colors and green in the middle.
- Start gluing the pom poms on using the code.
- hmmmm what could it be?
- All done! Let dry.
Great Christmas Book!
a creature was stirring
I love it when I can do one craft with both my kids. With a 5 year old son and a 18 month old daughter it’s not as often as I wish. This super easy but completely festive Christmas craft fit the bill, they both happily painted and now my kitchen is merry and bright with one on the pantry and the other on the closet door. Holiday crafts are my kids’ favorite and unlike many of our other creations these are kept, stored and brought out year after year.
- Gather your materials. You will need a paper plate per child, corks ( do you know how long it took us to save up these corks? Since 2006 I have been almost always pregnant or nursing. It took a long time… ), paint, a plate or two for the paint, some ribbon , scissors and hot glue.
- Start by cutting the middle out of the plate. If we were painting with brushes or something that offered more coverage I’d do the cutting after the paint dried but with corks you want to make sure they hit the wreath and not all in the middle of the plate.
- Add paint to a plate.
I put a different cork in each color to encourage my kids to try each color. Also the corks I used for my daughter who is presently trying to put all things not bolted down into her mouth , are the solid plastic? ones. I did a bite test and they were solid. Still PLEASE watch vigilantly and make sure your children are ready and able to do the craft safely, you can always opt for finger painting . - Paint!
- She was more interested in the feeling of the paint than banging the corks on her wreath. This is normal for toddlers, they are exploring and it doesn’t mean the craft failed.
- My son quite liked the marks the corks left and had a ball.
- After they were dried I made bows and hot glued them on, then put them on my doors with painter’s tape.
Easy Peasy Wreath Cookies
Check out these cheater cookies we made when we needed something fast for a holiday pot luck, they were tasty and super easy for my son to help me make.
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We had fun making these Christmas ornaments and the best part there was no huge glittery mess! Christmas ornaments beg to be glittered and I don’t know about your schedule but mine just got crazy so I don’t have as much time for glue to dry , no need, these have zero glue. Both my kids love making these and even though we used them as ornaments they could easily be made into gift tags too. I was inspired to make this after seeing this candle project from The Ivy Cottage on Pinterest.
- Gather your materials. I used card stock for the circles, I wanted to make sure the tape would stick permanently and knew from experience that it does on card stock. Also used glitter provided for me by the folks atcraftprojectideas.com , ziploc bags, scissors, hot glue and gun, and pipe cleaners. I had ribbon in the picture thinking I would hang them with it but the pipe cleaners were perfect!
- Start by drawing and cutting out the ornament. I made circles but any shape would be fine.
- Add the tape, it goes without saying I added it for my daughter but I also had to help my 5 year old the first time. The tape was so sticky .
- Add the glitter to the zip lock .
- Shake! Can you tell she loved this?
- add more tape.
- Pop it in the next color of glitter .
- Shake.
- Keep going until they are just the way you want them.
- My son told me his has lightsabres fighting on it.
- As you may be able to tell after it was dark and sugar plums were dancing in my kids’ heads I hot glued some pipe cleaners on for hooks.
- Hang up on your tree.
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