9 crafts for children: ways to have fun creating
Probably most of us have done some kind of craft on occasion, especially during childhood . And it is possible that we remember that moment with a certain affection, having been a different activity than usual and that has as a result an elaboration made by ourselves.
These elaborations are not only playful: they allow us to connect with the different elements that we use and with the people with whom we make them, they make us organize ourselves and promote creativity and the development of fine motor skills. In short, it is not a bad idea that if we have children in our charge, we propose from time to time to do some kind of handicraft since it supposes to enhance different aspects as well as a possible entertainment and way of communication. That is why in this article we are going to offer indications to perform different crafts for children .
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Crafts for children: a selection
Below we indicate a series of nine crafts for children that can be done with their help in a fun and entertaining way, both when making them and when to enjoy the product. All of them have been obtained from different books, web portals and tutorials.
1. Homemade Plastelina
When we talk about making crafts, we usually think about making a concrete final product, with a specific or merely decorative function. However, the truth is that we can also elaborate materials that children use to have fun . An example is the plastelina.Esta elaboration will serve both to perform a craft as to awaken and stimulate future experimentation at the culinary level.
It will be enough to mix flour, water, salt, oil and some food coloring in a mold to give it color. Approximately three cups of flour, one of salt, one of water and two tablespoons of oil would be a good proportion.
Although it is possible to color it with tempera, we recommend the use of food dyes since with them we can obtain a plasticine that would not be toxic if swallowed . It is going to be the proportions that will determine the properties of this plastelina. This clay is going to be quite durable, and it will allow us to do small crafts together with our children.
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2. The clock
A possible handicraft that can be useful also when it comes to learning the hours and the operation of a clock is, precisely, to make a wall clock. To do this, it will be enough to a plastic plate, a marker, two dozen post-it, two strips of cardboard and a thumbtack .
To begin, cut two rectangles of cardboard one larger than the other, which will be the future hands of the clock. Clavalos in the exact center of the plate (calculates before where it is with a rule) with a thumbtack. After that, paint each of the hours in a post-it and after that place it in order on the plate. If you want to make it more educational, you can put the minutes that correspond to each of the hour numbers (that is, the one corresponds to the five minutes, the two to the ten ...) and put them before the number of the hour in yes.
3. Dactylpainting
A very simple type of craft that can be made tremendously original and fun. It is based on impregnating the hands or feet of the child (and ours, if we do something collaborative) and create some type of composition on a sheet of paper . Subsequently, it is possible to add different additions to the handprint, for example making trees or animals.
4. Macaroni necklace
Probably one of the most typical and simple crafts, but equally entertaining. A pack of macaroni, paint and thread will suffice. The child can paint the way you want each of the macaroni that will be part of the necklace, and he will insert them in a thread . In case you want to we can add some other type of element. Once finished it will be necessary to make a knot to close it.
5. Paper puppets
Cardboard, glue, zeal, scissors, paper and markers are the necessary materials to make a simple version of paper puppets.
First we will take a piece of paper and fold it in half, to later paste it with zeal. We will fold the ends back in, in the middle of the folded sheet. From the center where we join both ends, we turn again in the opposite direction. We can now open both ends and put your hand on it , so that it is possible to open and close the proto-puppet as if it were a mouth.
From now on, it is only necessary to give shape to the creature or being that we want to build, sticking glued colored cards and other elements with glue.Thus, we will stick on the inside of the "mouth" cardboard of a specific color (for example pink). We can cut a language on cardboard to add it and make the puppet more fun. On the other faces we can paste cardboard of another and other colors, and even draw elements such as circles, feather marks or warts (depends on the animal or what we do).
We must also cut two circles of cardboard that will be the eyes of our creature, which we decorate to taste. If we make several different puppets, we can even make a theatrical mini-performance.
6. Small notebooks
Another handicraft that also stands out for being able to have some practical utility is the elaboration of one or several notebooks. For it will be enough with leaves and glue , although we can also use some cardboard and markers.
The procedure is relatively simple: it is to take a sheet of paper and fold it in half, and then folding again in half but in the opposite direction. With these folds made and marked , we will unfold the paper and we will see how we have a total of four folds, that we will cut.
Each of these paper strips will be folded in half and continue folding in the same direction twice more. We will continue gluing together the ends of the strips, until forming a long paper tour with numerous folds. We will close by the folds until we obtain a strip similar to an accordion. We will paste the folds only in one of the senses, obtaining already with this a small notebook. We would only need to make the cover.
To do this, we will take a card, which we will fold in half in both length and width. We will cut one of them. In this we will mark the shortest side of the sheet. We will double without reaching the mark, and we will do the same for the other side. We bend in the other direction, leaving a small space. Done this, we will have the cover almost finished . Putting the notebook inside we can fold in the ends and paste the first and last daughters of the notebook on both sides in them. We already have our notebook, and we will only have to decorate it to taste.
7. Cardboard masks
Another very simple craft is the making of cardboard masks. It will be enough with cardboard, scissors, cardboards, markers, a rubber band and a lot of imagination. We can download some type of concrete model to use as a template .
The first thing will be to measure the approximate size of the head and move that size to the cardboard. We will have to measure approximately the distance between the eyes of who is going to take it and use it to generate two holes through which it can be seen.
The next thing will be to give the desired shape to the cardboard, trimming the way we want (for example the shape of a dinosaur head or the head / helmet of a character). With the help of cardboard and markers, we will finish decorating it.
Finally it will also be necessary to make two small holes in the ends of the mask. We will cut a plastic rubber in order to obtain a single strip , and we will tie the ends in these holes.
8. Author's shirt
This last manuality that we are going to propose is also quite simple. The basic and main element is a shirt preferably smooth, of a single color. From here we can use different paintings such as tempera, in order to give you the personality you want. As well we can set it in a specific theme , like nature or the beach.
9. Paper flowers
Making paper flowers is relatively easy to carry out. For this we need some type of paper, such as tissue paper or crepe, although we can also use colored cards. In this case we are going to make some roses.
to get started we will cut the paper into rectangular strips, and we will roll them up on themselves forming a small cone and gluing the final part so that it is fixed. We will do the same with strips of different sizes, introducing cones inside others and sticking them.
After this, we can proceed to insert it in a long stick, which we will later paint green, and you can also cut one or several leaves for the flower on green cardboard, which we will hook on the stick. If we have a poliespán sphere and we make many roses, we could even nail the roses in it and form a bouquet (which we would wrap with suitable paper for it).
