Kids Craft Ideas

If you are a parent or grandparent, then keeping children busy with kids’ crafts can avoid boredom that leads to temper tantrums. Craft ideas for kids are also great for teachers to use in day care centers and schools. There are excellent learning and skill building benefits from using found items in a home to make decorative and useable objects. It is also possible to buy inexpensive supplies at local craft stores. Your children develop skills such as:

• Eye-hand coordination – using scissors and glue sticks
• Recycling – reusing newspapers, cans and Popsicle sticks
• Cooperation – working together on a project

One: Artistic Tissue Paper Craft

Supplies Needed:

• Tissue paper in a variety of colors
• Lightweight cardboard
• Plain white sheets of paper
• Scissors
• Water
• Brushes
• Glue
• Wooden or plastic desktop easel

Craft ideas for kids require preparing a tabletop surface by protecting it with a plastic sheet or old shower curtain. For this project, have children cut tissue paper into small random sections to make this craft. A child can brush a small amount of water onto a plain sheet of white paper before placing tissue paper sections on top in a design they choose. After a design is completed, each child must brush a small amount of water gently over the tissue paper again without saturating the paper. It is natural for the colors of the tissue paper to blend slightly for a decorative effect. After the paper is 100 percent dry, children can glue the paper onto cardboard for stability to place on a desktop easel.

Two: T-Shirts with Handprint Designs

Supplies Needed:

• White or lightly colored T-shirts
• Two fabric paint colors
• Paper plates
• Paper towels

Kids’ crafts to make outside are perfect to prevent messes indoors, and you can protect a folding table with plastic during this project. Make sure to have a dishpan of soapy water nearby to wash hands throughout the process. Dump one paint color on each paper plate after placing each T-shirt on a table with the front side up to make the decorative design. A child can dip one spread out hand in a paint color to then place on the tee’s fabric before dipping the opposite hand in a different color to repeat the process to create a design. Make sure that children wash the paint from their hands and dry with a paper towel, so they can wear their handprint tees home.