Kaleidescope Tutorial

Cheap, easy and quick; making your own kaleidoscope is a great activity to do with the kids. It took us about 20 minutes to gather the materials together and make 2 kaleidoscopes and the kids were very impressed with them.

Nature Rainbow Tree

A simple nice art activity. First we had a play outside and collected things of all the colours of the rainbow, plus some twigs.

I had thought we would just make a rainbow, but Miss 4 was quite determined it would be a tree. Just as determined as she was about the order of the rainbow; Red and yellow, pink and green, purple and orange and blue. I can sing a rainbow... I drew some lines to glue between and she did the rest.

But regardless of our differences in taste, it was a lovely art activity to do together and she was proud to show the results to Mr Crafty when he got home.

Painting Easter Eggs

I blew about a dozen eggs for us to paint for easter this year. But when I took a look at them this weekend it turned out that I hadn't washed them thoroughly enough and they weren't too pretty. So I printed out an egg shape template instead, and the whole family spent about 2 hours painting them. Once they were dry we cut them out and hung them on a line across the corner of the room. Such a simple craft, but an excellent one anyway.

Cotton Bud Tree Painting

 

Just a little painting fun. A few different ways to paint a cherry blossom tree or Jacaranda tree using only Q-tips (cotton buds). I'm sure the same could be done for an Autumn or Spring tree, if the colours are right.

Miss 3 thought it was great fun too.

And the usual way that Miss 3 finishes any painting time: some hand painting (followed by making some paint gloves for herself).

Christmas Tree Craft

I needed something for the kids to do last week, and so we made our own paper Christmas tree which the kids decorated with stickers. They had such fun, I thought I'd draw one up that I could use for playgroup craft. I thought I'd share the printable tree for anyone else looking for a super easy Christmas craft. Just print it off and find some cheap little Christmas stickers. Alternatively draw your own on a large sheet of paper.

Free printables:

Coloured outline tree 

Full colour tree

Black and white tree

Toilet Roll Art

Rainbow fun with a white toilet roll.

Weaving

I was looking for some ideas to use for craft at Playgroup. It had to be mess free due to our venue for the week. I melded a couple of ideas, and came up with this:

It's very easy. Cut a circle in a paper plate. Punch holes around the edge of the circle. Tie a length of wool to one hole. Put some sticky tape around the other end of the wool (makes it stiffer and easier to thread). Colour around the edge of the plate. Thread the wool through the holes.

The by product is the circle cut from the middle of the plate. That can also be used  for some more threading and drawing as Miss 3 showed here:

At playgroup the kids (ages 1 to 4) all seemed to enjoy it. Some only wanted to colour, others only wanted to weave. Some even turned their masterpiece into a kite (tied a string onto it).