9 crafts for children: ways to have fun creating

Several recommendations for the little ones to have fun at school or with the family.

Most of us have probably done some kind of craft at one time or another, especially during childhood.. And it is possible that we remember that moment with some affection, having been an activity different from the usual and that has as a result an elaboration made by ourselves.

These elaborations are not only fun: they allow us to bond with the different elements we use and with the people with whom we make them, they make us organize ourselves and enhance creativity and the development of fine motor skills. In short, it is not a bad idea that if we have children in our care we propose them from time to time to make some kind of handicraft since it is a way to enhance different aspects as well as a possible entertainment and a way of communication. That is why in this article we are going to offer indications on how to make different crafts for children.

Crafts for children: a selection

Next we indicate a series of nine crafts for children that can be carried out with their help in an amusing and pleasant way, both at the time of realizing them and at the time of enjoying the elaborated product. All of them have been obtained from different books, websites and tutorials.

1. Homemade plastelina

When we talk about making handicrafts we usually think of making a specific final product, with a specific or merely decorative function. However, the truth is that we can also make materials that children can use for fun. materials that children can use to have fun. This elaboration will serve both to make a handicraft and to awaken and stimulate in the future the experimentation at 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 cup of salt, one cup of water and two tablespoons of oil would be a good proportion.

Although it is possible to give it color with tempera, we recommend the use of food coloring because with them we can obtain a plasticine that would not result a plasticine that would not be toxic in case of ingestion.. It will be the proportions that will determine the properties of this plasticine. This plasticine will be quite durable, and will allow us to make small crafts with our children.

2. The clock

A possible craft that can also be useful when learning the hours and the operation of a clock is, precisely, to make a wall clock. To make it, all you need is a plastic plate, a felt-tip pen, two dozen post-it notes, 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. Stick them in the exact center of the plate (calculate beforehand where it is with a ruler) with a thumbtack. After that, paint each of the hours on a post-it and then 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 numbers of the hour (i.e. one corresponds to five minutes, two to ten...) and put them before the number of the hour itself.

3. Dactylpainting

A very simple craft that can be tremendously original and fun. It is based on impregnating the child's hands or feet (and ours, if we do something collaborative) and creating some kind of composition on a sheet of paper. create some kind of composition on a sheet of paper.. Subsequently it is possible to add different additions to the handprint, for example, trees or animals.

4. Macaroni necklace

Probably one of the most typical and simple handicrafts, but equally entertaining. All we need is a packet of macaroni, paint and thread. The child can paint the way he wants each of the macaroni that will be part of the necklace, and will be inserting them in a thread. and inserting them on a thread.. If desired, 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, tape, scissors, paper and markers are the materials needed to make a simple version of paper puppets.

First we will take a piece of paper and fold it in half, and then glue it with glue. Fold the ends inwards again, to the middle of the folded sheet. From the center where we join both ends, we fold again in the opposite direction. We can now open the two ends and put our hand through it, so that it is possible to open and close the sheet.We can now open the two ends and put our hand through it, so that it is possible to open and close the proto-puppet as if it were a mouth.

From now on, the only thing left to do is to shape the creature or being that we want to build, gluing colored cardboard and other elements with glue. Thus, we will glue cardboard of a specific color (for example, pink) on the inside of the "mouth". We can cut a tongue out of cardboard to add it and make the puppet more fun. In the rest of the faces we can glue cardboard of other colors, and even draw elements such as circles, feather marks or warts. even draw elements such as circles, feather marks or warts (depending on the (depending on the animal or being we make).

We will also have to cut two cardboard circles that will be the eyes of our creature, which we will decorate as we wish. If we make several different puppets, we can even make a mini-theatrical performance.

6. Small notebooks

Another craft that also stands out for having some practical utility is the elaboration of one or several notebooks. To do this, all we need is sheets of paper and glue. we will only need sheets of paper and glueWe 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 fold it in half again but in the opposite direction. With these folds made and markedAfter folding the paper, we will unfold the paper and we will see how we have a total of four folds, which we will cut.

Each of these paper strips will be folded in half and we will continue folding in the same direction two more times. Continue gluing the ends of the strips together to form a long paper tour with numerous folds. Close the folds until you get a strip similar to an accordion. We will glue the folds only in one of the directions, thus obtaining a small notebook. The only thing left to do is to make the cover.

To do this, we will take a piece of cardboard, which we will fold in half both lengthwise and widthwise. We will cut one of them. On this one we will mark the shortest side of the sheet. We will fold without reaching the mark, and we will do the same on the other side. Fold in the other direction, leaving a small space. Once this is done, we will have the cover almost finished. Putting the notebook inside, we can fold the ends inwards and glue the first and last daughters of the notebook on both sides on them. Now we have our notebook, and we only have to decorate it as we like.

7. Cardboard masks

Another very simple craft is the elaboration of cardboard masks. All you need is cardboard, scissors, cardboard, markers, a rubber band and a lot of imagination. We can download a specific model to use as a template..

The first thing to do is to measure the approximate size of the head and transfer this size to the cardboard. We will have to measure approximately the distance between the eyes of the person who is going to wear it and use it to generate two holes through which it can be seen.

The next step is to give the desired shape to the cardboard, cutting out the shape we want (for example the shape of a dinosaur's head or a character's head/helmet). With the help of cardboard and markers, we will finish decorating it.

Finally, we will also need to make two small holes at the ends of the mask. We will cut a plastic rubber band in order to obtain a single strip, and we will tie the ends in these holes.and tie the ends in these holes.

8. Author's T-shirt

This last craft that we are going to propose is also quite simple. The basic and main element is a t-shirt, preferably plain, of a single color. From here we can use different paints such as tempera, in order to give it the personality we want. Also we can also set it in a certain theme, such as nature or the beach.such as nature or the beach.

9. Paper flowers

Making paper flowers is relatively easy to do. For this we will need some kind of paper, such as tissue paper or crepe paper, although we can also use colored cardboard. In this case we are going to make some roses.

To begin with, we will cut the paper into rectangular strips cut the paper into rectangular strips, and proceed to roll them up on themselves, forming a small cone forming a small cone and gluing the final part so that it remains fixed. We will do the same with strips of different sizes, inserting some cones inside others and gluing them.

After this, we can proceed to insert it into a long stick, which we will later paint green, and we can also cut out of green cardboard one or more leaves for the flower, which we will attach to the stick. If we have a polystyrene sphere and we make many roses, we could even stick the roses in it and form a bouquet (which we would wrap with paper suitable for this purpose).