Coffee Filter Butterfly
Transform a coffee filter into a butterfly with this simple craft that is ideal for toddlers or preschoolers - but which can be enjoyed by kindergartners too. The best bit - spreading the colors together: the little ones will have so much fun watching the paints squish and mingle (and making a mess). And the end product is fun to play with too
Jack o Lantern Bottle
I love these little Jack o Lanterns - easy to make and so cute as decorations for your Halloween table.
Cotton Ball Snowmen
This activity is a favorite with preschoolers who can easily tackle the task with a little assistance; but it is also enjoyed by elementary school children as well who will have fun personalizing their snowmen.
Duck Tape Pencil Cases
Duck Tape when stuck to itself makes a durable fabric that is ideal for making these cool pencil cases. To make duck tape fabric you simply cut two identical lengths of duck tape and then join them sticky side to sticky side. To join two pieces of fabric simply use another piece of tape. The challenge: to only stick what you want to stick!
Monster Pencil Holders
These cute little monsters will keep your pencils in reach. Let your imaginations run wild to create weird and wonderful monsters of any shape and color out of air dry clay. A great project for boys to have on hand for a rainy day, as a back to school project or just as fun.
Flower Pencil Holders
These flower pencil holders made of air dry clay will brighten up the desk of any little girl. They also make great gifts for mothers day, for teacher appreciation or for Grandma's Birthday.
"Pencil" Cases!
These pencils are pencil cases! Great fun to make and very useful for storing all those pencils, crayons and pens. A fantastic project to do to celebrate going Back to School - or just because! This project is inspired by the brilliant Mister Maker.
Popsicle Stick Desk Organiser
Fed up of having pens, crayons, paintbrushes and pencils all over the place? Want to get organized before the kids go back to school? Why not have them make this popsicle stick desk organizer. This is a great engineering project that is fun to do - and so very useful! Customize the hight to suit your need - a few inches high to hold erasers or clips, 3 or 4 inches to hold crayons, or taller for pencils and pens. You can leave it unpainted, paint the popsicle sticks before you assemble, or paint the finish project. The choice is yours! This would also make a great gift for a teacher, or even for Dad for his Birthday or on Fathers Day.
Upcycled Pencil Pot
A great upcycling project to tidy your office / school supplies. Take an old Oatmeal container, cut to size, cover in wrapping paper and decorate and there you have it, the perfect container to organize your pens, pencils and paintbrushes. You could make one of these for your teacher on Teacher Appreciation Day.
Milk Art Science!
This project is incredible. The results are not only dramatic but are beautiful too - you'll be making art whilst learning about science. Your kids (whatever their age) will want to do this over and over so make sure that you have plenty of milk!
Hatching Dinosaur Eggs
The ultimate little dinosaur lovers activity - dinosaur egg hunts - with "real" hatching dinosaurs. Little plastic dinosaurs can be inexpensively purchased from party supply stores or online, making this not only an easy project - but a frugal one as well. Hide your eggs in a sand box, in a dinosaur nest made from shredded paper in a kiddie pool, or around the house or garden for the ultimate prehistoric egg hunt
Styrofoam Apple Trees
It's always fun doing apple projects, but particularly so in the fall. Kids can create their own apple laden trees in this project.
Paper Apple Trees
These standing Apple Trees made from a paper bowl and a toilet roll are a bright and cheerful fall project. Apples are a great preschool theme - they compliment units about Letter A, Apples, and Back to School!
Stars n Stripes Pinwheels
Celebrate 4th July with these celebratory homemade pinwheels.
Uncle Sam's Hat
These cheerful hats are easier to make than they look, and are a great accessory for Independence Day on July 4th, for celebrating Uncle Sam's Birthday in September or to complement an American History Unit in preschool or elementary school. They would also make great centerpieces for a celebratory table.
Cotton Bud Skeleton
These skeletons have tons of character and you'll have great fun figuring out how to pose those bones! A great Halloween craft, and also a great way to explore the structure of the human body, this activity is suitable for children who are a little older (age 6/7 and above) as it is a little fiddly.
Floating Tissue Ghost
Wooooo. These Ghosts are so much fun to make for Halloween. They make a great Halloween craft for elementary school age children. And they also make wonderful decorations for a Halloween party or event.
Frankenstein Monster Mask
These fun and not so scary Frankenstein Monster masks will provide much fun at Halloween, as a craft, a homemade costume or as a centerpiece on a Halloween table. Elementary age children should be able to complete most of this project on their own without much assistance.
Leggy Spiders
These Long Legged Spiders are so straightforward that even preschoolers won't have any trouble making them with a bit of help. Elementary age children will have fun customizing them with different colored legs and if desired by adding designs to the abdomen. They will enjoy hanging them around the house or classroom as Halloween decor. .
Moon Paintings
One of our favorite activities is using salt to create texture on watercolor paintings. In this activity Salt and Glue are used to turn a simple watercolor painting into the surface of the moon! Leave as is for a great Space themed project or add some black card silhouettes and you have a spooky Halloween picture.
Mosaic Lizard
These bright lizard pictures look great pinned on the kitchen fridge. And they are so straightforward to produce that with a little preparation toddlers and preschoolers will have no trouble with this activity. A great project for a "Letter L" theme in the classroom - or a quick and easy activity to entertain your little artist.
Froggy Puppets
These frog's don't just look good, they "ribbit"! My 3 and 6 year olds both loved these frog puppets. The wonderful thing about them is although adult help will be required to build the puppets, smaller children will enjoy painting the plates and creating the egg cup eyes and will be so proud of their finished froggies.
Bendy Mummies
Mummies aren't supposed to be cute right? Well, these ones are! Kids in elementary school and older should be able to knock these together in 10 minutes. And then you can have fun bending them into poses (this can be truly hilarious). Or, use them to create cute table decorations - they could hold little name labels for place settings at your Halloween table....
Catch-a-Web
Catch and keep your own spider's web! What could be more cool than that? There are so many fascinating things about spiders and kids of all ages will enjoy learning all about them - did you know for instance that there are around 38,000 species of spiders! This is the perfect way to start a conversation or lesson about these amazing creatures whether your child is a preschooler, in elementary school or older!
Paper Mache Ghost
Spooky ghosts made out of paper mache clay. You can make them whatever size you like - small individual ones, or one large one to hang on the wall. Truly one to have fun with whatever your age; suitable for the smallest kids to the tallest Halloween monsters!
Mondrian by Kids
These incredibly simple paintings in the style of Dutch Painter Piet Mondrian are a great way to get kids involved in learning about abstract art and the beauty of simple geometric images. The creation of the series of squares and rectangles is surprisingly satisfying and the creative process very rewarding. This project is ideal for elementary age kids and even older preschoolers can easily have a go. Older children may prefer to create their black outlines using rulers and black pen. That way the width of the lines can be varied.
Gelatin Printing Adventure
This project is seriously addictive! The process is extremely fun and interactive. And the results are amazing. In other words this is a great introduction to print making for kids - and one that even smaller kids can do and enjoy. First, you make a gelatin plate. This is quite straightforward and basically involves creating a slab of firm gelatin: a process that is fun for older kids to help with. then you have fun applying paint to the plate, and using everyday objects as brushes and stencils to ensure that when you place the paper over the top of the plate to make print, you get fantastic results. Note: don't be put off by the wordy instructions - the procedure is actually very quick and easy once you get the hang of it!