Home » Art and Craft » All Crafts » Page 33

Build a medieval castle

by 2 Comments

a palace fit for a queen

a palace fit for a queen

My daughter visited a real castle this half-term with her grandmother so this morning she decided to make a castle of her own. She raided our craft box to find a shoe box, toilet roll tubes and an egg box – and this is what she created.

She’s delighted with it and unbeknown to her she’s been nurturing important skills whilst making it. Lots of mathematical aspects are used when junk modeling: she has visualised in her mind what she wanted to create and had to select and put together the right three dimensional objects to realise her vision. She’s been manipulating different shapes (she said the draw bridge was a ‘semi – oval’) and sizes (she had to reduce the circumference of the tower to make the egg box spire fit on top) – and problem solving too, as she had to find an alternative to glue to stick on the towers. It also gave us the opportunity for a quick history lesson as she had lots of questions about what life would have been like in a castle.

Children really learn through doing and activities such as junk modeling give them anopportunity to be creative and to experiment, whilst having fun. And she’s still playing with it now.  One of her little people has been given lots of yellow wool hair and, as Rapunzel, has  been banished to the tower.

Make a colour tree

by Leave a Comment

A colour tree for inside or outside looks beautiful and helps children learn their colours.an all wather colour tree

You will need:

A base circle of card ( we used a paper plate) for each colour you want on your tree

Lots of collage materials – different shades of each colour

Glue

Sticky back plastic (the sort used to cover books) or a laminating machine -if you’re making an outside tree

Hole punch

String or wool

We coloured both sides of a paper plate with red wax crayon and then covered it with all different shades of red collage materials.

We then repeated this to get a blue plate , yellow plate and so on. We put each plate through a laminating machine to weather proof it – or you could coat each side in sticky back plastic.  Use a hole punch on each plate to make a hole, thread through the wool/ string and then tie your plate up on your tree. We used a bird feeder, but you could use a real tree in the garden or some  large twigs in a vase inside. Stand back and admire!

Autumn tree collage

by Leave a Comment

 

This autumn tree collage is a fun autumn craft for children that build fine motor strength.

 

 

I’m looking after a child at the moment who adores ripping up paper. To put this passion to good use we made an autumn tree collage.

Tear :: Glue :: Stick

Autumn beauty!

 

A well stocked craft box – what’s in yours?

by Leave a Comment

Nurturing creativity in your children requires a constant supply of craft materials! Here are some ideas on what’s easy, cheap and useful to have to hand.

craft resources

Get recycling – start a collection of empty cereal packets, used wrapping paper, old Christmas and birthday cards, toilet rolls tubes, egg boxes, celophane wrappers from boxes of chocolates, tissue paper from inside shoe boxes, empty food packets / boxes -especially ones that are an unusual shape – all free and environmetally friendly. What other ideas? Please post a comment – I’d love to hear your suggestions.

Tell grandparents etc. you’re collecting – and ask them to let you have any goodies they come across.

Stock up in the sales – it almost goes without saying that you’ll save lots of money if you bulk buy when things are discounted.

Make a craft box – we use a big cardbard box in the utility room to store boxes / packets etc. and we have a shelf in the playroom for paper /pens / glue sticks and so on. This allows the children to access the materials independently and gives them the freedom to select their own resources – they’ll have lots of ideas you’d never think of to make use of what’s available. (I keep paint / PVA glue on a higher shelf so we can make sure table cloths and aprons are on before we use these).

What to include:

All sorts of paper – white and coloured, A4/A3 / on a roll, sugar paper, tracing / greaseproof paper, tin foil, tissue paper, corrogated card, holographic card, wallpaper, wrapping paper – you can never have too much paper!

Collage materials to spark the imagination – feathers, pine cones, dry leaves, felt,  wool, cotton wool balls, drinking straws, envelopes, matchsticks, lolly stiks, pipe cleaners, stickers (bulk packs of stars / dots are usually a lot cheaper then character stickers). Re-cycle the containers your take-aways arrive in to keep all these organised!get organised!

Something to make your mark – felt tips, wax crayons, coloured pencils, chalks

Scissors – child friendly ones with a rounded end

Something to stick with – PVA glue is good for model making, and you might want some fabric glue, but for general use I find glue sticks are really easy (and not too messy) for the chidlren to use independently. You can use spatulas and cotton buds for spreading. Tubes of glitter glue are fun and children love them (watch out for pots of loose glitter though as some can be abrasive and children will get it all over their hands – and possibly in their eyes). Investing a little money on a sturdy stickytape dispenser has proved a good expense as the children can  use it by themselves.

Imagination – sometimes you’ll be working with the children to create a specific thing but mostly let them have free reign with the materials, to choose what they use and how they use it. Allow them to use the craft resources in all their play – so they can use matchsticks with play dough, or cottonwool balls in their dumper truck. Nurture this experimentation and imagination.

You never know when the creative urge will strike – so get your craft box ready!

Happily shared with ABCand123’s Let’s Get Organised

Make a cardboard box house

by 4 Comments

cardboard box houseOne of the favourite things we’ve ever done is to make our own cardboard box house. We had a box left over from a house move but any will do as long as it’s sturdy. Even better if your child can fit in it, but you can make teddy a home if yours is smaller.

Assuming your box is the type with four flaps at each end which fold over to close: Fasten up one end using glue or sticky tape. At the other end, cut off two of the flaps (top and bottom) leaving two (right and left) to be your front door. Cut out a letter box – so your child can deliver letters to the house – and two windows. You can cut a small square out of the roof and use a folded up strip from the discarded flap to make a chinmey – very important, as my daughter pointed out, so Father Christmas can get in! Paint the walls and roof in your favourite colours (we used a few coats of poster paint) and add some pictures such as a climbing rose or a cat sat by the door. Put your house number on the front. You can make a simple curtain by hemming a piece of fabric and threading a piece of elastic through the hem. Make two holes either side of the top of the window and thread the elastic through – knot it to hold in place.

A unique toy with hours of play – home sweet home!

Happily shared with Today’s Creative Blog.

NurtureStore