Kid Crafts Magazine

Kid Crafts Magazine is the only digitally delivered magazine dedicated to children's crafting. We strive to bring you the best craft projects for younger children from throughout the Internet. This newsletter can be viewed online. Read previous issues of our newsletters located in our Newsletter Archive.

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Featured & New Crafts

We had a wonderful visit to Nana's Farm in Kentucky this last week. My son got to ride all the "big diggers" that his grandfather uses to run things like tractors, bulldozers, etc, my daughter got to romp around with her cousin, and Nana got to have a big sleepover with most of her grandkids.

I now know every word to the "Bob the Builder" theme song because my son thought he was being Bob while riding all the equipment. He even sang the song (as loud as possible) during a family reunion/party. We had a great week and had a chance to recharge our batteries.

To that end, we decided to revisit many of the farm theme activities this week, it addition to a few new summer crafts. Hope you enjoy them.

• Toilet Paper Roll Cow - Print out the cow template from dltk-kids.com. Color all the cow's pieces and cut them out. Cover a toilet paper roll with the large rectangle from the template. Glue on the head, tail, legs, and bell. When you get done, the cow will look like it's sitting up on it's haunches. (My daughter was quick to point out that cows don't sit like this, but we enjoyed the craft anyway.) You can also use the color template here if you don't want to bother about coloring it.

• Farm Mobile - This is a great template craft provided by Child's Play Family Daycare. Print out each of the mobile pages on heavy paper or cardstock. Cut out the images and glue them together back to back. Punch a hole where indicated. Use the barn as the top image and create your mobile in any configuration you want using yarn or string to tie the pieces together.

• Red Barn - This craft would be too difficult to do in a classroom setting unless you created one for the entire class to illustrate a book, story, or theme -- but it was great fun to do at home with the kids. You simply print it, cut it out, and glue it together according to the directions to get a three dimensional red barn. In addition, you can also add a cow with this template.

• Travis the Tractor - A coloring sheet of Travis from Bob the Builder.

• Action Toy Cow - This cow craft might be a little complicated for younger children to do without some help. It's a paper cow that you cut out and glue together. Once assembled, you gently push and pull the cow's tail to make it's head bob. I did this one with my five year old and she loved it. This template is provided by Ben & Jerry's.

• Scoop - A coloring sheet of Scoop from Bob the Builder.

• Handprint Sun - Using poster paint have your child make hand prints in a circle pattern on some paper. The palms need to touch and the fingers need to be spread apart. If preferred, you could cut a construction paper circle to cover the palm area when dry. The result is finger-shaped sun rays around a sun. ~ Submitted by Heather

• Dandelion Chains - Pick a bunch of dandelions with long, thick stems. Attach the dandelions to one another by tying the stem in a knot around the previous dandelion stem close to the flower. Double knots work best. Tie the two ends of the chain together when you have reached the desired length. You can make necklaces, crowns, bracelets, etc. with your dandelion chains. In addition, you can also use grasses and other "weeds" to make chains.

• Outside Chalk Drawings - This is kind of a no-brainer outside craft idea, but it may be something that you've forgotten. Give your child some sidewalk chalk and turn them loose to decorate your driveway. It will keep them busy for a long time and the chalk will wash off when it rains.

• Outside Sand Pictures - For this craft you will need some kind of container like a pie tin or recycled plastic container. Fill your container with sand (you could also use dirt). Collect things from the yard like flowers, leaves, sticks, etc. and push the objects into the sand to create a picture. This is a project that you wouldn't want to take indoors, but the kids can do it over and over again outside.

• Outside Water Painting - Fill up a small container with water and give each child a paintbrush. Show them how they can create designs on a driveway or sidewalk with the water. It's a good way to keep them busy, talk to them about what happens when the water "paint" dries, try out different brushes for different affects, etc.