If you're looking for a great theme to run for a week with your child or in a daycare, look no further than a circus theme. It's a lot of fun kids of nearly any age (with some adjustments of course) and it's also a lot of fun for adults to plan. It's like having a party all week!

Little Kid^TM Crafts

• Cotton Candy - Pull apart many colored cotton balls (use all one color). Glue onto a paper towel roll.

• Paper Plate Elephant - Paint the back of a paper plate gray (or any other color you choose) and let dry. Print out the black and white or color template. Color the parts, if necessary, and cut out the pieces. Glue or staple the ears onto the plate on opposite edges. Make sure you put the ears behind the plate so the tabs don't show. Glue on the trunk and eyes.

• Now Available In Spiral Bound Version!

  Clown Hat and Costume - Decorate a large piece of construction paper any way you want with markers, crayons, stickers, etc. Roll it up into a cone shape. Staple elastic cord on opposite sides to that child can put it on their head and elastic cord will go under chin and hold it on.
  
  You can make a clown nose to go with it by painting a egg cup (from an egg carton) red. Let dry and staple an elastic cord on opposite sides so that child can put it over head and wear nose.
  
  Make a clown collar by cutting the middle out of a paper plate and cutting through the ring on one side. Decorate and slip around child's neck.

• Life-Sized Clown - Have child lay down on a large piece of paper. Trace around their body. Draw on all the clown features (ie. nose, hat, ruffle collar, big shoes, etc.) and color. Then hang up the clown picture so they can see it.

• Clown Shoes - You'll need 2 shoe boxes with lids, scissors, tape or hot glue, and things to decorate the shoes. Cut a small hole in the top of each of the box lids. The hole should be big enough for the child's foot to fit inside the box through the lid. Hot glue or tape the lid onto the box. This is the basic shoe. Now you can paint, color, or decorate your shoes anyway you want. When complete, slide the "shoes" on over the child's shoed foot.

• Circus Popcorn - Decorate lunch sized paper bags with markers, stickers, crayons, or anything you want. Then fill your bags with popcorn for a fun treat of circus popcorn.

More Challenging Crafts

• Circus Bead Patterns - This page has designs for beaded safety pins... the patterns include Balloons, Bear, Clown Face, Elephant, Horse, and Lion.

• Paper Bag Clown Puppet - When you first look at this, it looks like a craft for younger children, but when you start getting into it... it's too old for most younger children. It works very well for children who are a little bit older however.

• Lion Paper Model - This printable project makes a very realistic looking lion when complete.

• African Animal Crafts for Kids - You'll find several folded paper animal patterns and directions on this page. The page is actually aimed at African animals, but these are also many of the same animals you'll see at the circus.

• Oriental Trading Co. - They always have a ton of craft kits to choose from for groups. The best thing about them is that you can purchase complete craft kits for an entire class for pennies per person... this makes it really easy!

By The Way...

By the way, don't forget to check out the message boards at: http://www.kidcraftsmagazine.com/messageboards.shtml