This is a fun way to keep track of the days until Christmas, especially for younger kids.  It’s also a good way to get in a little counting practice if you make them count the days off each day.

But don’t think it’s limited to younger kids — This is a big deal at our house where we make a big production of tearing off the next ring after dinner each night.  The kids absolutely love it!

What You’ll Need:

• The template below printed on yellow construction paper
• Red construction paper
• Green construction paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• Stapler
• Crayons (optional)

What to Do:

1.  Cut 13 strips of red construction paper that are about 1 inch wide and 8 inches long. Cut 12 strips of green paper with the same dimensions.

2.  Print out the bell pattern below on yellow construction paper. Color with crayons if desired and cut out. (You could also decorate the bell with glitter, sequins, markers, etc. if you want.)

3.  Roll one of the red strips of paper into a loop and staple it onto the bottom of the bell. Loop a green strip of paper through the red loop to get the chain started. Continue to alternate the red and green strips of paper to make a chain that has 25 links in it.

4.  Hang the bell and chain up in a prominent place and tear off one link at the end of each day until Christmas.

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Countdown to Christmas Bell

Related posts:

1. Halloween Crafts Around The Web
2. Pine Cone Christmas Tree
3. Puppet Crafts: Resource Guide

This scrunchie autumn leaf craft project can be a lot of fun for younger children, but you can also use it as a jumping off point for older kids.  This basic idea would make a great background for a bulletin board, pretty wrapping paper, or any number of other fun projects for children of all ages.

What You’ll Need:

• Fall colored tempura paint (red, orange, brown, green, or yellow)
• A bath scrunchie
• A paper plate
• Thin cardboard or old file folder
• White construction paper

What to Do:

1. Print out the outline of an oak leaf below.  Trace it onto a piece of thin cardboard or an old file folder.

2. Cut out the leaf.  The idea is to create a stencil of the leaf.

3. Lay your stencil onto a piece of white construction paper.  Put a squirt of at least three different colors of paint on your paper plate.

4. Dip the scrunchie into all three colors of paint and then stamp it onto your paper over the stencil. When you’re done, carefully lift the stencil off the paper to reveal the Autumn leaf.

This is a “scrunchie.”
You’ll find them where bath products are sold.

The Leaf Template

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Scrunchie Autumn Leaf Craft Project

Related posts:

1. Halloween Crafts Around The Web

Kids of all ages love making puppet crafts of all kinds as well as playing with them, so I figured it was high time to add a puppet craft page to the site. You’ll find lots of ideas that you can use as is or take the ideas here and use them as inspiration to make your own puppet craft idea.

If I’ve missed an important resource or project idea, please let me know.

Easier Puppet Crafts

Paper Bag Puppets – You’ll find several easy ideas for making paper bag puppets on this page. Unfortunately, there’s no templates, so you’ll probably have to draw all the body parts on construction paper for the kids.

Owl and Turtle Puppets – These cute puppets are complete with fairly detailed templates to make pretty realistic puppets.

Shadow Puppets – My kids absolutely love playing with shadow puppets! You can easily make your own patterns for them, but I’ve also found three patterns that you can try: Squawking Parrot, Lanky Giraffe, and Toothy Alligator. These puppets use brads to hook the pieces together, but younger kids may have a hard time with that — you could glue everything, or maybe just choose one hinge point to make it easier. The Toothy Aligator is my kids’ favorite!

Paper Bag Puppets From DLTK – This is an extensive resource of 24 different paper bag puppets complete with templates that you can print out.

Juice Can Puppets – Kids love making these puppets for two reasons: one, the juice cans fit so well on their hands; and two, there are no rules for how the puppets are supposed to look. Plus, their cheap to make and the cans are made of cardboard or plastic, so you don’t have to worry about sharp edges. Love those recycling projects!

Paper Bag Puppets with Templates – You’ll find several paper bag animal puppets to choose from on this page and each includes a template so that you can just print out, color, cut out the pieces, and glue them on. Quick and easy for younger kids!

CD Daisy Puppet – This is a unique idea that younger kids will enjoy making and playing with. Make a daisy puppet out of an old cd, a paper plate, a sock, and a few other supplies.

People Puppets – These are puppets made from toilet paper tubes and craft sticks. They’re really easy and the kids will have a lot of fun being creative. These are people, but I think it would also be fun to make aliens or monsters instead.

Finger Puppets – You’ll find a variety of finger puppet ideas on this page… most of them are printables.

Shana Tova Bee Puppet – This is a really clever puppet idea! Although I believe that it was created to go along with a religious theme, don’t let that stop you from using it for your own purposes!

More Challenging Puppet Crafts

Puppet Crafts Crafts From Danielle’s Place – This page has several really clever Puppet craft ideas that will work well for older children. (Unfortunately, most of the puppet crafts here are far too complicated for the younger kids.) My favorite craft is the moose puppet!

Cereal Box Puppet – This is a clever idea for a puppet… but only older kids would be able to really “get it.” You’ll find full instructions on this page, but unfortunately there’s no picture.

Paper Finger Puppets – These are very cute and highly detailed finger puppets that are just perfect for older children… Not to mention that they’re inexpensive to make. They would be ideal for a classroom or scouting project.

Doubleheaders – I think these are very clever, but they will take some time to make. This would be ideal for a scout project. The fun of making these papier-mâché puppets is twofold — kids can decorate them to look like their very own twin and then cast their doubles as stars in a show. I think it would be a lot of fun to make these and then use them in a special show put on for parents.

Bird Marionettes – Another really interesting idea! This bird marionette is made with pipecleaners and pom poms, and it really works when it’s done!

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Puppet Crafts: Resource Guide

Related posts:

1. Farm Crafts For Fall
2. Have You Seen These Great Christmas Printables?
3. Countdown to Christmas Bell

What would Easter be without at least one toilet paper tube craft? This one is really easy… I’ve even included templates for the bunny parts to make it super simple.

What You’ll Need:

• Toilet Paper Tube
• White Construction Paper
• Pink Construction Paper
• 2 Wiggle Eyes
• Cottonball
• Black Marker
• Glue
• Scissors

What to Do:

1. Cover the toilet paper tube with white construction paper.

2. Cut the outer ears, paws, and front legs out of white construction paper. Cut the inner ears out of pink construction paper.

3. Assemble the bunny by looking at the picture above and glue on all the bunny parts shown.

4. Glue on the wiggle eyes. Cut a small triangle out of pink construction paper and glue it on for a nose. Draw on the buck teeth, cheeks, and whiskers.

5. Glue on his cottonball tail.

It doesn’t get any easier!

Bunny Parts Template

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Tissue Tube Easter Bunny

Related posts:

1. Looking for a Shamrock Template?
2. Paper Bag Leprechaun Puppet
3. Farm Crafts For Fall

This St. Patrick’s Day tie is my favorite crafts I’ve ever done for St. Patrick’s Day with the kids, mostly because my son was so tickled with it!  It’s quick to make and a lot of fun to wear! In fact, you probably won’t get it off your kids even after St. Patty’s because they are so fun and silly.

What You’ll Need

• Light green fun foam (most of a sheet)
• Dark green fun foam
• White fun foam
• Permanent black marker
• Hot glue or foam glue
• Scissors
• Pencil
• 18 inches green yarn

What to Do

1. Copy the template below onto light green fun foam. Cut out the pieces.

2. Cut out several shamrocks from the dark green and white fun foam. They can be any size or shape you want, as long as they will fit on the tie. The actual tie is the larger piece in the template below.

3. Assemble the tie before decorating…

The rectangle in the template will be the knot of the tie.

Sandwich the narrow end of the tie between the two short ends of the rectangle. To do this, you will have to fold the rectangle in half and fit the narrow end of the tie into the fold. Do not push the tie all the way into the fold, only push it in about an inch or so. This will create a loop of foam that the tie hangs out of. Glue it in place.

4. Thread the yarn through the loop in the foam and tie the two ends together. This is how the child will be able to wear the tie — like a necklace.

5. Glue the shamrocks from step 2 onto your tie. Use a permanent black marker to write the words “Kiss Me!” on the tie and to add any other details you want.

That’s it. Put your tie on and have a ball being silly!

NOTE: If you want to do this craft without using hot glue, you can always staple it instead of hot gluing.  It’s just as durable and a lot safer.  You can also do this with younger kids and make it out of paper or felt so that they can glue everything themselves!

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

St. Patrick’s Day Tie

No related posts.

A quick and easy paper bag puppet designed for St. Patrick’s Day. All you have to do is print out the included templates, cut out the pieces and glue them onto the bag.

What You’ll Need:

• Lunch sized paper bag
• Scissors
• Glue
• Green, white, black, orange, and yellow construction paper
• 2 Wiggle eyes
• Crayons

What to Do:

1. Print out all the templates on the next page.

2. Cut out and trace the pieces onto the colored construction paper indicated on the templates.

3. Glue all the pieces onto the paper bag as pictured.

4. Glue the wiggle eyes onto the face. Draw on the other facial features with the crayons.

Optional Variation:

Instead of copying all the templates over onto colored construction paper, you can simply print the templates onto white construction paper and color the pieces with crayons.

Here are the paper bag leprechaun puppet templates.

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Paper Bag Leprechaun Puppet

Related posts:

1. Looking for a Shamrock Template?
2. 3 Super Simple St. Patrick’s Day Crafts
3. Another Really Easy Paper Plate Craft for St. Pat

This is a very simple Mother’s Day card to make that is guaranteed to get a big smile from Mom.  My daughter brought a card similar to this one home when she was two and I still keep it in my scrapbook.

In fact, I liked it so much that I made a template for it!

You’ll Need:

• 2 sheets of construction paper
• a pencil
• glue stick
• scissors.

What to Do:

1.  Trace each of the child’s hands onto one of the sheets of construction paper.

2.  Cut out the hands.

3.  Fold the second sheet of construction paper in half like a card.  On the outside of the card write, “Guess How Much I Love You…”

4.  Glue each of the hands to the inside of the card so that they are facing out.

5.  Between the hands write, “I Love You This Much!”  Happy Mother’s Day!

Here’s the template for the card so all you have to do is cut out the hands, print out both sides of the template, color and put together.

These are really cute when they’re done!

Send me a picture when you make it and I’ll post it here for others!

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Mothers Day Card – Guess How Much I Love You?

Related posts:

1. Halloween Crafts Around The Web

There are so many great craft ideas and crafting websites online, especially for Halloween crafts, that I thought I’d post some of the best craft links here.  The only problem is that I found too many to put in one post… so I may have to do this in two parts!

One other quick note:  Little Kid Halloween Crafts will only be available until October 31st, so if you’re planning to get your copy, don’t wait too long!

Enjoy these great Halloween Crafts from around the web!

Halloween Wrapper:  A fun way to had out treats for a party, scouts, or in the classroom.  If you aren’t allowed to use toilet paper tubes in your area, use paper towels and cut them down.  My kids thought these were great!

Halloween Shrunken Apple Heads – It’s not too late to make these scary little shrunken heads out of apples. Simply peel it, cut out a face, and put it in the oven to dry. You can even add hair, eyeballs, etc. to make them really scary and hang them in a tree for the trick-or-treaters on Halloween night. This is a big kid craft.

Footprint Ghost – I’m sure you’ve seen these many times before, but I still think they’re cute and kids love making them!

Halloween Painted Rocks – There are all kinds of spooky Halloween crafts you can make out of rocks.  This page gives you some ideas and you can use them with children of all ages.

Pasta Skeletons – If you can actually find dried pasta in lots of different shapes, then this is a fun craft for just about any age group.

Windsock Ghosts - We made a bunch of these one year and hung them all around the porch.  We actually stapled everything to make it go faster, instead of hot gluing and it worked like a charm.  The kids absolutely went nuts over it!

More Halloween crafts from around the web coming next time, so if you know of a project that I should include, let me know!

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Halloween Crafts Around The Web

Related posts:

1. Crafts For Apple Season
2. Countdown to Christmas Bell
3. Farm Crafts For Fall

I think it always makes it easier for children to learn their letters and the sounds of the alphabet when they get reinforcement from a lot of different activities.  That’s why I thought I would start periodically posting activities specifically designed to help children learn their letters.

We’ll start at the top with the letter “A” and keep adding to the list.

Thumbprint Ants – Draw an ant hill with a marker on a plain sheet of construction paper. Use a black washable stamp pad or black paint and have your child put a thumbprint on the paper (or several thumbprints). Draw on the legs(6), eyes, etc. and then turn them loose to draw in the rest of the ant’s home.

Ant Thumbprint Counting Book – You can also adapt this craft to create “Ant Books” to go along with “The Ants Go Marching” song. Create counting books using one page for each verse of the song. On the first page, make one thumbprint ant. If they are able, have your child write a number one. If not, write a one for them. Continue the pages for as many verses as you want to do, and use the “Ant Book” when you sing the song. This is a great way to get in a little counting practice with your child too.

Macaroni “A” – Use the “A” template here and print it out onto heavy construction paper. Spread glue onto the A and let your child glue different shapes or sizes of macaroni onto the A until it is filled in. You can also have them color the pasta with markers before or after they glue it on.

Of course, you could also use the “A” template and use other media instead of macaroni like tissue paper, beans, buttons, colored sand, etc. or just let them color the letters!

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

3 Easy Letter A Activities

Related posts:

1. Have You Seen These Great Christmas Printables?
2. Cloud Picture Spring Craft
3. Halloween Crafts Around The Web

Can you feel fall coming?  I sure can, and it always reminds me of harvest time, fields of corn, and barns.  So that’s why I decided to put together some farm crafts for you today.

These simple farm crafts would also work really well for an “Old MacDonald” theme or some other harvest-type theme.

Enjoy!

Paper Bag Puppet Cow – This is a cute paper bag puppet cow craft that younger kids will enjoy.  It comes complete with templates for the cut out parts.

Horse Shoes – Cut a horse shoe shape out of heavy paper or cardstock. Wrap strips of aluminum foil around the horse shoe to make it look like it’s made out of metal. If you make several, you can play a kid-safe game of horse shoes.

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.

Soda Bottle Piggy Bank – We just did a Farm unit at our center and a really cute profect that we did was to make a piggy bank. We used empty plastic water bottles and 20 oz. soda bottles. We used beads and glued them on for the legs and a piece of pink pipe-cleaner curled and glued it on for the tail. We glued on large wiggle eyes and cut a slit for the coins on the top edge. Use a permanant black marker to draw the nostrils on the bottle cap. Quarters will not come out through the spout.You might give this as an item of interest. ~ Submitted Anonymously

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Farm Crafts For Fall

Related posts:

1. Puppet Crafts: Resource Guide
2. Halloween Crafts Around The Web
3. Countdown to Christmas Bell