help w/ easy christmas craft for kids..
 

i need an easy craft to do with 7, 7year olds. perferably something for christmas.

i am a girl scout leader and i am in charge of planning a craft for our up coming meeting.. but i dont know what to do..

any ideas would be welcomed.

thanks for your help

tara

A craft that I have done several times at school parties is an ornament with rolled up designer papers. I gave them different strips that they cut into thinner strips (they varied the sizes). Roll them up and pop them in a glass ornament. Add a little ribbon and it's really a great project. I also took a paint pen and had them write their names and the year. A hint with working with the glass ornament--I cut the original container (the space that held each ornament) so each child had a "crate" to hold the ornament--otherwise they would roll off the desk. They loved them and the parents did too.

how about stamp your own puzzles? I did a kids project like that for Halloween a couple of years ago - they stamped a scene onto those 5x7 puzzles, and then they can take them apart and have fun putting them back together again. I stamped a scene for them to re-create, or you can let them run with it themselves. Just be ready for stained wood and fingers, and you're all set!

You could even use washable kids' inkpads if staining would be an issue.

_________________

Another idea would be to get those do it yourself snowglobes. Have them stamp their own little piece of art and then slide it into those craft snowglobes for their own winter fun! This would be a cheap project, too!

HTH

thanks for the ideas!!

anyone else?

I did the ornaments made from paper punched with a scalloped circle punch at my kids' school lock in last week. They were a huge hit! I pre-punched hundreds of circles from cheap patterned paper that I bought ages ago (before I started stamping and got picky about paper). I pre-folded the circles as well. Add a bunch of cheap glue sticks ($3 a dozen at Hobby Lobby) and some metallic cord, and it was a great kid activity. I had kids as young as kindergarten making them. Pictures on my blog if you want to see the ornaments that the kids made:

http://colorfulom.blogspot.com/2007/...id-crafts.html

I actually made these ornaments for my preschool choir, but I'm thinking children could make them with some adult supervision and help. I've included the link below.

http:////www.splitcoaststampers.com/...00&ppuser=8323

Hope this helps!

Pipe cleaner and bead ornaments (you can do all sorts of different shapes/designs) are easy and have always been a hit with my kids, their friends, and then my art classes at school. Also you can go to the Family Fun website and look at their holiday craft ideas--I always find great, doable ideas there.

I should add to use the sparkly pipe cleaners and the crystal beads, not pony beads for the above-mentioned ornaments :-)

How about a few thank you cards. You could even have them paint little cardboard card holders.

What about painting, my dd did one and you paint their hands, and place them on the paper at antlers, paint 1 foot and place on paper with the heel of the foot between the antlers and the toes facing down, add a red jewel to the big toe, and you have Rudolph.

Last year, my kids used popcicle sticks to create a picket fence. Then we painted it white and glued on their school picture. We also used one of those wooden christmas tree shape cut outs. Painted the fence white, the tree green and put on a little glitter. I also attached a ribbon so we hang it from the tree.

Before that, we've used the foam sheets for ornaments. Brown for large gingerbread men, then used fabric paint and googlie eyes. WSame thing with a snowman and also a snowflake. We always put the kids picture on it somehow.

thanks ladies for the great ideas!! now i just have to pick one hehe.

My Daisy troop is going to stamp cards!

They will get to keep a few and some will be given to local library group that brings books to home-bound.

I really like other posters idea of thank you cards -- your girls will certainly need those around this time of year!

Thanks for these great ideas!! I'm helping with a sleepover on Friday night for 11 girls ages ranging from 5 to 9 yrs of age. These sound like wonderful projects for them.

I took the chipboard snowflakes and stars from the Holiday mini and had the kids color them. Then put glitter on them with a glue stick. Punch a hole and put some cord on them and they made very impressive homemade ornaments or gift tags! The kids loved them!

I was invited into our local school grades 1-3 and for a christmas craft I had cut strips of patterened paper 12 strips in all (even a old front from a christmas card will work) then punch a hold in the top and the bottom of the strips Crop a dial works awesome for this .. put a pipecleaner in the bottom and just give it a twist to secure it then put it through the top twist to hold it push the strips down the pipecleaner so they curve out like a ball and seperate the strips makes a beautiful christmas oranment... you can do plain paper and have them stamp on the strips . the pipe cleaner works well as most young kids have trouble tieing knots in ribbon ..have fun

Here are a couple of quick and easy projects I have done with my Sunday School 2nd graders.

http:////www.splitcoaststampers.com/...0&ppuser=38707

http:////www.splitcoaststampers.com/...0&ppuser=38707

Depending on how much time you have, how about the styrophone/cone trees? Right from the SCS resources page:
http:////www.splitcoaststampers.com/...s/paper_trees/

I work with mentally challenged adults and last year we did wreaths with small puzzle pieces painted several shades of green and glued in a circle. We used tri beads as the berries and attached ribbon or cord to hang them. They were really cute and inexspensive to make. Ann

Rice Christmas Trees

Ingredients:

5 cups rice krispies
1/4 cup margarine or butter
4 cups mini-marshmallows or 6-10 oz. bag of regular marshmallows
10 - 12 regular size marshmallows and toothpicks
green food coloring
red cinnamon candies, smarties, or any other small colorful candies

Melt margarine in a 3 qt. saucepan, then add 4 cups marshmallows and cook over low heat stirring constantly till syrupy. Remove from heat, add green food coloring till a fairly dark green color. Add cereal and stir until well coated. Shape into conical forms with buttered hands (kids LOVE to do this part, but make sure the mixture is not too hot) When cooled, stick a toothpick through a marshmallow and stick into the bottom to serve as the tree's base. Decorate with colorful candies.

One note don't expect the tree to be beautiful when children are making them. Usually they are on their way to being eaten on the spot!

Enjoy!

my daisy troop did christmas cards this year and we also made reindeer ornaments out of a cinnamon sticks and pipe cleaners for the antlers. They loved them :)

CRAYOLA MODEL MAGIC...
 

Hey there!

Just to add to your fun...

For our Christmas present this year (I teach Preschoolers), we made clay ornaments with their handprints. You can purchase CRAYOLA MODEL MAGIC clay, and it comes in different colours or in a big bucket of white (which is what we used). It is soft and formable, and when it dries it feels like marshmallows, but it hardens. We pressed the children's handprints into a circle. Some of the classes painted them with glitter, others put the fake jewels in the centre, and we just left ours blank white. We tied curling ribbon to the top (we poked a hole in it before we let them dry.) and the parents can hang them on their tree forever. (we wrote the name of child and the year on the back)

HAVE FUN.

Here's a link to the Crayola website...

Here's a photo ornament project that I just did with my day care group (various ages) - we used scrapbook paper, punched flowers & stars, and some rhinestones glued to a circle of cardstock. Then we attached the decorated cardstock circles onto old CD's (like the free AOL advertising disks that you get in the mail). I cut a hole at the top of each CD so we could add a ribbon for hanging the CD on a tree.

We made a sparkly Christmas message on the front side of the CD and then made the back (with the photo) in a year-round scrapbook design so it could be hung up somewhere all year long.

You can also plan them out to hook one or more together for more than one child.

Go to picturetrail.com/holamary and click on the Day Care Projects album.

Thanks (- couldn't put a direct link because this is my first post.)


picturetrail.com/holamary


- Mary