Inexpensive Christmas craft for kindergartners

[torinsmom]

I used acrylic paint for the snowmen and sharpies for the scarves and hats. We sprayed a clear coat of protectant over the top after they dried.

 

[tar heel]

Angel with the child's foot as the body, hands as the wings and his own face. I have one of these for each of my boys, and the oldest is 27!

 

[KathleensKid]

I used acrylic paint for the snowmen and sharpies for the scarves and hats. We sprayed a clear coat of protectant over the top after they dried.

I did this too w/mine. They turned out cute and I love them.
IMO, unless you have a lot of volunteers to help you, I wouldn't do this with a whole class. You will have to do the sharpie drawing on every ornament for every child (that's 5 snowmen per ornament per kid!).
I did it w/my just 2 kids (4 ornament each as gifts for grandparents) and they turned out great, but the detail work was tedious. I didn't let them do the sharpie work b/c I knew they'd just make a mess.

 

[uromac]

Hi!

Here are 2 Non religious Winter party crafts I have done in the past as a room mom for holiday parties:

TUBESOCK SNOWMAN:

1. Tubesock snowmanurchase kids tubesocks. Each child gets a sock and fills it with a little zip bag of rice at the bottom for weight, then stuff with some polyfill about 2/3rds full and then knot or rubberband top of sock(leaving enough room to turn sock over inside-out to make a snowman ski cap like hat and glue a pom pom on top of closure to complete cap, for younger kids I used googly eyes, then cut sticky back felt into shapes for nose, mouth, etc... for older kids they can get small 'jingle bells' with a piece of wire threaded in sock and then 'twist tie' onto snowman, to make a neck I usually get some felt or plaid non fraying fabric and cut into a 'scarf' length with fringe, that the child can tye around to make the body/head of snowman. See link below with a variation of this craft to get the idea!

http://www.imagitek.com/xmas/crafts/sock_snowman.html


(FYI: For every school craft activity I always Pre-make my own 'kits' for each child in zip bags, this makes it easier to pass the craft around and make sure everyone has all the needed pieces to make the craft - labels with their name then when they complete the craft the item goes into the labeled bag to go home)

SNOWMAN SNOW MEASUREMENT STICK:

2. If you live in an area where there is measurable snowfall amounts you can either get free wooden paint stirrers (at big box home improvement stores) and mark off with a sharpie pen the incremental lines for the 1/2 inch and whole inches (have children draw each number 1 -12) or purchase a ready made ruler at the dollar store. Then glue on a flat wooden snowman on top (if you are under a time constraint for the party you can use acrylic paint and pre-paint snowman white and hot glue snowman (precut wooden flat snowman from craft store) at home or in class, then have child decorate with either crayons, markers, with googly eyes and/or felt embelishments. You can also write a phrase 'such as 'let it snow' on the ruler.

Remember you can take any of these ideas and modify them to fit your budget, age, and time!

Good Luck!

 

[zarvgirl]

Our daughter's playschool class (ages 3-4) made these and I still it hang every year. She's now 10.

On 16x16 canvas, bought at a material store.
The children's hands were dipped in green paint and they made a rough circle with their handprints.
Their fingers were dipped in red paint and fingerprints were the berries.
A small bow was glued on.
Their name and year printed on bottom.

A little messy but very Cute. And certainly a craft that has lasted through the years.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

 

[delmar411]

I used acrylic paint for the snowmen and sharpies for the scarves and hats. We sprayed a clear coat of protectant over the top after they dried.

I use the same paint but I haven't sprayed protectant over them. My oldest one is about 6yrs old and still looks great.

It really doesn't take long at all. I've done lots of craft projects with kindergarteners and something like this is pretty easy and quick. We use baby wipes to clean their hands so there isn't a line up at the sink.

You just have to get into the assembly line mentality. We'll have the kids broken up into 5 groups of 6-7 per adult so it goes very quickly. And all the stuff that can be done beforehand should be done. We've got lines hanging from the ceiling in the room already so that's where the ornaments will go to hang while they dry (dries super quick) and then I'll go through putting on scarves, faces and hats while the kids are doing their party stations.

 

[daughtersrus]

This is what I'm doing with my DS's K class (and have done in the past with little ones). You'll want to have each child's name and the year on it beforehand so the kids can do this part and then move onto the next activity.

http://pinterest.com/pin/256993070/

Super easy and very inexpensive.

I've done these with daycare kids and they go over very well. If you don't want to make them into ornaments, you can put the hand print on a sheet of fun foam and cut it out and put a magnet on the back.

I have a friend who was a preschool teacher. She made Silhouttes of the kids and let them glue them into frames from the dollar tree.

http://www.thesitsgirls.com/2011/05/do-it-yourself-make-your-own-silhouettes/



http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/silhouettes.htm

They turned out great and were very special to the parents.

I LOVE this idea. I'm going to try it this year. If only I can get the little ones to hold still long enough to take the picture.

My kids came home with these one year (only out of that foam stuff) http://belladia.typepad.com/crafty_crow/2008/12/handprint-reind.html

I've done these as well but I used a hand print (brown paint) and then cut around it.



I've also made something similar to this with foot prints and hand prints. I like the paint prints better than just the cut out of the hands/feet.
http://www.dltk-kids.com/type/images/handpr2.jpg

I make these pins and sell them at craft shows. I've sold a lot to Kdg, 1st and 2nd grade teachers that said that they were going to adapt the idea for a class project. I spray paint the puzzle pieces first and then glue them together with a hot glue gun. I use puff paint but that stains so you could use something washable instead. You could also put a magnet on the back instead of a pin.

 

[jennrichie]

I did this with my DD to give to her grand-parents. I ordered some acrylic fill-able balls/ornaments from Factorydirectcraft . com filled them with cotton and put a little picture inside of it. It turned out really cute and was a perfect winter gift. I think this would not be religion restricted as it is winter themed and a non-christian family could hang them somewhere in their house!

hope my idea helps I wish I had a picture of the final product but I lost everything on my desktop

 

[ckpoodge]

I don't know what grade I was in when I made this, but I was very young. I can't wait until my grandchildren are a little older, and I will make this with them.

It was treasured by my grandmother, and after she passed away, my dad gave it back to me. It now has a prominent space on my christmas tree.

We made ornaments out of dough. It was cut with a cookie cutter (mine is bell shaped). It must have been baked or sealed somehow. A hole was cut in the center, and my photo is there. That was back when they had polaroids, so we could do this in one day.

We then painted the ornaments, mine is red and green stripes. The back has some sort of shiny paper on it covering the whole back.

I found something similar online here:

http://mommysavers.com/christmas/christmas-ornaments.shtml

 

[torinsmom]

I may make the dough ornaments mentioned earlier, but I want to make them with cinnamon dough. I think I will do starts and put their pictures in the center. I'll give the kids the choice of an ornament or magnet.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/non-edible-cinnamon-dough/

 

[tweedlemom]

SNOWMAN SNOW MEASUREMENT STICK:

2. If you live in an area where there is measurable snowfall amounts you can either get free wooden paint stirrers (at big box home improvement stores) and mark off with a sharpie pen the incremental lines for the 1/2 inch and whole inches (have children draw each number 1 -12) or purchase a ready made ruler at the dollar store. Then glue on a flat wooden snowman on top (if you are under a time constraint for the party you can use acrylic paint and pre-paint snowman white and hot glue snowman (precut wooden flat snowman from craft store) at home or in class, then have child decorate with either crayons, markers, with googly eyes and/or felt embelishments. You can also write a phrase 'such as 'let it snow' on the ruler.

Remember you can take any of these ideas and modify them to fit your budget, age, and time!

Good Luck![/QUOTE]


LOVE this idea!