Crafts Category
Fourth of July Pinwheel Craft for Kids
What you need:
- Paper
- Scissors (adult use only)
- Crayons, markers or paint
- Tac (adult use only)
- Pencil, straw or doll-rod
- Have your child color or paint on one side of the paper.
- When your child is finished, cut from the tip of each side of the paper towards the center. Make sure you don’t cut too deep so the paper separates.
- Fold the tips towards the middle.
- Place the tac through the middle holding the sides together.
- Write the year on back of pinwheel.
- Fasten to a pencil eraser or doll-rod.
Also, thanks to one of our Kolcraft employees and her 10-month old for taking the time to share their art! We look forward to seeing her art skills again soon.
Rainbow Crafts and Fruit Recipes for Kids
Enjoy a rainbow party with your kids with these easy crafts and recipes. You can decorate your party room with all different color balloons or have your kids finger paint rainbows on large pieces of paper. Rainbow crafts and recipes are a great way for children to learn the colors of the rainbows!
- Fun fruit rainbow cake recipe
- Rainbow rice sandbox
Splatter Paint Craft for Children
Bring out your child’s inner Picasso with this easy, fun art craft.
What you need:
- Non-toxic paint
- Construction paper
- Toothbrush or paintbrush
- Newspapers to cover surface
- Paper plates (optional)
- Old clothes or smock
What to do:
- Spread newspaper on sidewalk (if you are doing this outside) or table so you don’t end up with paint everywhere.
- Squeeze non-toxic finger paint on paper plates or newspaper.
- Dip your paintbrush or toothbrush in the paint and flick your wrist towards the construction paper. Paint will splatter on the paper in fun designs. If you don’t mind your kids getting messy, have them flick the paint off the toothbrush with their fingers.
- Be sure to put your child’s name on it & age!
What art crafts do you like to do with your kids?
Memorial Day Craft for Kids
Memorial Day is a wonderful time to teach your kids about those who have given their lives for our freedom. We love this Memorial Day easy craft for kids. We tried it out with our kids and they had lots of fun making these flag place mats.
What you need:
- Red, white, blue construction paper or craft foam
- Non-toxic glue
- Scissors or cutting knife (adult use only)
What to do:
- Cut red & blue foam into vertical strips about 1 inch wide
- Make horizontal slits in white foam or paper about 1 inch apart from each other
- Weave strips of red and blue through the slits on white foam/paper alternating patterns
- Use for your Memorial Day picnic. One of our Kolcraft Kids wrote a message to her Grandpa thanking him for being a Veteran.
Share with us how you celebrate Memorial Day!
Fun Fingerprint Flower Craft for Kids
This fun, easy Spring craft for kids gives you a keepsake of your child’s little fingerprints that you will cherish for years!
What you need:
- Craft foam or construction paper
- Non-toxic finger paints
- Pipe cleaner
- Non-toxic glue
- Scissors for adult use only
- Googly eyes (optional)
What to do:
- Cut foam or construction paper into simple flowers.
- Have your child dip their thumb or other finger in fingerprint.
- Put thumbprint in the petals of the flower and in the middle of the flower.
- Let dry.
- Glue pipe cleaner on back of flower to make a flower stem.
- Add googly eyes if you want.
Enjoy!
Fun Flower Activities for Kids
Springtime brings a wonderful opportunity to teach your kids about flowers – the different colors, climates and cultures around them.
What you need:
- Little plastic flower pots (you can get these cheap at most nurseries or even the dollar store)
- Potting soil
- Flower seeds
- Popsicle sticks
- Non toxic glue
- Green construction paper
- Solid color paper cupcake liners
- Non toxic markers, paint or crayons
- Large white poster board or sheet of paper
- Clear plastic table cloth
- Various fruit cut into circles and ovals
What to do:
- Go to a local nursery, greenhouse or if you are lucky enough go to your Macy’s flower show.
- Talk to your kids about the different colors & smells of flowers. Explain how different climates have different flowers and how some flowers need more sun and warmth than others. Tell your children about how different cultures use flowers for celebrations and decorations. You may need to do a little research online beforehand if you aren’t sure about this.
- When you return home, give each child a flower pot. Have them fill up their flower pot with soil and plant the flower seeds. Put the seeds in a place where they will get necessary sunlight. Tell your children that these are their special flowers and they will have to care for them every day so they will grow. Let your kids name their flowers so they feel more attached to them and will care for them.
- Make your own flowers by taking a popsicle stick and coloring it green. Cut out two green leaves from the construction paper and glue them on to the popsicle stick. Take the cupcake liner and glue that onto the top of the stick for the flower.
- Have your kids color the white poster board making it into a garden. They can add grass, flowers, trees, bunnies, birds, the sun, etc. When they are done, place it on the kitchen table & cover it with the clear plastic table cloth. You now have a garden table.
- Take your cut up fruit, place it in the center of the table. give each child a plate. Let them arrange the fruit into a flower. Have them show it to everyone before they eat it. Even better take pictures of their creations and scrapbook them! We found that grapes, bananas, strawberries and raspberries worked well.
Our Kolcraft kids not only had fun at their flower party, but learned so much about flowers, colors, climates and cultures in the meantime!
Butterfly Gardens, Crafts and Activites for Kids
Spring gives ample opportunities for you to get outdoors with your kids to have fun and learn! In Chicago we are fortunate to have a butterfly garden right in our city! We brought our Kolcraft kids there for a field trip and completed the day with crafts and building our own butterfly garden. Today’s post is all about the butterfly fun you can have with your children!
Butterfly Garden Experience:
- Google butterfly gardens in your area. Many zoos or nature centers have them.
- Prep your children by talking about butterflys – how they start as a little caterpillar, build a cocoon for a nice nap and when it’s time come out as a beautiful butterfly.
- Research butterflys online & assign each child a certain butterfly or certain color butterfly to look for.
- Read about what they eat, how they migrate, etc. Tell the kids to see if they observe the butterflys eating, etc. (Most gardens have fruit open where the butterflys will land & eat.)
- Bring your children of all ages, even babies. They will love the colors and activity of the butterflys.
Butterfly Craft
Make Your Own Butterfly Garden:
- Butterflys love a mix of bright, colorful, strong scented wildflowers and other planted flowers. They especially love day lilies, marigolds, daisies and butterfly bushes. Be kind to caterpillars who will be butterflys and include milkweed and hawthorn.
- Butterflys need to drink. Put a shallow pan or birdbath in with your flowers. Soak red or orange sponges in a solution of sugar and water to refresh your little butterfly friends.
- Make a little colorful butterfly house where they can hibernate. You can paint and decorate a wood birdhouse with your kids and put it among the flowers.
- Spend some time with your kids in your butterfly garden, watching, listening and making friends with your butterflys.
Butterfly Craft:
- Grab some colorful tissue and a black pipe cleaner.
- Fold the tissue back & forth like an accordion.
- Wrap the pipe cleaner around the mid point of the tissue leaving about 2 inches of pipe cleaner on either side forming the body of the butterfly.
- Curl the remainder of the pipe cleaner into an antenna.
- Fan out the the tissue paper to make the butterfly wings.
Butterflys can be a great way to teach your kids about nature, colors, life cycles and more!
Celebrate Dr Seuss’ Birthday with Your Kids
Today is Dr. Seuss’ birthday and what better way to celebrate than through a party and reading to your child? We have a few ideas for making your Dr. Seuss birthday celebration fun and educational!
Dr. Seuss Party Decorations
- Make Cat in the Hat party hats
- Decorate your wall with trees from the Lorax. Just take this finger paint art craft and make it on poster board.
- Make a Dr. Seuss themed birthday cake. We love these ideas inspired by his books! Be sure to sing happy birthday!
- Have green eggs and ham for breakfast with this easy recipe.
Dr. Seuss Party Activities and Crafts
- Play pin the green eggs and ham on the plate. Simply cut out a plate, green eggs and green ham from construction paper and hang on wall like pin the tail on the donkey.
- Do a Dr. Seuss word search with your children or make your own!
- Have kids sit in a circle, read words from One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and see how many words they can come up with that rhyme. i.e. – Cat, Fish, Dog, etc.
- Color Dr. Seuss coloring pages and talk about which character is your favorite and why.
- Make bookmarks with Dr. Seuss characters. Encourage your kids to draw their favorite character. It doesn’t have to be perfect!
Make sure you have storytime and read your kids’ favorite Dr. Seuss books. Have fun celebrating the author who has taught thousands of kids how to read!
Fun Finger Paint Craft for Kids
Finger painting can be fun for kids and babies. It allows babies to begin to create art – always a plus for imagination and creativity – and the symmetrical designs helps children learn about mirror images.
What you need:
- Non-toxic finger paint
- Construction paper
- Newspaper or drop cloth to cover painting surface
What you do:
- Squeeze various colors of finger paint in different sizes on one side of construction paper
- Fold the paper in half
- Have your child press down on the paper with her foot or hand. She can rub across the paper to spread the paint. If you are doing this with a baby, just have baby sit on the folded piece of paper to spread the paint.
- Open the paper to see the symmetrical designs
- Allow paint to dry
We love how your baby can create art that will be a wonderful keepsake for years to come.
Storytime with the Lorax
We are very excited that The Lorax is coming to theaters, but nothing can capture imagination like reading Dr. Seuss’ original The Lorax book. We have often talked about the benefits of reading to your children and we love that Target Stores support this.
This Saturday all Target stores across the country are having a Dr Seuss Storytime reading of The Lorax. We applaud Target’s Read Across America program. Reading opens a child’s imagination and you can take that even further with these easy crafts & activities to go with a Lorax celebration. Get ready for a treeriffic (ok a little corny) fun with your kids.
Lorax Tree Art
What you need:
- Cotton balls
- Non-toxic paint
- Pipe Cleaners
- Non-toxic marker
- Non-toxic glue
- Construction Paper
What to do:
- Talk to your children about why trees are important, what they are used for & how important it is to take care of them.
- Have your child put his/her name at the beginning of this sentence on the construction paper, “(child’s name) listens to the trees.”
- Give your child several cotton balls & pipe cleaners cut into various lengths.
- Have them dip a cotton ball in the paint and then swirl it on the paper to form a tuff-top tree like in The Lorax.
- Glue pipe cleaners on paper to form the tree trunk.
Try these fun tree related activities from our friends at National Wildlife Federation to complete your Lorax celebration.
What is your favorite part of The Lorax?
