Related Pages: Snowflake crafts, winter coloring pages, winter kids activities

Preschool Winter Crafts

Preschool Penguin Craft	Rainbow Ice Winter Craft	Preschool Ice Skate Craft	Pinecone Birdfeeder Craft

Winter Crafts for Kids

Sock Puppet	Winter Igloo Craft	Glove Puppets	Lacy Ice Craft

Winter Crafts for Teens & Tweens

Make Fizzie Bath Balls	Felted Sweater Mittens	Easy Felted Slippers	No Sew Slipper Socks

Be sure to check out our awesome Valentine crafts, too!

Recycled baby food jar into a friendly puppy.

Some days crafts are about making something nice.  Other days they’re about keeping the kids busy.  If you’re looking for a craft for kids that utilizes things you already have on hand, these baby food jar pals will fit the bill.  I used stuff we already had, including a few things out of the craft box, and they went together pretty quickly.

Related Pages: Animal Crafts, Giraffe Sock Puppet, Owl Crafts for Kids

What you need to make baby food jar pals:

• Empty baby food jar
• Cotton balls
• Colored pom poms
• Construction paper or pipe cleaners for ears
• Googly eyes
• Hot glue

Basic craft supplies for a baby food jar pal.

Have your kid fill the baby food (or other jar) with cotton balls.

We also bunched some colored pom poms in to make “spots” on our doggie.  Turn the jar upside down so that the lid makes a base with a neck.

Glue on googley eyes.

Use pom poms to give your new pal the rest of his face.

Cut out two ears (or make them from pipe cleaners). Glue them to your jar.

Dot made a bunny, while I made a dog.

I added a collar to the dog by gluing a thin strip of construction paper around the lid of the jar and putting a button on the front.

What I Learned the Hard Way: My kid is really uncomfortable with the idea that the top of the jar could become the bottom, so she left the lid at the top for her bunny.

Related Pages: Learning ABCs Worksheets, Learning Colors Worksheets, Homemade Play Dough

To make this shapes and colors game you will need:

• Construction paper
• Scissors

We got the idea for this home made game from High Five Magazine

Start by cutting out four triangles from brown construction paper.  These will be your ice cream cones.  Next, cut out the scoops of ice cream from four different colors of paper.  (Four circles from each of four different colors.)  I used a cookie cutter to trace circles onto the construction paper.  Cut one small circle out of red paper.  This will be the cherry that goes on top of the winner’s ice cream.

Crafting your own game.

To play the game, each player puts an ice cream cone in front of them.  The scoops are placed into a bowl or paper bag (we used a bowl, but it’s kind of easy for little eyes to peek that way), and when it’s your turn, you draw out one scoop.  If it’s a color you don’t have, you add it to your ice cream cone, and it’s the next player’s turn.  If you already have that color, you put it back into the bowl/bag, and pass it to the next player.

If you want more players, simply cut out more cones and scoops!

Whoever gets all four of their colors first wins the game and gets to put the cherry on top!

Mama won!

Related Pages: St. Patrick’s Day Coloring Pages, St. Patrick’s Day Garland, St. Patrick’s Day Printable Pinwheels

What you need for your own leprechaun hat to wear on St. Patrick’s Day:

• Paper bowl
• Paint
• Paintbrush
• Pipecleaner
• Hole punch
• String (we used the elastic kind for a better fit)

Craft supplies needed for the leprechaun hat.

Let your kiddo paint the outside of the bowl green.  Turn it upside down, then use your hole punch to place a hole in the “brim” of the hat above the ear on each side.

Make holes to attach your elastic string.

Tie the ends of your string through each hole, leaving enough slack to go under your child's chin.

Next, we made a shamrock out of a pipecleaner.  Just bend it around like we’ve done here.

Pipecleaner shamrock for St. Patrick's Day.

Wrap the end of the shamrock through one of the holes you already made.  We did a little “fancier” version, as well by wrapping one pipecleaner around a pencil to make it curly and then adding our shamrock to the top.

More shamrock-y goodness.

Here are the finished products:

She's all ready for the St. Patrick's Day parade.

Ooh, fancy!

President George Washington is immortalized on our refrigerator this Presidents Day

I thought Presidents Day offered a great opportunity to start introducing Dot to some of the best lessons of American history.  I was looking for something to teach her about either George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, as they’re the two most often recognized on this holiday in February.  The angle I went with, however is probably actually only a myth and never really happened.  Oh, well.  I think “don’t lie” is a good lesson, so I’m willing to perpetuate the myth if it gets the moral across.

First I told Dot about how George Washington owned up to his behavior.  Then I realized she doesn’t get what a “lie” is.  We’ve been working on it all day, and I’m not entirely sure that I didn’t just teach her how to be dishonest.  Time will tell.  ;-)

To make this tissue paper cherry tree, you will need:

• Construction paper
• Crayons
• Tissue paper
• White glue
• Scissors
• Pencil

I recycled tissue paper from birthday presents.

Cut the tissue paper into small squares.  (Mine were not exact.)

You need lots of green and just a bit of red.

Draw the outline of a tree on your construction paper.

Wrap a tissue square around the eraser end of your pencil and dip it in glue.

Stick the green tissue paper where the leaves would go.

Occasionally use a red square as the cherries on your tree.

Fill in the entire space. I added "I cannot tell a lie" as a reminder of the lesson.

What I Learned the Hard Way: The squares I cut were pretty small, and Dot just couldn’t hold them around the end of the pencil to affix them to the tree.  So, we did an easier version for her, where I spread some glue around on the top of the tree, and she just added tissue paper squares.  Here’s the preschool version:

I cannot tell a lie, the original project was too hard for my three-year-old.

1.  I hate glitter

2.  Some of my favorite projects start out as something else

When I originally started making this alphabet wall art, I was really just planning to work with my preschooler on four letters.  The idea was to do a “little project” that was educational.  I figured, why not make some glitter letters to put on our Christmas stocking so that Santa would know whose was whose?  It turns out, however, that four letters just doesn’t cause enough of a glitter explosion to satisfy an almost-three-year old.  At that point, it was “Why not?” and we went ahead and did the whole alphabet.

Of course, since I’m in the midst of decorating her room (yes, I’m making pretty much everything), it occurred to me that a glitter alphabet on the wall is pretty darn cool.

Related Pages: Printable Alphabet Letters, Printable Animal Templates

What you’ll need to make this alphabet wall art:

This kids' alphabet project doesn't take a whole lot of preparation.

• felt that matches your decor
• glitter
• white glue
• scissors
• mini craft clothespins (I got 50 for about $3.00 through Amazon)
• spool of ribbon that matches your decor

Cut felt into rectangles.  Mine are approximately 2 1/2 x 3 1/2″.  I didn’t make them uniform in size, but the are similar.  The lettering is varied a bit, too, so the end result is very nicely mis-matched.

Use white glue to draw each letter onto your felt.

Try not to twitch as your child sprinkles glitter all over your dining room...I mean, the letters.

Sprinkle the letters liberally with glitter.

Shake off the excess glitter and put the letters aside to dry.

Hang the alphabet on a ribbon using miniature craft clothespins and then nail the ribbon to the wall.

This alphabet art is a learning project that adds nice color to your child's room.

What I Learned the Hard Way: I was literally on the letters X and Y when it occurred to me that I could have drawn a bunch with glue and then let Dot sprinkle five or ten all at once.  Instead, I spent a lot of extra time doing them one at a time.

Related Pages: Printable Olympics bingo, Olympics coloring pages, Olympics kids activities

Olympics Crafts for Kids

Here are four Summer Olympic and Winter Olympic crafts for all Olympic Games:

Olympic Torch Kids Craft	Paper Plate Olympic Rings Craft	Olympic Medals Craft	Olympic Flags Craft for Kids

Vancouver 2010 Olympics Crafts

Have you checked out yet the absolutely adorable Vancouver Olympics Mascots site? Their names are Miga, Quatchi and Sumi, and they are so freaking cute I can hardly stand it!

Vancouver Olympics Craft - Sumi Paper Craft	Vancouver Olympics Craft - Quatchi Paper Craft	Vancouver Olympics Craft - Miga Paper Craft	First Nations Totem Pole Craft

Olympics Party Game

Check out our free winter Olympics bingo game over at Classroom Jr.!

More Olympics Printables

Olympic Medal Count Worksheet

Olympic Word Search

Printable Training Journal

Vancouver Printables and Olympics Activities

Here’s a really cute Christmas craft of a paper plate penguin that is easy enough for preschoolers to make.

Paper Plate Penguin Preschool Craft

What You Need to Make a Paper Plate Penguin:

• Two paper plates
• Scissors
• Glue
• Orange and black paint, crayons or markers
• Googly eyes (optional)

How to Make a Paper Plate Penguin:

1. Cut up a paper plate as shown. This craft uses every piece you cut out so don’t throw anything away!

Paper plate penguin craft template

2. Paint the two wings black and the three triangles orange.

3. Paint a black v-shaped ‘hairline’ on the penguin’s head as shown.

4. After the paint has dried, glue the two wings onto the top rim of second paper plate, the big orange triangle onto the penguin face for it’s beak, and the two small orange triangles onto the bottom rim of the plate for it’s feet.

5. Glue two googly eyes above the penguin’s beak, or just color them onto the face if you don’t have any googly eyes laying around.

For more preschool Christmas crafts, try these easy Christmas handprint crafts, or the penguin coloring page in this set of winter bird coloring pages.

Now that school has started again, I’ve been doing a lot more crafts for teachers (ohhh, the posts that are on the way!!!). I have a few projects I need to dig up from when I used to work in day care, but this one I developed just yesterday to accompany my Lorax Activities post on Classroom Jr.

You might also love this Cat in the Hat craft as much as I do!

Lorax Activity - Truffula Trees Craft

What You Need to Make this Truffula Trees Craft

Truffula Trees Lorax Craft Materials

1 yellow and black striped pipe cleaner (found mine at Hobby Lobby – or buy animal striped pipe cleaners from Discount School Supply)

4 multi colored pom poms (to be true to The Lorax book, use yellow, red/pink, purple and orange)

Green Play Dough (here’s a gluten-free play dough alternative or make your own play dough)

A square of tissue paper for the base (really, anything can work here, including not using anything at all)

Glue

How to Make Truffula Trees

Have an adult clip the pipe cleaner into 4 segments, any length will do, and they don’t have to be even.

Pour out some glue and let the kids dip one end of the pipe cleaner into the glue, getting a good sized drop on top:

Gluing the Truffula Trees Craft

Stuff the glued end of the pipe cleaner into a pom pom – I use a hot glue gun because it’s a little easier, but even just regular Elmer’s Glue sticks remarkably well.

Repeat for the next three pom poms and pipe cleaner segments, making four Truffula Trees.

Slap the green play dough onto the tissue paper and push the sides down a little to make it look like a hill. Again, there’s no right way to do this, pretty much any slap of the dough onto a surface will look good.

Stick the four Truffula Trees into your green play dough ‘hill’.

Done!

Here are more recycled crafts for Earth Day and conservation minded peeps, plus check out these How Do Plants Grow printable activities or these Earth Day printables, too!

Craft Materials List

Colorations Wheat & Gluten-Free Dough – 5 1/2 lbs.

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Jumbo Assorted Wild Animal Pipe Cleaners

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Pom Pom Classroom Pack – 700 Pieces

Thankfully I was browsing through some old files today and came across my cute Christmas pinwheel craft from last year, and it was a super-easy update to do more with a spring / summer theme – so here they are!

Color Mosaic Pinwheel	Color Your Own Pinwheel	Colorful Sunflower Pinwheel
Retro Orange Wallpaper Pinwheel	Retro Green Design Pinwheel	Polka Dot Pinwheel
Color Blocks Pinwheel	Camouflage Pinwheel	Pastel Sunburst Pinwheel
Pink Watercolor Pinwheel	Ocean Print Pinwheel	Candy Dots Pinwheel

Check out more paper crafts like these easy origami kites, tissue paper flowers, or even these Pokemon paper crafts and coloring pages!