Creative Craft Ideas

I also like the Preschoolers Busy Book and I use it often. I keep all kinds of supplies handy and at her level (except glue and paint!), so she can go at it whenever inspiration happens.

Another site I've used that hasn't been mentioned is:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/

Have fun!

I've done a few of the activities here with my 2 year old and they were a real hit!

http://www.toddlertoddler.com/archivedactivities.htm

One book that hasn't been mentioned is by Marianne Kohl. She has a number of books on messy play, preschool art, food art, etc. You can find her on Amazon. I have also found them at the library. The Toddler's busy book is also good.

Check out Oriental Trading Co. They have tons of craft projects....and they're cheap! Good luck!
www.orientaltrading.com

This website is fun to read, and Melissa also does a lot of crafty stuff with her kids. http://www.suburbanbliss.net/
Can't find the link right now, but you can email her to see where exactly she has all of the different stuff she's done with her kids. Very friendly mom-blog!

Some crafts I do with my three year old are: Stain glass made of wax paper. If you take a piece of wax paper and have her pour glue all over. I usually give her a paint brush and let her spread the glue. Take tour up colored tissue paper (you can have her tear it up before you start) and have her put it all over the glued area. Then place another piece of wax paper over it. When it dries you can cut it into any shape you want. You can either hang in it the window or put a magnet on the back for a magnet. Another idea is using coffee filters and have her color it. Take a pipe cleaner and make a butterfly by pinching the middle of the filter and twisting it and make antenna's. I also use these as magnets. My daughter love braclets so i have her put beads onto a type of string that is elastic. I just make a knot at the end and she puts the beads on. It's a great way to work on fine motor skills. My next craft i plan to do this week is taking pine cones and spreading peanut butter on it then rolling it in bird seed for a bird feeder to hang in the trees. This was a great question. ilove all the ideas.

I save egg cartons. We cut the in half the half that held the eggs. Then we made catepillars. The kids paint them then we use pipe cleaners for antenna and those stick on eyes that you can shake, anyway, and then we put more pipe cleaners as legs at each segment.

Little ones always like those old wooden puzzles, coloring, finger paints, making things out of clay, chalk the sidewalk in nice weather or get a chalkboard, put the child on your lap and read to him, exercise with him on the floor, teach him to put the shaped toys in the proper shaped cutout place (like on the Playschool plastic ball), when his does it right you can roll the ball back and forth to eachother. It's great mommy fun too and so important to him. Happy Mothers Day

dear C.,

I get a lot of great ideas for my kids from ____@____.com they have lots of fun ideas. Because of there ideas I can come up with variations for other art projects.
B.

I'm really not into or good at crafts, but my 5-year-old LOVES to do them, so I realized I was going to have to figure out a way to help her. I bought a couple of books on sale at Borders with tons and tons of craft ideas in them using all sorts of things from paper towel rolls to construction paper to empty jars to craft sticks. I still have to go to the craft store (probably how most women feel about the hardware store) to buy some basic supplies, but we've already done some projects, and she's loving it. I also use half an egg carton package for paint palletes. Works great.

Get one of those kiddy pools or put a big piece of plastic on the floor, dress the kids in play clothes, set up tempura water based paints randomly around the area, use brown garbage bags cut out flat or big pieces of paper, bug paint brushes or even fingers, or even sponges(cut up in shapes) and then let them rip. I still have pictures my kids came up with and my baby just turned 23 years old. All my kids know all the gifts I want out of life come from the heart.

I get a magazine called FamilyFun--it has lots of great ideas and help in doing stuff with your family of all ages!

You could also buy some white cardstock paper (like for scrapbooking)& envelopes to fit a folded half sheet of that. Have your daughter color or paint or do whatever to make cards and stationery to send to friends and relatives.

I'm sure you've already did the making cookies together thing, too. Or pick a fairly simple chapter book like the Little House books and sit and read to her--have a special drink & snack, curl up together, and just relax while you share the story.

Ice Cube Painting
You'll need:
ice cube tray
water color paints
popsicle sticks
paper

Pop the water color paints out of their plastic tray. Place one water color paint in each cube of the ice cube tray.
Add water to the ice cube tray and place a popsicle stick in each cube.
Freeze over night.
Once frozen, let your 4 year old paint with the "ice cubes" and as the ice cube melts, the water color paint will come out!

I use to do this activity with the kids when I taught preschool and they always loved it!

Family Fun magazine is a great resource. It costs $14. or so a year and it always has great ideas.

Do a google search for pre-school activities and you will find a wealth of free information.

Go to your nearest office supply store to find more resource materials.

Making salt clay and then making paper weights for relatives is fun. I buy the acrylic paints in little bottles from Walmart for about .47 cents each. Sometimes they will have them on clearance for .10 cents because someone opened it.

Check out the craft section of Walmart by the sewing materials. Holy Cow what a bunch of stuff they have and many times you can get stuff on clearance.

Paint some clay pots and write the names of different herbs on them...then plant the herbs to keep in a sunny window.

My 5 yr old loves painting. So we will go outside in the yard every 2 days or so & gather items. He is currently working on a "rock garden". We went & gathered rocks of all shapes & sizes for him to paint. We will then place them in a raised planter & put it on my front porch. He also likes gathering textured items, ie leaves, grass, sticks, etc. He puts them under paper & rubs crayons over it creating a textured picture. These are good things for warmer weather as we can incorporate our outside time with project time.
If you go to the Michaels website, they usually have fun, child-friendly project ideas on there.
J.

There are many great books out there, but I really like "The Busy Book" by Trish Kuffner. There are a series of these books preschool, toddler, and 4-6yr old. Also I have bins in my house filled with art stuff; finger paints, clay, paper, glue, tissue paper and let my child take out what she wants and be creative.

Try www.familyfun.go.com They have all kinds of ideas and their search engine is terrific.

I just found this great website that has a ton of simple projects, helpfully arranged by theme. You can even subscribe to the newletter if you want to recieve emails from them.

http://www.kidscraftweekly.com/

Happy crafting!

I found this great book called The Preschooler's Busy Book. It has so many great ideas for younger and older kids. Just read a bit ahead so you're sure to have the right things on hand, but the suggestions use items that are inexpensive and that you'd likely already have around the house.
Have you also checked Oriental Trading? It's a catalog (online and print) that has a huge selection of craft items (kits included). I think it's just OrientalTrading.com. They ship fast too!
Wonder Time magazine has fun ideas, and may have their ideas online as well.
Have fun!!

Crafts are such fun with 4 yr olds! Take a hangar and tie Multiple ribbons from it. Give him/her options of what to attach to bottom of strings. They can make shapes out of construction paper or choose beads, small toys, cars, etc. This allows them to be creative in making their own mobile! Also, they love little boxes. Cover boxes with construction paper and allow them to paste shapes, small items, or color them. They can put small treasures in each of their boxes. You can even make a box to keep their papers they create in! Have fun.

My son is in daycare and they do an art project everyday. My favorites are the handprint ones. They have done hand prints and made them into birds or a school of fish. At halloween they did 3 colors on the kids hands (oranges to yellow)and made them candy corn. They also do a lot of cute ones with small paper plates. They paint the plates and make them lady bugs, the earth, the sun, flowers, etc.. They usually paint the plate and then attach construction paper for the lady bug's legs, the flower's petals, etc.

Thanks for asking!! There are some great ideas in your responses!!

use diderent objects to paint with, pasta, rocks, cotton balls, any thing around the house. use shaving cream and you can add a little powder paint to it for color.

Check out http://www.dltk-kids.com/

I always find fun things to do on this site.

J.

Check out orientaltrading.com. They have GREAT simple crafts that my son has enjoyed since he was 2. It's been a great outlet for him since I had his sister in 2007. He LOVES doing "projects", and they come in packs of 12 usually, so we make them for our friends and family and give them as gifts. Hope you find something you can enjoy with your little one!

I'm not a very creative person, but my daughter (5 1/2) is really into coloring and drawing (and has been since she was 3), so I'm constantly trying to find things to keep her busy. So we have lots of paper and coloring books and construction paper, with crayons, markers, paints, colored pencils, etc. She also likes to find rocks from outside and color/paint them. We'll play with chalk and bubbles and the sandbox when we're outside. She also loves to make necklaces and bracelets, so we have a big box full of beads and string. Paperplates and popsicle sticks are good for making masks and faces. She loves to make sun-catchers. We've used empty milk jugs and construction paper to make animals. She also likes to help me in the garden. Board and card games are always fun too. We love the Cootie games and go-fish and we've recently started playing Sorry. Play-doh is also a good one for her. Maybe take her to Hobby-Lobby or Michaels or even Wal-mart, and see what your child picks out, maybe there is something that looks appealing to them, that you wouldn't have thought of. Good Luck and Have Fun!

My four year old and I do things like finger painting, sidewalk chalk art (when it's warm out), baking cookies or cupcakes, simple models (my son likes dinosaurs). Just today I gave my son a box and he colored it with crayons and made a car and then a tunnel out of it.

I have a little girl that just turned 5 - but she's been into anything crafty forever. We purchased random art supplies (glitter glue sticks, peel off stickers (foamy kind), glitter, elmers glue, popsickle sticks, cotton balls, beads, construction paper, kids scizors, etc...) & we sit & create all sorts of stuff - her creativity amazes me. On top of that we've purchased craft type kits that have been fun. Every holiday JoAnn's has little kids kits - those are great too (if you buy them after the holiday on clearance they are super inexpensive). One last thing our Olivia seems to love is a kit that she received for her 5th Birthday - Mosaic Angels. It is color coded glitter stickers that you put onto Angel templates.... adorable! You can frame them for her room when you're done. Helps teach numbers & color charts too! Enjoy!!!!

my 4 year old absolutely loves playdough. NOT from the store, google 'koolaid' playdough. It's awesome. He would sit and play for hours... I even caught him sneak out of his bed at midnight once and was downstairs playing it!