Help with kids crafts!

Morning everyone :)
I am having a hard time finding my creativity in this long, cold winter! I have 2x1 yr olds, 3x2 yr olds, and a 3yr old. I need craft ideas.

Also, I am seeking your opinion on what you prefer: I have done both types of crafts, the ones where I just give the kids some white paper and paints to let them make their own creation, or a glue stick and tissue paper, or a pipecleaners and some beads to string. The kids all enjoy this type of (mostly sensory) crafting.
Then I have the parents who talk about some crafts they have seen using just the child's handprint or footprint, and I fill in some eyes, a cute poem or saying, or whatever along the lines of this. I do these special crafts mostly for holidays as keepsakes, but is don't agree with doing this type of thing every day/week! A) it is a hell of a lot of time for me to do this for 6 kids' pictures and B) I don't think it is truly the KIDS' art! They just come to the counter, stamp their hand and go off so I can finish the rest!! Haha!

Any ideas on a happy medium craft that involves both the children's skill and is not going to be tossed as it is just a scribbling of smeared brownish paint!?

Tia!

We love art around here!! It's such a great way to entertain them while teaching them fine motor skills and it really brightens up our daycare space!

In an ECE course, I was taught that art is when we supply the kids with materials and let them go to town!! This is their chance to let their creativity go and they can do what they like (within reason of course lol) and crafts are when there is an end result in mind. When I first started my hdc, I didn't do many crafts because it was so ingrained in me that crafts were bad (seriously, the centres I worked in NEVER did crafts!!) However, I now do crafts for special occasions and for the occasional letter of the week craft. The footprints and handprints tend to be reserved for presents to the parents but every now and than we do paint our hands and feet for the sensory aspect.

Things we like to do here are....

*paint....I give them a paper plate or pie tin of paint. Things we use to paint with are brushes, fingers, sponges, cars, food,toothbrushes, marbles (I put a piece of paper in a pringles can and marbles dipped in paint and they shake the can)

*glue...for the younger kids I put glue all over their paper and for the older ones they get a bit of glue in a plastic dish with a spreader. Things they like to glue with are pom poms, googly eyes, feathers, random pieces of cut up paper, flower petals, random assorted pieces of shapes and animals, etc

*stickers are a big hit! They can place stickers on paper all day long if I'd let them lol

*glitter....I HATE glitter but every now and then I will bring it out. I put it in white glue and let them spread that around and I have some in a salt shaker that they can dump on their paper and glue. We also have glitter paint that they really like.

* bingo dabbers, markers, crayons and chalk are also things they like. I give them a black piece of paper when we do the chalk. I also have a chalkboard for just random play and they take turns

If I ever need a creative nudge (which is often, I am not creative on my own lol) I just check out pinterest!! Have fun :)

Love, the marble in a pringle can idea 5 little monkeys! thanks!

I do the same, I used to do the more elabroate crafts, but I found it is too much for kids under 2 1/2 -3 and therefoe was just hand over hand for me.

The other suggestion I have is cutting with scissors. When my son was younger he was in OT for fine motor skills (he was born at 24 weeks, and had lots of therapy, mostly to prevent delays) anyways, I was told that by 2yrs they should start handling child scissors ( I was surprised, I thought that was too young). I have only had one parent in my nine years get their child cutting with scissors before me, in fact I have kids that only ever use scissors with me until they go to school. Anyways, get some childrens scissors, and give them some scrape paper and they will have a blast. It is important to teach them the proper way to hold the scissors, so some hand over hand is needed. as they get better, draw lines on the paper and see if they can follow....it is great motor skill work, and you can call it craft (there just isn't much to show for it in the end)

I tell parents at our intro meeting that alot of what I do is about the process, not the product. I do very few "crafts", as opposed to sensory art experiences. But I do take pictures of the kids doing their art or sensory stuff and email it to the parents.

I, too, will do the handprint stuff only occasionally when it is meant as a present for the parent, it is way too much work for me - alot of the time the "crafts" are 3/4 adult and 1/4 kid participation.

I really wouldn't worry about the parents getting a cute craft that "looks like something". You are there to care for the kids and provide learning experiences for the kids. They are developing all kinds of skills while smearing that brown paint on the paper.

Hi 3rdtimesacharm....go to..... makingfriends.com, and have fun....one of the crafts that my toddlers ABSOLUTELY love is the shopping cart craft....we cut out different foods etc. from the flyers and we paste them on the cart...they LOVE going shopping....

I am more of a craft based daycare. I usually get all my ideas from Pinterest. I do letter of the week. i don't include all kids in all activities. If I have older kids we work on worksheets. Younger ones usually do the same craft but I don't let them have control of the glue bottle and I do any cutting they need.

We do art sometimes but it usually just ends up being a page full of stickers or a scribbling.

As much as it is annoying to think that it all just goes in the garbage the reality is most of it does. I take pictures of what we make for my Facebook page.

I don't often do handprint/footprint crafts. It is messy and extremely time consuming. Special occasion only lol

Whichever style you do is fine. Kids are learning and exploring so it's all good!!!

I prefer the process oriented art, so we do a lot more of that type. They get the markers, paint, scissors, etc and do what they want.
Yesterday after we read The Foot Book I painted the kids feet. They really enjoyed it, and they really liked the end result, but it was over so quick. I felt like they didn't get to do much "art". The parents loved it though. Go figure!

Superfun...my kids love when we do footprints and I do too because watching them giggle while I paint their feet is hilarious!!

Last summer I spread a white sheet on the ground outside and had pie plates of paint. They stepped in the plates and than ran all over the sheet. They had a blast!! They use the sheet for their forts and picnics now.

Clean up was a lot easier too!! Lol

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Originally Posted by MsBell

Love, the marble in a pringle can idea 5 little monkeys! thanks!

I do the same, I used to do the more elabroate crafts, but I found it is too much for kids under 2 1/2 -3 and therefoe was just hand over hand for me.

The other suggestion I have is cutting with scissors. When my son was younger he was in OT for fine motor skills (he was born at 24 weeks, and had lots of therapy, mostly to prevent delays) anyways, I was told that by 2yrs they should start handling child scissors ( I was surprised, I thought that was too young). I have only had one parent in my nine years get their child cutting with scissors before me, in fact I have kids that only ever use scissors with me until they go to school. Anyways, get some childrens scissors, and give them some scrape paper and they will have a blast. It is important to teach them the proper way to hold the scissors, so some hand over hand is needed. as they get better, draw lines on the paper and see if they can follow....it is great motor skill work, and you can call it craft (there just isn't much to show for it in the end)

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Another good mess free painting idea is to place a piece of paper in a large ziplock bag with a paint filled sponge. The child can squeeze the sponge and keep hands clean! Great for the 14 month-ish and younger crew!

That sheet idea is great. I think I should try it when the snow is gone.

This week is "f" week for us so tomorrow we are going to do face painting. That could be artsy too and if you have older children, maybe they could draw on each other or their hand/arm?

As a side note connected to "f" week....We also got a beta fish this week and the kids are loving him!! So we coloured fish yesterday and had fish sticks today lol (just a little random story about our week haha)

These are not really crafts, but fun anyway.

SNOW- When it's too cold to go out in the snow, I bring it in. I take a bucket out scoop it full of the cleanest snow I can find and put it in the middle of the kid's table. They have spoons, cups, bowls, etc. and they love it.

SOAP - I had the same group (5 toddlers and a 3yo) one year and when painting was over, I would pull out the Ivory soap bars (not toxic) they each get one, a dish of warm water and a sponge. Clean up is easy too, it's soap! To add to your fun, gather up the toys and have the kids do the washing for you.

Thanks everyone! Some great ideas! We skipped craft time today as it was actually mild enough to go outside for an hour!! Finally!! :D

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Originally Posted by 3rdtimesacharm

Thanks everyone! Some great ideas! We skipped craft time today as it was actually mild enough to go outside for an hour!! Finally!! :D

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Really? Where are you? Here it was only minus 7 on the thermometre but it felt like minus AHHH! with the wind chill. lol

he best crafts are with food. At walmart they have whole wheat alphabet pretzels and pasta letters. We love spelling out their names on what ever craft supplies we have out for the day. Last week we added he noodles to home made veggie bean soup, then using dried beans and dried pasta, made a bowl of soup o ake home. Two parents were feeling under the weather, so it was so cute to have the kids bring home soup for mommy and mommy

I have used a lot of egg cartons this winter: turned into butterflies, snakes, play kitchen decorated egg holder... Since there is so much snow, we went outside and painted it. Water in a bottle with a hole in the middle with either food colouring or Jello. they just have to be able to turn it upside down and squeeze. We built an Olaf too. I also made some canvases for them to paint (special occasion).

Next I might cut out a letter a day talk about it then them decorate it.

doing letters is a great idea...I will cut out say the letter A (LARGE SIZE) and we paste pictures on the letter of things that start with A, ie...apples, airplane....etc. they love doing this...I have to constantly be on the look out with flyers and cut things out though....loads of fun

Inside day today :( -36 wc right now

I froze ice cubes with food colouring on Monday. I will pull those out today and put in individual buckets with warm water for them to play with. It's "G" this week so they will also get to decorate gumball machines that I drew up yesterday

What special activity is everyone doing today? (Need some more ideas lol) or do you have nice weather today?? In a couple days we are supposed to get 0 and even a +2!!!

It's march break here, so I only have 2 today, same yesterday and none on Monday. So nothing special but everyone's favorite toy these days is a tube sock rolled inside another tube sock hanging in the doorway between the kitchen and living room. It is heavy enough to get a good swing but can't hurt if it hits you in the face! Great for hand/eye coordination. Again, not technically a craft, but you could make some with the kids. Mine is just a plain white sock but could be painted, and it is tied up with yarn, this could be a good thing to teach older kids tying knots. We've been doing a lot of that here with my 4yos.

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Originally Posted by 5 Little Monkeys

Inside day today :( -36 wc right now

I froze ice cubes with food colouring on Monday. I will pull those out today and put in individual buckets with warm water for them to play with. It's "G" this week so they will also get to decorate gumball machines that I drew up yesterday

What special activity is everyone doing today? (Need some more ideas lol) or do you have nice weather today?? In a couple days we are supposed to get 0 and even a +2!!!

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We went to a play group this morning that is in a church, it is a huge room full of play structures, slides, ride on cars, etc. It is my saving grace during the winter, we have only been able to play outside maybe 2 or 3 times in the last month since it has been so cold.

My activity today was plastic pots of gold that I got from Walmart last year for St. Patrick's day. They are black pots filled with "gold" coins and green bead necklaces. The kids love them.

I have never been brave enough to bring my group to a drop in centre. I am worried they would go haywire or take off or something and I would look bad.

I actually brought them once when I only had 3 kids as the others were sick. That was manageable but 6 kids? No way...hats off to you all!

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Originally Posted by torontokids

I have never been brave enough to bring my group to a drop in centre. I am worried they would go haywire or take off or something and I would look bad.

I actually brought them once when I only had 3 kids as the others were sick. That was manageable but 6 kids? No way...hats off to you all!

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I take my crew to all kinds of places, they are pretty much always the best behaved in the room. I have bright orange pinnies that they wear so that I can easily keep an eye on them. Especially in winter I get restless staying home everyday, so I brave taking them out.

I actually had a mom comment on how well they behaved and listened when were getting ready to leave. I told her it comes from alot of practice! Lol

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Originally Posted by AmandaKDT

I tell parents at our intro meeting that alot of what I do is about the process, not the product. I do very few "crafts", as opposed to sensory art experiences. But I do take pictures of the kids doing their art or sensory stuff and email it to the parents.

I, too, will do the handprint stuff only occasionally when it is meant as a present for the parent, it is way too much work for me - alot of the time the "crafts" are 3/4 adult and 1/4 kid participation.

I really wouldn't worry about the parents getting a cute craft that "looks like something". You are there to care for the kids and provide learning experiences for the kids. They are developing all kinds of skills while smearing that brown paint on the paper.

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I do a lot of sensory activities too. I always tell the parents that they will never have a picture or craft sent home that was done by me. That Ladybug may look like something otherworldly, but it will be their child's work. I agree it's the process not the end product.

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Originally Posted by AmandaKDT

I take my crew to all kinds of places, they are pretty much always the best behaved in the room. I have bright orange pinnies that they wear so that I can easily keep an eye on them. Especially in winter I get restless staying home everyday, so I brave taking them out.

I actually had a mom comment on how well they behaved and listened when were getting ready to leave. I told her it comes from alot of practice! Lol

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Where did you get your pinnies? I have been looking for some for them to wear at the park and they were all giant (for school aged kids). I don't know what it is though, I feel more comfortable bringing my group to a park that is more open then to an Early Years Centre. Maybe I feel I would be judged or something. I don't know.

I know what you mean torontokids...i have gone to indoor places, mall, parks, library etc but I haven't gone to a play group yet. When we do go out, they are well behaved and a lot of people comment on that but I think given a large room with new toys and many other children, mine would go nuts!!! Lol. Maybe one day I'll give it a shot ha ha. At the most, I only have 4 so it might not be too bad?

Right now (well for awhile) my two 3 year olds are acting up when parents come and even though I redirect them or even put them on time out, it's not decreasing the bad behaviour!! Ugh!

Pinnies...I've often seen shirts at second hand stores that are pretty much similar. You could cut the sleeves off and cut the sides so that it went over them like a pinnie?

My pinnies are homemade - my very wonderful mother made them for me. But t-shirts in a bright colour would work really well too.

I never worry about being judged, though I know that I have eyes on me and everyone knows I have a daycare. Maybe it is the years of being a classroom teacher before the daycare, I became very used to having everything I did be critiqued, watched and evaluated. But at the end of the day, I do it because it makes me happy to get out of the house and the kids enjoy going.