Crafting with Children

I am thinking about introducing a weekly crafting with Children Showcase.  Something that we can all partake in with our little ones.

I love crafting and art with the boys and often find that it is so much easier if I have something planned and prepared.  I often hear from people that they dont do painting, gluing or craft and art with children at home as they dont like the mess.

Now mess can be an issue, but you can minimise it and also with the right tools you can make life much easier.

Firstly an art smock is a definite must.  I made the boys from one of MadDads old work shirts.  I ripped off the collar and cut off the sleeves and they wear them backwards. 

Other things that are really worth keeping an eye out for are:

Oilcloth tablecloths or even plastic party tablecloths for both the table and the floor.

Newspaper

Paint brushes (Lidl do a great range that is really inexpensive)

Roll of paper (Ikea do one and a holder too)

Disposable cups and paper plates are great for paint and water

Glitter Glue and glitter shakers (Tesco and Early Learning Centre)

I pick up loads of our craft and art stuff from Poundland, which is great for confetti (sequins), paper and stickers.  The Works is great for construction paper, foam shapes and craft packs (with feathers, lolly sticks and pompoms in).  Home Bargains has been great for things like plain aprons to print on and beads.  I get a lot of my paint from Baker Ross on line, its sister company is Yellow Moon and it will give a proportion of sales to your school.

So back to the craft challenge, this week is Bonfire Night, so I thought we would base it on that. 

1) Scratch art.  Give your child a piece of paper and some wax crayons and get them to colour in all the paper.  You can help younger children do this.  The softer the crayons the easier it will be.  Large blocks of colour are great for this.  Once the page is covered you then go over the colour with a black crayon.  They need to do this quite hard and try to make sure as much of the colour is covered as possible.

(please forgive the poor quality picture and colouring, this was mostly done by MaxiMad on a tray whilst I was in bed)

Then the "magic" starts.  Using a pen lid, blunt pencil or lolly stick you scratch the black crayon away leaving the wonderful colours behind.

2) Cardboard rockets.  Very simple you can use toilet rolls or kitchen towel rolls and paint them or colour them with crayons or felt and then glue on sequins.  You can use wool or tissue to make the tails.  If you dont have any cardboard tubes then use rolled up paper, which can be easier for younger children, as they can do the colouring and gluing before it is rolled in to a tube.

3) Chalk firework picture.  You will need black construction paper (89p form the works) and some chalks and basically make a firework picture, you can add glitter if you want and smudge the chalk for effect too.

Now this is where you come in.  I will do a McLinky thing (once I figure out how) and you can link you beautiful creations each week.  Now one thing to remember is that this is supposed to be fun for all, dont impose your ideals on to your children, let their creativity and images come out.