Sometimes at toddler group the craft is simply a table of collage materials, paper and glue…
Let’s just make!
Category Archives: Craft
Followers of Jesus – Tabitha
We started a new set of Bible stories at Toddler group today. Each week we are going to meet someone from the Bible who followed Jesus. Today we started with Tabitha (or Dorcas) from Acts 9. She came along in our story basket together with a few sewing related items.
We begin by saying hello to Tabitha and then I talk about how she helped others because she followed Jesus. The way she helped was by making clothes. As items are taken out of the story basket they are named. The children listened really well!
The puppet is new and was from E W Education via Amazon. They come as a set of 10 different puppets in a lovely hessian sack with several accessories.
Our craft was decorating people shapes with fabric and wool.
On a slightly different note – I will be leading a seminar/workshop about craft at toddler group at the Care for the Family Playtime Conference in September. It’s going to be all about crafts for different seasons. I am chuffed to bits to have been invited. Here’s a link to the info. There are lots of seminars and great speakers. It’s going to be a really good day 🙂
Easter at toddler group
Lovely crafts were made today ..
Easter Wreath Decoration
Sometimes I have cut out wreath shapes from paper plates but when you need to make 50 that can take a while! So when I found that Baker Ross were selling cardboard wreath shapes I was really keen to try them out. As you can see they are dark brown, obviously made of card and come with a hole and some string so they can be displayed at home. A big win! Here’s the link to Baker Ross with all the info about the craft wreaths.
The embellishments are from Hobbycraft (eggs and bunnies) Take the eggs out of the packaging well ahead as they really do smell! The paper hearts and circles are made with a paper punch and the confetti is the biodegradable kind. I cut the bird and ladybird from molliemakes magazine. The Easter greeting is on sugar paper and I did write happy Easter 50 times. Part way through I began to worry that I was spelling Easter incorrectly!
I will definitely be using the craft wreaths for other crafts. Really great find.
Easter Ideas
Easter/Spring wreath
Easter Garden to make
I’ve spent part of today making Easter crafts ready for the next couple of weeks of toddler group. The above is a collection of all the things we’ve done to celebrate Easter over the past six years. When I look at some of them I am amazed that I made the time to prepare 60 salt dough eggs or cut out wreath circles from paper plates! But I did and the children loved them. The chocolate nests were made at our Monday afternoon Reception to Year 2 group. This afternoon one of the children reminded me that we made them last year – I think we may make them again next week.
Salt dough eggs –Â
To make them you need to start with a salt dough. This is very easy. You need 2 cups plain flour, 1 cup of salt and 1 cup of water (add this gradually as you may not need it all). Kneed the dough on a floured surface and roll out to about 4mm thick. As you do this keep making sure it isn’t sticking to the work top. I used a template and cut around it. You could also use an egg shaped biscuit cutter. If you are making hanging decorations you need to make a hole for the thread about 1cm away from the edge. Then leave the shapes to dry. They will air dry, but it will take a long time (48 hours plus) or you can put them in a low oven, not more than 100C, for up to 4 hours. (they can burn so keep an eye on them). Once dry you can paint them or leave them plain for children to decorate.
We used felt tips to decorate but you could also glue coloured paper on to them and add glitter or use finger paints.
The Man by the Pool – John 5
Bible reference John 5:1-9
‘One day Jesus was in the big, important city of Jerusalem (ask children to repeat name)
In Jerusalem there was a special pool of water. The people believed that when the water started to move that the first person to get into the water would be made better. So every day lots of people who were unwell sat around the pool and waited.
Now, Jesus was walking near to the pool and he saw a man who had been unable to walk for a long, long time. He asked him, ‘Do you want to get better?’
The man said, ‘When the water moves there is no one to help me to get into the water and someone else always gets there first.’
Jesus listened to the man and then he told him, ‘ Get up, pick up the mat you are lying on and walk.’
And that’s exactly what the man did. He got up and picked up the mat he’d been lying on and he walked! He was so happy!
Jesus was able to make the man walk because he is the Son of God.’
Craft Idea – we decorated footprints
Mothers Day Card
‘Love heart flowers cards’ – This is an easy make for Mother’s Day which is only a couple of weeks away! The flowers and leaves are made by cutting out heart shapes from coloured sugar paper. I don’t cut these out with scissors ; I use paper cutters. Paper cutters or punches can be expensive but if you use them a lot they are soon worth the money spent. It would take me for ever to cut out hearts! The other shapes are squares/rectangles for the vase and thin strips of green paper for the stalks.
Handy tip – if your paper punch begins to get blunt cut a few shapes out of aluminium foil to sharpen it.
