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How Do I Choose the Best Crafts for Kindergarten Kids?

Emily Espinoza
Emily Espinoza

To choose the best crafts for kindergarten kids, consider the skills needed for the craft, the materials required, and what theme the craft relates to. Kindergarteners are developing many skills that can be practiced through participation in craft activities. Before picking a craft, think about the materials required, as they may directly affect the level of difficulty and amount of mess involved. Crafts for kids can be made to relate to almost any theme or interest, and a theme can help you find the perfect craft for your situation.

Think first about the skills and abilities of the children you are working with. Young children are learning many new skills, like writing and cutting with scissors, and crafts for kindergarten can be a good way for them to practice some of these skills. Think about what the children are already good at doing and what, if anything, you would like them to have more practice with. If you pick a craft that is far beyond the ability of the children you are working with, they may become frustrated and not want to participate in the craft at all.

Before starting a craft project with a kindergartner, think of what their skills and abilities will allow them to do without becoming frustrated.
Before starting a craft project with a kindergartner, think of what their skills and abilities will allow them to do without becoming frustrated.

When you look for crafts for kindergarten children, a good rule of thumb is to immediately think about the materials needed to complete the project. It can be very frustrating to plan a craft only to find it impossible to locate all the necessary items. Also, the materials used are directly related to the amount of mess created. If you are looking for something that can be done quickly, during a play date at your home, you may not want to pick a craft that involves a lot of paint or other materials that will require substantial clean-up. On the other hand, messy activities can be quite fun, and in the right setting they might actually make the craft project even more fun.

Pipe cleaners come in a variety of colors and can be used in many crafts.
Pipe cleaners come in a variety of colors and can be used in many crafts.

Remember that crafts for kindergarten kids can be made to fit into virtually any theme. If you are choosing a craft for a particular occasion or holiday, you might want to pick something that corresponds with the theme of the event. Crafts can be made to fit into a curriculum theme in a school or other group setting. If there is no obvious theme or event, sometimes it is fun to think about something that the children are interested in. When an activity is related to their favorite theme or topic, children are more likely to get excited about the craft and to stay interested in it longer.

Discussion Comments

jcraig

@titans62 - I remember the bricks you are talking about. I don't think I have seen any of those in store anywhere. I guess they aren't sophisticated enough.

I think the article makes a good point, though, it is good to make projects that are suitable for a child's skills and are still interesting.

The thing I have found out, too, is that kids of that age are a lot more interested in touching and smelling and being active than they are sitting down to work on a project for a while. Drawing a picture is always a good option, but if you can find a way to add some things into the picture that make it more 3-dimensional and have different textures, they'll have a lot more fun.

A good example of this would be if they draw a normal picture of their family in front of a house, you can glue cotton over the clouds and finds some felt to use as grass and really bring the picture to life.

titans62

@Izzy78 - I am with you. A lot of those craft ideas are fun, but at least for me, the ones I really remember are the ones you could use or keep around for a while. Even something as simple as making a little pilgram's hat for Thanksgiving was fun, because you could wear it.

My favorite thing was always making clay animals. I loved dinosaurs, so I remember I made a whole army of dinosaurs that I could take home and play with.

i don't know if it really counts as a craft project, but I always like playing with any kind of building blocks, too. I remember in my preschool and kindergarten classes, we had big brick-type blocks made out of cardboard that you could use to make forts and things like that. They were a lot of fun. I'm sure if you really wanted to, it couldn't be too hard to make something like that at home for your kids. All you'd need is some cardboard and a bunch of tape.

Izzy78

It seems like all kindergarten arts and crafts involve pipe cleaners, little foam shapes, and those plastic eyes that roll around and shake. I remember on a lot of projects, too, we used fabric samples and cut them out to make things.

The only specific project I can remember, though, is that at the end of the year, we designed our own plates. Basically, we had plain white plastic plates, and we got to color whatever we wanted on them with markers. After that, the teacher put some sort of clear coating on them. I'm still not sure what it would have been. Then they got sent home with us to use or hang up or whatever.

I used to love eating off of mine, since no one else had one like it. It lasted for quite a few years, and then time caught up with it. It got a few cracks and eventually split when I dropped it on the floor one time. Anyway, it was a very fun project that had a practical use.

stl156

I remember when I was in kindergarten, we made all kinds of neat crafts. I figure it is the same way in most schools, but we made a different type of decoration for each holiday and had them displayed in the hallways.

I think my favorite kindergarten crafts were the ornaments we made for Christmas. Every grade had their own tree that they got to decorate with whatever they wanted. I am pretty sure I still have most if not all of the ornaments that I made over the years.

I remember for kindergarten, it was pretty simple. We just had a piece of Styrofoam that had been cut into the shape of a tree, and we could decorate it however we wanted. I was pretty artistic, so I used a crayon or marker or something to draw lights and then put some dots of glue on and sprinkled glitter over them for the ornaments. I can only imagine the mess we left after all that!

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    • Before starting a craft project with a kindergartner, think of what their skills and abilities will allow them to do without becoming frustrated.
      By: Monkey Business
      Before starting a craft project with a kindergartner, think of what their skills and abilities will allow them to do without becoming frustrated.
    • Pipe cleaners come in a variety of colors and can be used in many crafts.
      By: Stephanie Connell
      Pipe cleaners come in a variety of colors and can be used in many crafts.
    • Colored construction paper is often used in children's crafts.
      By: smuay
      Colored construction paper is often used in children's crafts.
    • Yarn might be used in kindergarten crafts.
      By: adam36
      Yarn might be used in kindergarten crafts.
    • Kids may enjoy making crafts with beads.
      By: FedeCandoniPhoto
      Kids may enjoy making crafts with beads.
    • Young kids should be supervised when using glue so they don't make a mess.
      By: Neiromobile
      Young kids should be supervised when using glue so they don't make a mess.
    • Crafts for kindergarten kids can be made to fit into virtually any theme.
      By: vodolej
      Crafts for kindergarten kids can be made to fit into virtually any theme.
    • Crafts that utilize puffy paint are popular with kids.
      By: crystal kirk
      Crafts that utilize puffy paint are popular with kids.
    • Kindergartners can sharpen their scissor skills with paper crafts.
      By: Africa Studio
      Kindergartners can sharpen their scissor skills with paper crafts.
    • Kids may enjoy creating a sock puppet.
      By: photka
      Kids may enjoy creating a sock puppet.