Wednesday, June 10, 2009
A favorite class for child care providers is one that involves making crafts out of things laying around the house (as my husband says: junk that normal people throw away.) Look around your hoouse for items that you can use. Once you have a collection of "junk"--stray puzzle pieces, postcards from someone's winter trip, marbles, pine cones, broken crayons, pretty rocks, origami critters, stray socks, buttons, beads, pipe cleaners, ribbon--it's time to brainstorm. Encourage your kids to think about what they could make with this "junque," especially with the addition of a little paint or magnets. Here are some examples:
- Glue the puzzle pieces along a plain barrette, adding a couple of layers if you have enough pieces. Leave them as is or paint them all the same color.
- Shave the crayons up with an inexpensive plastic pencil sharpener, spread them between sheets of wax paper and with adult supervision, use an iron set on low heat to melt the crayons and create "stained glass." Protect your ironing surface with layers of old towels, and put several sheets of white paper or another towel over the paper to keep crayon from touching the iron. Once the paper is cool, cut it into shapes and suspend the hearts, stars, sunbursts or paper dolls from ribbons in sunny windows.
- Combine the stray socks with buttons, beads, and ribbon for a sock puppet, or if you have some stuffing, make a simple sock doll. You might even add pipe cleaner whiskers!
- Glue pebbles and origami with one flat side to magnets for use on the fridge.
- Almost any kind of "junk" can be made pretty with paint, markers, glitter, etc and hung with string to make creative mobiles.
Other ideas: Paint the tips of pine cones with white glue, sprinkle with glitter and then set aside for holiday decorating next winter; trim an old picture frame by gluing on old buttons or beach shells; cut the pretty postcards so that they fit inside little picture frames or use them to decorate stiff paper that you've folded into note cards. Draw on paper with the edges of soap slivers and then watch the soap resist the paint when you brush on water colors.
Add a cardboard box or two, and the kids can build a house for those sock dolls, complete with "stained glass" windows, rock sidewalks, and pine cone "shrubbery." Make furniture out of small items or cut out of cardboard. Add fabric scraps for tablecloths and bedding, and decorate the "walls" with postcard photos and cancelled stamps. (No sock dolls? Create some paper dolls and move them in!)
Small boxes make great garages for Matchbox cars or turn them into vehicles with CD wheels and "chrome" from foil packages or pie pans. Big boxes can be boats or cars for little kids. If you don't have an appliance carton for a mini-playhouse, drape an old sheet over a table for indoor tenting.
The things you can do are endless... You are only limited by your (or your children's) imagination. And the best thing about all these creations... the kids can take them home for the parents to enjoy.
