Start with a Craft!

Looking for a way to get your school days off to a good start? Want to do some fun crafts but your materials are limited due to remote/hybrid learning situations?

Consider beginning your day with a simple craft to push those fine-motor skills and get some conversation going for social-emotional growth between classmates, wherever they are learning :) 

Follow your class' interests, or the seasonal calendar, to determine what craft themes to explore... Halloween has just passed, and Thanksgiving is looming. Leaves are what's happening in nature, so just look around for inspiration. 

Keep supplies to a minimum, especially in these days of hybrid and remote teaching, and try to repurpose everyday recyclables or handy items. Have kiddos save cereal boxes and magazines at home, and prep families with a note to start a bin for cardboard and paper scraps, as well as safety scissors and glue sticks. (Be ready to supplement if these items are not easily accessible at home.) 

Then, try these tasks:

Stencils: 

• Have children draw a shape on the flip side (inside) of a cardboard food box - cereal, fruit snacks, pasta - and cut it out. Try this with simple leaf shapes for starters :) They can get shape making practice and cutting practice with this - both great fine-motor activities!
• Save the stencils for another day and use them to trace with pencils or colored pencils. The kiddos can color them in and draw in details of the leaves for a pretty picture.
• Then, use magazines to find fall colors in ads and pictures, and use the same stencils to trace and cut out leaves to glue on another paper, making a collage.
• Trace leaves on sturdy paper or even more cardboard, cut out, and use paint or markers to color. Then, find some yarn or string to make a leaf hanging or mobile.

Paper tearing:

• Make a large shape on paper - circular like a pumpkin or an apple. Find orange or red paper to tear into small pieces - tearing is another great fine-motor exercise! Glue on to cover the whole shape. Trim paper around to complete and hang :) 
• Make a series of large feather shapes on paper and cut them out. Trace a shoe on brown paper, or white paper and color brown. Tear other colors to cover feathers and assemble a turkey. Use markers or crayons to add details.
• Cut fall colored paper (either construction paper or magazine paper) in strips and tear into pieces. Draw a tree trunk with brown or black crayons and use the pieces to create a picture of a fall tree.
• Think about things in nature and Thanksgiving foods - torn paper can be used to make everything from acorns to corn on the cob :) Use the same processes to trace, cut and assemble - giving your students lots of practice!

Use your imagination to come up with other projects, remembering that some kiddos may not have access to lots of art supplies at home :)

Have fun!