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Simple Straw Bead Necklace Craft for Kids

August 30, 2013 by Selena Robinson 3 Comments

If your kids are anything like mine, they’re always asking for the necklaces in the 25-cent machine at the grocery store. You know those fake gold necklaces that turn your neck green? Yeah, those.

I got tired of saying “no” over and over again, so I thought we’d come up with a simple jewelry craft that the kids could make and then wear on their own. That’s when we found this simple straw bead necklace craft and it was a perfect alternative! Plus, it didn’t turn their neck green, which was a plus. 🙂

Read on to see how to make these with your kids! And don’t miss my list of super easy preschool crafts you can make in just 10 minutes!

Simple Straw Bead Necklace Craft for Kids

This week, we jumped into the great book The Arts & Crafts Busy Book: 365 Art and Craft Activities to Keep Toddlers and Preschoolers Busy and found a super easy craft for kids of all ages: straw beads! And yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like.

Here’s what you need to make this craft:

We passed out tissue paper to the kids. They chose their own colors. Surprisingly, Roo picked blue as his new “favorite” color. He’s been hung up on red for years.

Then we spread glue over the paper. At first, we used glue sticks and they worked somewhat, but we ended up reinforcing them with liquid glue. So, to save yourself some time, use regular glue in the first place.

After that, you just place the straw at one end of the paper…

and roll it up tightly. We ended up adding a bit more glue to the very end of the paper just to make sure that the ends stayed closed.

Cut the straw into small pieces with a pair of scissors to make stringable beads. Have the kids string the beads onto a length of yarn, tie it around their neck, and you’re done!

Roo adored his necklace. He wore it the rest of the evening.

Pooh fiddled with his most of the day afterward, but he’s asked to wear it everyday since.

Tigger just loved her necklace! Right now, anything even remotely girly is a big hit with her.

Have you tried this straw bead necklace craft? How did it go? Share your experiences in the comments!

Don’t miss these other craft ideas!

Plus, see more crafting fun on my Simple Crafts for Kids Pinterest board!

Simple DIY Pinwheel Craft for Kids

August 16, 2013 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

Windy days are made for pinwheels, am I right? Remember getting a pinwheel at the county fair or the book fair at school (my favorite place ever) and running outside to watch it turn in the wind? As a child, I could stare at a pinwheel turn for hours. They were just mesmerizing.

I had never made a pinwheel myself, so I thought the kids would enjoy learning how to make one as an easy spring craft. Like a lot of our projects, this DIY pinwheel craft is very simple and only requires a couple of supplies. If you like this activity, don’t miss our easy spring toilet roll butterfly craft!

DIY Pinwheel Craft

To make this pinwheel craft, you’ll need the following:

To get started, all you have to do is cut the paper into squares and then make a diagonal cut toward the center on each corner.

Actually, I didn’t even cut the paper into squares. I did the old school thing where you fold the paper in fourths and then tear it. (I know I’m not the only person who does that, am I?)

After you’ve made the diagonal cuts, take each cut and fold the right corner toward the left so that the end lands in the center of the paper.

You don’t want to actually “fold” by making a crease in the paper, because you need the paper to remain curved in order for the air to move through it. So you’re really just pulling the corners toward the middle here.

Once you have all the corners folded toward the center, just hold them down with one hand and then stick the push pin through with the other.

Make sure you catch all the corner ends and don’t stick yourself! I pushed the pin through first and then stuck the end into the pencil eraser.

And we’re done! The kids were so excited to try them out that they sat at the table trying to perfect how to blow across the sails to move them properly for about 20 minutes afterward.

I will say that these are not the most permanent pinwheels you can make, so if your kids get a little rough with them (like ours did), you’ll have to put them back together. But you just have to push the paper corners back down and re-pin. Easy peasy!

If you enjoyed this spring activity, check out our other spring learning ideas!

And get more ideas on my Spring Activities for Kids Pinterest board!

Textured Sponge Painting Preschool Craft

August 9, 2013 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Art is one my favorite subjects to teach in our homeschool lessons. But when you’re starting with young children, I’ve found it best to keep the projects as simple as possible. After all, they’re not quite ready to study post-modernism. 🙂

So we tried this easy textured sponge painting preschool craft with our kids and they absolutely loved it! It was a simple way to study color and painting while giving them a bit of sensory input at the same time.

Read on to see how to do this simple art project with your kids! And if you love this craft, try our list of super easy preschool crafts you can make in 10 minutes!

Textured Sponge Painting Preschool Craft

To do this craft, you’ll need the following:

To set up this craft, we cut a large kitchen sponge into four pieces and handed them out. (This step should be done by an adult.)

Then we added a bit more texture by having the kids crumple up their paper before beginning. We found some super old fingerpaint (I mean, from when Tigger was a toddler) and added a bit of water to thin it out and then it was time to get started!

When we asked Roo if he wanted me to sketch his design for him, he said “I want to make whatever I want to make.” Got it.

Tigger wanted to paint a picture of a tree, so I sketched it for her to give her a little guide since the sponge tips are so large.

Pooh wanted to paint a train and it ended up not going as well as he would have liked. But the experience of painting was so fun that he was all smiles anyway at the end. I think that’s what art should be like for kids!

Here’s everyone’s work. Mine is at top left, Tigger’s is at top right, Pooh’s train is bottom right, and Roo’s unique individualist expression is at bottom left.

To give the pictures a bit more flair, we sprinkled glitter and colored salt on them before they dried. A simple introduction to Impressionism, perhaps?

Have you tried this textured sponge painting preschool craft with your kids? Let me know how it went in the comments!

Like this post? Try these other ideas for preschoolers!

And get more ideas for preschool learning on my Learning for Little Ones Pinterest board!

Simple Train Tape Resist Craft

June 26, 2013 by Selena Robinson 5 Comments

Tape resist crafts are such a fun way to make art with kids! You only need a few supplies, no one has to have special artistic talent, and they can be awesome projects for several kids to work on together!

Since my kids are super into Thomas the Train right now, I thought they’d enjoy making a simple train tape resist craft and they definitely did! It taught them a lot about making art, working together, and creating freely.

I hope that you’ll enjoy this craft too! And if you do, be sure to try some of our simple coffee filter crafts for kids or this list of super easy crafts you can do in just 10 minutes!

Simple Train Tape Resist Craft

To make this train tape resist craft, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links are provided here for convenience. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

To get started, I drew a very, very simple outline of a train in pencil on a piece of posterboard. And by simple, I mean literally put together with shapes. I used a ruler to draw a triangle for the funnel, rectangles for the body and windows, another triangle for the buffer, and circles for the wheels.

Then Jay laid masking tape on the outline to protect it from the artistic endeavors to come. We left the wheels uncovered, because it is nearly impossible to shape masking tape into a circle.

Time to break out the oil pastels…And let the kids loose!

They were a little reluctant to color freely at first. They kept coloring the way you do in coloring books. We kept reminding them that this was a free art exercise where they could color where they wanted and how they wanted. They even got to color over each other’s work.