I grew up in a small town. A very small town. The population was somewhere around 500 people.

Naturally, there weren’t a ton of things to do for fun.

So the annual county fair was a big deal for the kids in the area. We went every year.

Whenever we’d get close, I’d start watching for the lights on the midway and the top of the Ferris wheel going around and around.

You could usually see it a mile away.

So I still have a soft spot in my heart for Ferris wheels. And that’s why this easy coffee filter Ferris Wheel craft was so fun to make!

This is an excellent crafting project for early elementary kids. It’s great for strengthening fine motor skills, but it’s easy enough to finish in about 10 minutes.

Perfect if you’re looking for a fun indoor art activity for kids!

Read on to see the full directions. And, for more crafting fun, don’t miss my list of preschool crafts you can do in just 10 minutes!

Easy Coffee Filter Ferris Wheel Craft for Kids

To make this easy Ferris Wheel craft, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• White basket coffee filter
• Construction paper
• Glue stick
• Child-safe scissors
• Crayons or washable markers

To begin, find a brightly colored piece of construction paper and turn it vertically.

You need enough space to add the Ferris Wheel and the support stand at the bottom.

Use a glue stick to attach the coffee filter on the top center of the construction paper.

Draw a colored circle in the center of the coffee filter. I added a yellow cut-out star, but you don’t have to.

Use a black crayon or a black marker to add spokes coming out of the circle in the center. There should be eight in all.

Now use child-safe scissors to cut the “seats” out of construction paper.

The shape I used is flat on the top and rounded on the bottom, but you could use rectangles, squares, circles – really any shape is fine.

Before you glue the construction paper “seats” onto the wheel, lay them out and make sure that you can fit them all onto the coffee filter.

You want the seats to hang just a little below the white filter – just like they do on a Ferris Wheel!

When you’re sure you can get all eight onto the circle, glue them down.

Note: You might have to extend the black “spokes” out to connect all the way to the seats.

Now all that’s left is to add the stand!

Use a colored marker or a bright crayon to outline the stand legs. Then color them in!

Add a few gold stars and we’re all done!

This is such a fun craft to add to a spring or fall unit!

Or you can share it with students in small art groups or with your own kids at home.

If you make this, I’d love to see how it worked out. Feel free to share pictures of your projects in the comments!

Don’t miss these other simple crafts for kids!

A few years ago, we got to visit the Georgia Aquarium. It was incredible. 

The kids gathered around each display to look at amazing sea creatures, from Beluga whales to otters. 

Some of the animals that caught my eye, though, were the jellyfish. I had never seen them up close before and I’d only ever heard horror stories from childhood classmates who were stung by them at the beach.

I had no clue that jellyfish were so gorgeous. They are truly beautiful.

And now that summer is here (yay!), I wanted to make a new coffee filter craft for kids. So why not try a coffee filter jellyfish craft?

This is a super easy and fun summer craft to share with little ones during the warm weather. It’d also make a perfect addition to an ocean or beach unit study!

Read on to get the full project instructions. And, for more fun with summer crafting, try our Coffee Filter Crab Craft as well! 

Coffee Filter Crafts for Kids: Simple Coffee Filter Jellyfish Craft

To make this coffee filter jellyfish craft, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• White basket coffee filter
• Construction paper
• Crayons
• Child-safe scissors
• Glue stick
• Ribbon

To get started, use the scissors to cut the coffee filter horizontally. You’ll want to cut about one-third of it off of the bottom.

Use a black crayon to draw the eyes and smiley mouth on the jellyfish.

Now, color the entire coffee filter with a bright color. You can use any color you like here, because jellyfish come in a huge variety of colors. 

We went with red purple for a nice contrast to the blue of the construction paper.

After you finish coloring the coffee filter, use a glue stick to glue it near the center of the paper. Make sure the paper is laid vertically. You’ll need room at the bottom for the jellyfish tentacles.

Use the scissors to cut a few pieces of ribbon from the spool. We only cut five, but you can cut as many as you like.

Carefully lift the bottom of the coffee filter and lay each piece of ribbon underneath. Space them out so that they’re fairly evenly distributed.

Stick them to the paper with the glue stick and then press the coffee filter back on top to keep them in place.

If you want the tentacles to look a little curly, run each piece of ribbon against the open pair of scissors. You’ll see each ribbon start to curl afterwards. (Only an adult should perform this part to avoid cutting little fingers, even with child-safe scissors.)

Draw a few ocean waves at the top and the bottom and you’re done!

Did you enjoy making this easy coffee filter jellyfish craft? Try some of these other summer crafts for kids!

And follow my Summer Activities for Kids board on Pinterest for even more fun summer ideas!

 

When you’re looking for a simple craft material, you cannot go wrong with coffee filters. I really didn’t think much about using them for art projects with the kids until I ended up buying way too many at once. But it turns out that you can use coffee filters as the basis for lots of crafts!

Since springtime is (finally!) on the way, I wanted to start making some fun spring crafts with our kids and that’s how we ended up making another one of our coffee filter crafts for kids – a simple coffee filter rainbow craft! This is such a fun project that only takes a few minutes to make!

If you want to read about these incredible atmospheric phenomena, don’t miss our list of beautiful rainbow books to share with kids!

And be sure to see our list of 50 spring crafts for even more spring crafting projects kids can make!

Coffee Filter Crafts for Kids: Coffee Filter Rainbow Craft

To make this coffee filter rainbow craft, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. See our Disclosure Policy for details.)

• One White basket coffee filter
• Child-safe scissors
• Construction paper
• Glue stick
• Crayons
• Cotton balls

To start, you’ll need to cut the bottom fourth off of the filter. You want to make the bottom level.

Like so. It’s always good to cut a little less than you think you need and then adjust as needed. If you want the kids to do this on their own, you can fold the part that you want them to cut down so that they can use child-safe scissors to follow the cutting line.

Then use the scissors to cut out a half-circle from the center. It’s tempting to just cut the entire middle circle out, but that might not leave the kids with enough space to add all the colors of the rainbow. So try to cut a smaller half-circle than you see.

Then use the glue stick to glue the cut coffee filter onto the upper center of a piece of blue construction paper.

This project is a great time to talk about the colors of the rainbow. In this craft, we decided to keep our colors in the order they actually appear in the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

A simple way to help kids remember this is to use the acronym below:

R – red

O – orange

Y – yellow

G – green

B – blue

I – indigo

V – violet

Let the kids start coloring a squiggle line with each crayon color to make their rainbow colors. They can make circles, they can color solid lines, or they can use any other drawing shape they like!

Once the colors are done, it’s time to add some clouds!

Use the glue stick to spread glue onto the bottom of each side of the rainbow arc. Place three cotton balls at one end of the arc and press lightly.

Do the same on the other side. You might want to hold up the picture to make sure the cotton balls are glued on completely.

Then just draw a few other clouds in the background.

And you’re done!

It’s neat to make this craft in traditional rainbow colors, but you can always let the kids come up with their own color schemes! A pink background with a rainbow made of neutral colors actually sounds pretty neat too. See how creative the kids can be!

Don’t miss these other fun rainbow learning ideas!

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See more fun spring crafts and lessons on my Spring Activities for Kids Pinterest board!

We live in Georgia. So if we want to experience real winter weather, we usually have to travel pretty far north. Naturally, there was no way we would ever see penguins in their natural habitat.

But we did get to visit the Georgia Aquarium a few years back and when we stopped at the penguin exhibit, we got to see them running around, diving into the water, shooting through the water like rockets, and more. It turns out that penguins are pretty entertaining.

We’ve gotten to make a few animals as part of our coffee filter crafts for kids series. Now that winter is here, we had to add a coffee filter penguin craft to the mix! Read on to see how you can make one with your kids too!

When you finish making this, add more of our winter-themed coffee filter craft projects! You can make a coffee filter moose craft or a jolly coffee filter snowman too!

Coffee Filter Crafts for Kids: Coffee Filter Penguin Craft

To make this coffee filter penguin craft, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links provided for convenience. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

• One White basket coffee filter
• Crayons
• Glue stick
• Construction paper
• Child-safe scissors

Start by gluing the coffee filter in the center of the construction paper. After that, use a black crayon to draw two indented lines toward the top of the filter. (You’re outlining the white part of the penguin’s face.)

Color the spaces on either side of those lines black.

Like so.

Our penguin is pretty sleepy, so we drew it with eyes closed.

What long eyelashes you have, penguin! (Actually, it kind of looks like a ninja at the moment.)

Then we used the safety scissors to cut a triangle out of orange construction paper. Then we glued it in the center to form the beak.

Finally, we added a few falling snow flurries in the background.

At this point, you could really be finished. But we wanted to make our penguin into a lady bird.

So we gave her two blush circles on her cheeks out of pink construction paper. Isn’t she lovely?

Love this craft? Try these other simple projects for kids!

See even more cute crafts on my Simple Crafts for Kids Pinterest board!

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