need ideas for school crafts

[mom-from-missouri]

I am room mom this year for my oldest class, which is 5 fourth graders and 5 third graders. I need ideas for crafts that are frugal (of course) not too involved (must be able to complete in about 20 minutes during the holiday party, and easy to transport home--ie not awkard, easily broken, or taking too long too dry. The holidays our Christian school has parties for are: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines Day, and Easter. We also try to do a craft for Mothers Day and Fathers Day. Our partys are usually on early out days, which start the holiday vacation, or a long weekend due to a teacher workday. This means the crafts go home that same day, so it can't be a several day project. I see lots of them in stores, but the are too costly for 10 kids. Any ideas out there???

[cercis]

When you say it can't be a several day craft, does that mean that the teacher wouldn't help incorporate part of it if it was educational?

For thanksgiving - pinecone turkeys. Gather pinecones, feathers and acorns. Glue the acorn to the top of the pinecone, place glue on the feathers and stick them in the other end of the pinecones. You can leave as is, or make feet/legs with pipecleaners. To add to the project, have the class do a nature walk during their normal science glass.

Christmas - sweetgum ball snowmen. Gather sweetgum balls, spray paint them white and then have the kids stack them with low melt glue guns (have an adult put the glue on them). Stick small twigs in to the middle one for arms and use fine tip markers to make eyes and nose (you can color one of the spines on the sweetgum orange for a nose). This will stand better if it's glued to a piece of paper or a leaf. Again, nature walk idea.

I had nature crafts for the others too, but I can't remember them off the top of my head. I'll try to find my list for you.

[PrincessPerky]

If you look at the store bought crafts often they are just precut stuff, so say an angle is a precut wings plus circle head and some shiny err bendy fuzzy things, forget what they are called, oh pipe cleaners. yeah. anyway you can prolly buy a bag of the pipe cleaners and use the spares for another craft then make a template of your own for the wings and head.

Not that you need to do an angel just saying take a look at the store stuff and fake it.

Paper plates turn into turkeys, with construction fethers.

Hope your more creative than I am, would take me forever to figure out how though.

Oh tissue paper flowers, a couple squares, stick your finger in the middle and grab it, (outside the tissue) then pull your finger out and you have a flower. You can stick a bunch ina basket (cut mini milk cartons or I used a yogurt container - cover and I used electric tape on the edges cause plastic can hurt - make a handle with the cut offs) Or you can get a branch and put litttle mini 'buds' on it with the tissue paper.

I got the bud idea from a family fun magazine, they might have some directions online, the stuff is always fairly easy and usually frugal.

I want to make beads, they showed two or three different ways, one was cloth covered straws (cut to size) another was painted pasta (cool pasta not traditional elbow or ziti) they shook the pasta in a ziplock with the paint, sounds WAY easier than by hand!

Oh and if no one is alergit to applesauce or cinnamon, you can mix I think one to one, and get the BEST smelling clay in the world, oh well never mind it takes a week to dry.

[robex]

Foam sheets are really cheap at the craft store or a dollar store and are great for cutting into rectangles with a large hole at the top end and making into door hangers. My kids have made one for their own rooms with their names on it, and ones for our front door for holidays. If you have enough leftover foam, just cut out shapes, add beads, feathers, sequins etc. for decoration. My dd9 made a beautiful Thanksgiving one with a turkey on it and wrote 'Be Thankful'...it's really cute!

[CRFSaver]

This is definately not themed towards any holiday but when I was a camp counselor, one of the simplest yet funnest projects was the Treasure Map. Let the kids do a whole map with colors and what have you. Then you wrinkle it, rub it in dirty and burn the edges. Finally spray it down with yellow shallac (SP?) to give it that old yellow look and it preserves it. Very fun for them and very inexpensive as it already uses crayons and markers. ALl you need to buy is a lighter and a can of shallac...

[DivaJen]

I've had good luck at some of these sites in the past:

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/holiday/
http://www.homeschoolzone.com/pp/holiday.htm

[JenaLoren]

Mother's Day, Easter, Valentines, or Christmas windchime.:

What you need: round oatmeal containers, wrapping paper, ribbons, tape, sciccors, string, and bells

What to do: Remove lid and cut the bottom out of the container. Wrap around the outside with wrapping paper, but do not cover the open ends. Use flowery paper for Mother's Day, snowflake patterned paper for Christmas etc. Cut strips of matching ribbon (6-8 strips)and tape or glue one end of each to the inside of the bottom of the container about two inches up. Make sure to space them around evenly as they dangle out the bottom. At the top of the container poke a small hole in the side about one inch down from the top. Poke another hole in the same place directly across from the other. Cut a length of string of about three feet. Push each end through one of the holes and tie them together where them meet on the inside of the container. Tie some bells to string and tie them to that first string and let them dangle inside. Hang on front porch in spring or in the house in winter.

This site has some good projects: http://www.kinderart.com/seasons/dec.shtml

Hope that helps! JL

[contrary1]

The best craft my kids have ever done was at a summer camp (my guys are all disabled).
The staff had poloroid cameras & took pictures of the kids during a days trip through Seattle. The pictures were mounted during craft time & bound with twine. Captions were put on by staff.
The whole project would translate to a Mothers day craft pretty well...........As a card to mom with pictures of their kiddo at school. This would also work with a digital camera & printer at the school..........
The kids could build their cards ..............With all the moms into card making, I'll bet there would be extra supplies people would donate to have at the party too. Paper scraps, special sissors, stickers, etc.

[abowers]

An idea for Mother's Day maybe -- buy little clay pots, either at Michael's or some garden store, and little packets of seeds. Have the kids paint the pots and then you can plant the seeds and give for Mother's Day.

Or make pretend flowers using pipe cleaners for the stems and tissue paper for the flower part. Do this separate from the above project, or get that foam to stick in the pot and push the handmade flowers into the foam.

For any holiday you can make some kind of picture frame (out of popsicle sticks, or buy the sheets of foam at michael's/joann's and cut out frames) have the kids decorate the frames and take thier pictures to send home.

Father's Day -- save up cans, cover them in paper, have the kids decorate them to become pencil holders for their dads' desks.

[nanamom]

Crafts can be a challenge. For Thanksgiving how about a thankful book? Give each child several pieces of paper (scrap paper works as does brown bags cut up) stapled in the middle like a book (size it according to ability and time or have several available and let them choose.) They draw, paint, color or write (let them choose) whatever they are thankful for on the pages. Christmas save cardboard tubes. Each child needs two about 4 inches long and one about 2 inches long. Make copies of small pictures of Mary, Joseph and Jesus onto paper and let them color them, cut them out and glue them on. They each have their own Nativity scene. You can get more detailed with shepherds and angels if you want. and have enough tubes. Valentines day. Make letters out of sponges and let them "stamp" cards for people. One pack of sponges is cheap (usually for $1 aroung car wash time) Or use potatoes and let them "carve" hearts and use them as stamps. You don't need stamp pads, just some ink on a paper folded towel. Easter is a great time to "paint" cookies. Make roll cookies ahead fo time (have the other mother contribute cookies) and put a confectioers sugar glaze with food coloring mixed in in small paper cups. Use CLEAN brushes to paint the cookies The kids love it and ten is few enough to gather around a table or pushed together desks and share supplies. It also means you only need 4 dozen cookies for everyone to get several to do. Mothers day is a great day to plant seeds in small milk cartons or yogurt containers or paper cups or whatever is free around you (enlist kids to bring in supplies ahead of time) Seeds are cheap or even free if you save them. You can cover the containers with decorated paper if you want to get fancier. Fathers day can be a challenge but we have made coasters (one of those free cd's you get in the mail all the time) covered with material (ask for scraps) and then scraps of material glued on (have kids cut out whatever they want.) If the Dad's have an office they need a coaster to protect their desk. You can also make mouse pads. For some reason we got several free ones and have "recovered" (again scrap felt and other material that works (test it)) them to reflect the child's personality and presented them to Dad's.Make a kite (non working about notebook paper size) out of paper and cardboard decorated someway the Dad would like (you can use free hand drawing, or cut pictures out of a magazine) , attach a string to it or piece of yarn and when it is hung form the rafters becomes a "guide" to show you how far to drive the car into the garage.
Can you tell I had to run low budget (no budget) operations with kids a time or two myself!

[jw4848]

The following stores offer these at different times. Check you local location for exact day and time...no cost or obligation to participate and you take the craft home with you.

HomeDepot has a craft each month usually the first saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The parent assists the child in making various projects. a nice apron with pockets, pin, and certificate are given also. A few of the projects I have done with my child: Bird house/feeder, race car, planter with soil and plant, bug house, craft caddy with crayons...

Michaels Has various crafts each Saturday.

Lakeshore has various crafts each saturday.

Lowes has crafts on Saturdays.

[GrimFinger]

Originally Posted by mom-from-missouri

I am room mom this year for my oldest class, which is 5 fourth graders and 5 third graders. I need ideas for crafts that are frugal (of course) not too involved (must be able to complete in about 20 minutes during the holiday party, and easy to transport home--ie not awkard, easily broken, or taking too long too dry. The holidays our Christian school has parties for are: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines Day, and Easter. We also try to do a craft for Mothers Day and Fathers Day. Our partys are usually on early out days, which start the holiday vacation, or a long weekend due to a teacher workday. This means the crafts go home that same day, so it can't be a several day project. I see lots of them in stores, but the are too costly for 10 kids. Any ideas out there???

Balloon faces - Buy a pack of balloons, and have the kids draw on them using felt tip permanent markers, after they are blown up.

The markers are reusable, and the balloons can be bought in bulk or as needed.

If you want to do a spin on this, have them take them home each day, and bring them back the next day. Repeat this process, until only one kid has a ballon "person" left. Some balloons will get popped, and others the air will seep out of.

[dshep]

Ck with your local church, I work for one and we have several craft books for the Sunday School activities, most of which get done is less then a hour! I am sure they would make you photo copies of some the crafts in the books. If not contact me and I will make you some and mail them to you.

[rob62521]

Try Crayola.com. I believe it is free to join.

You might ask the teacher to send a request in his/her newsletter asking parents to send in certain things so you don't have to collect them all by yourself.