Some fun-to-do Christmas arts and crafts...... |
Paper Plate Santas Santa is easy to make using paper plates. First attach a small paper plate to a large paper plate to make a head and body. Have the children paint the body with red paint. When the bodies are dry, children can create their Santa face by drawing a face onto the smaller paper plate and using cotton wool to create the beard. Provide triangles cut from red card for Santa's hat or provide a template and children can trace and cut their own. Again use cotton wool for Santa's hat. Trace boots onto black card and get the children to cut these out. These can be attached to the body using split pins or staples. We made a Santa without arms but you could make one with arms if you wanted to. If you dont have time or enough materials you could just make a Santa head instead. These look great around the room too. |
Paper Bag Reindeers Cut a brown paper bag into a triangle shape. Turn the triangle shape upside down so that the flat part forms the top of the reindeer's head and the point forms the nose. You will have two flaps when you cut the bag so you can either seal the flaps and fill the bag with stuffing to create a 3D reindeer or simply glue the flaps and have a flat reindeer. Once you have decided on how you want the head to be you can provide ear shapes for the children to cut out and glue on. Also provide pre cut antler shapes or perhaps tape on some small twigs to create antlers. Children can use black paint to create eyes and red paint to create a nose. Gluing on a red pom-pom also looks great for a nose as does red tissue paper scrunched into a ball. |
Glittery Christmas Stars to Hang from the Ceiling Star #1 Cut out star shapes for the children to paint with red, yellow, orange, gold or silver paint. Once the star has been painted the child can cover the star with a light layer of glitter. (Adding a small amount of craft glue to the paint will help the glitter to stick). Star #2 As for the star above cut out the stars and have the children paint them. Instead of covering the whole star with glitter., put glitter in the centre only. Attach threads of gold, silver at one point to decorate. Star #3 Cut out star shapes from thick card. Have the children glue on rice or small macaroni shapes in a special design. Spray paint the star silver or gold (whatever the child chooses). |
Threaded Stars Cut out star shapes from coloured card. Punch evenly spaced holes around the edge of the star. Provide foil thread (gold, red, green or silver) for the child to "sew" the edge of the star with. In the centre of the star, the child can sprinkle some glitter. These look lovely hanging from the ceiling too. |
Paper Plate Wreaths Cut the centre out of a small paper plate so that only the rim is left in a ring shape. Have the children paint the ring with green paint and allow the paint to dry. Provide children with coloured macaroni of various shapes (green, red, gold and silver). The macaroni should be dyed or spray painted a few days ahead of the activity. Encourage the children to cover the ring with coloured macaroni. Strong craft glue will be needed for this. Lastly, have the children glue on a red bow on the top or bottom of the wreath (prepare bow ahead of time also). We pinned our wreaths around the edge of a bulletin board with a Christmas scene in the middle of it and the wreaths looked great! |
Textured Candy Canes On a thick piece of card, trace and cut out large candy canes. With a marker, draw lines to divide each cane into segments. Provide children with rice - half white, half dyed red. Children decorate the candy cane with the rice. Use white rice in one segment and red rice in the next to creat the "stripes" on the candy cane. A substitute for the rice is coconut - dye half red and keep the other half white. |
Popsicle Stick Stars Using popsicle sticks, help the children to create a triangle (using 3 sticks). Help the child glue these together using craft glue. Then create another triangle so that 2 have been made. When both triangles are dry, help the child to glue one triangle on top of the other to create a star. When the glue has dried, the child can paint the star and then sprinkle glitter over the top. Repeat on the other side when the paint has dried, if desired. As well as being a nice Christmas activity, this is also a good Maths one as it teaches children shapes and how two simple shapes (triangles) can be put together to make a new shape (star). |
Garbage Bag Wreaths. To prepare this activity, cut the centre out of small paper plates so that only the rim is left creating a ring. Also cut a green garbage bag into small strips (about 5cm long) and cut some squares of red crepe or tissue paper. Have the children glue the garbage strips around the edge of the ring to create the leaves of a wreath. Next have the children scrunch the crepe paper up into balls and glue on to make berries. One square of crepe paper can be twisted to make a bow and glued on at the top or the bottm of the wreath. With older children, an alternative to this activity would be to create a wire ring from strong wire and then to tie on the garbage strips around the ring. Berries could be created by knotting on red ribbon or strong crepe paper. |
Plastic Cup Tree Decorations Decoration #1 Purchase some coloured plastic cups eg red or yellow and punch a hole in the base of each cup using a meat skewer or similar. Prepare collage materials such as small pieces if thin tinsel, small pieces of coloured macaroni or rice, coloured foil shapes, sequins and strong craft glue. Give each child a cup and have them decorate the outside of it with the collage materials. When the decorations have dried, push a pipe cleaner through the hole in the cup. Tape part of the pipe cleaner inside the cup to the base. Loop the part of the pipe cleaner outside of the cup to the create a hook to hang on the tree. |
Decoration #2 As for the above activity, purchase coloured cups and poke a hole through the base of each one. Ask parents for unwanted pieces of Christmas wrapping paper and cut out pictures from these eg of Santas, bells, angels etc. Provide these pictures to children along with sequins and gold/silver markers. Children can glue one or two pictues onto the outside of the cup and then use some sequins to provide some extra decoration or use the markers to squiggle on designs around the pictures. Again, poke a pipe cleaner through the cup to create a hook and tape it inside the cup to keep it secure. |
Stained Glass Windows Cut out small squares from black, red or green card. Each square could be about 15cm x 15cm. Also cut out varied colours of cellophane large enough to fit the card squares. In the centre of each piece of card trace one Christmas shape (we used a Christmas tree, bell and star). Cut the shape out so that there is now a hole in the centre of the card. Have the children choose a piece of cellophane to glue over the hole in the card. And there is your stained glass window! To make the window look really special, glue some gold glitter around the edge of the card and then tape the little windows onto a big window in your classroom. They will be very eye-catching and the shapes you cut out of the centre of the card can be used for another gluing activity by the children. NB You can adapt this activity by gluing on one piece of cellophane and then gluing smaller pieces of other colours over the top. We tried this but found it was a lot messier and fiddly...but if it works for you then go ahead! |
Reindeers Made with Feet and Hands! For this activity, you will use the child's hands and foot to make a reindeer's head. The hands will form the antlers and the foot will form the reindeer's head. You need to have 2 pots of paint ready and a largish piece of paper (try 30cm x 42cm). The paints need to be black and brown (or light brown and dark brown). Also have a bucket of warm, soapy water, a washcoth and towel on hand nearby. Sit each child down on a seat and paint one of their feet with the brown paint. Place the piece of paper onto the floor and help the child to print their foot onto the paper, leaving enough room to print some antlers at the top of the foot. If you like, you could maybe make a small X on the page with a pencil so the child knows where to put their foot. Once the child's foot has been printed, help them to wash their foot and then get ready to paint both of their hands using the black paint. One the child's hands have been painted help them to print their hands onto the paper. Their hands need to be spread out to make the antler shape and they need to be placed at the top of the foot with a hand printed on either side of it. This should create the head and antler shape. Again help the child to clean their hands and leave the print to dry. Once it has dried, give the child a fine paint brush and some black paint so they can paint on eyes and a mouth. Use a red pom-pom or red crepe paper ball to create the nose. A messy but fun activity! |
Handprinted Angel This activity uses the child's handprints to design the angel's gown and wings. You will need to have pots of yellow, white and pink/beige paint available and a piece of plain coloured paper (30cm x 42cm). A light colour such as blue would look nice. Remember to have a bucket of warm, soapy water, a washcloth and towel nearby. First you need to take a print of one hand to create the gown. Paint one of the child's hand's white. Help the child to print their hand in the middle of the paper. Make sure their fingers are all close together when they are printing their hand. Turn the handprint upside down so that the fingertips form the bottom of the gown. Wash the child's hand and then paint both of their hands yellow. Have the child spread their fingers wide and then carefully, print one hand on either side of the white handprint to make wings. Help the child to wash their hands again and then give them a fine paint brush and the pink/beige paint to paint a head for the angel. Once this is all done, leave the print to dry. Once the print has dried, the last thing to do is create a face and some glittery wings for the angel. Give the child some colour markers so they can draw a face and hair. The child can then spread a small amount of glue on the wings and lightly shake glitter over them. The result is a lovely angel NB If you would rather print on white paper than coloured, then change the angel's gown to another colour! |
Cylinder Angels To make the angels, collect small cylinder rolls. I prefer not to use toilet paper ones, so I usually collect large ones and cut them in half. You will also need silver / gold or coloured foil paper squares, small paper doilies, glitter and pre cut circles to make the angel's head. Firstly, help the child to cover the foil piece with strong glue, this easier than having the child try to cover the cylinder with glue (and less messy!). Next, help them to wrap the foil square around the cylinder so that it goes on smoothly. While the cylinder is drying, have the child glue a little bit of glitter onto the doily. The doily can then be glued onto the back of the cylinder to make wings. Place a spot of glue in the centre of the doily to glue it on. Lastly, have the child draw a face onto a pre cut circle and put a bit of glitter at the top of the head to make a halo. Glue this onto the front of the cylinder by putting a spot of glue behind the angel's chin so that its head sits above the cylinder rather than directly on it. The children will be really inpressed with their angel! |
Christmas Macaroni Chains Colour some macaroni red and green. The children can thread this onto twine to make christmas coloured chains which can be put onto the tree or hung around the room. |
Dyed Stockings Cut out stocking shapes onto thick paper. Give children oil based crayons in a variety of colours and encourage them to draw pictures and patterns onto the stocking. Provide red and green edicol dye - the children can paint over their stocking with this and the crayon will resist the dye. These look nice on a wall or pin board |
Sorting Activity Before this activity collect lots of magazines and catalogues and cut out presents that would be suitable for a child, a mum and a dad. Put these into iceceam containers. Prepare worksheets that are divided into 3 columns - one saying "Presents for Me", another "Presents for Mum" and another "Presents for Dad". The aim of the activity is for the child to choose pictures from the magazines that are suitable for mum and dad and then glue these into the right column on their sheet. Then they have to choose pictures of gifts they would like someone to give to them and glue these on as well. This is an interesting activity that encourages the child to classify and think logically, and also to justify the reasons why they chose particular presents. Some of their choices will be very interesting! NB You may need to change the labels of some columns if necessary eg, if you have a child who has no contact with a mum or dad then maybe only use two colums or have the child choose another person to find presents for. |
3-Dimensional Bells Trace small bell shapes onto coloured card. Have each child cut out two. Once they have cut these out they can decorate them with glitter and stars or similar. When the glue has dried, take one bell and cut a slit from the top of the bell to the centre. Then take the other bell and cut it from the bottom to the centre. Slot the two bells together to make it 3-dimensional. You may need to use some tape to tape the bells into position so they dont flop over. Once the bells are secure, they can be hung from the ceiling. Another way to do this activity is to trace the bells onto white card and then give the children christmas colours to paint them with after they have cut them out. Glitter can be sprinkled into the paint to give the bells a sparkley appearance. |
Foil Bells and Baubles Trace bell and bauble shapes onto stiff card and cut out. Next cut aluminium foil squares large enough to fit over a bell or bauble shape. Help the children to cover a bell/bauble shape with foil by folding the foil over the bell/bauble and wrapping the excess foil around the back of the shape. A little bit of glue may be needed to paste the excess pieces of foil into place. Next provide the children with bright paints and encourage them to paint special designs and patterns onto their bell/bauble. These shiny decorations are easy to make! |
Threaded Christmas Trees Trace small Christmas trees onto light green and dark green card and cut out. Use a single hole punch to punch evenly spaced holes around the edge of the tree. Tie a coloured piece of stiff ribbon (eg red, gold, yellow, silver) onto the tree and help children to "sew" in and out the holes using the ribbon. Help the child to knot the ribbon at the last hole (save the long piece of thread that is left over so that you can hang the tree up). Lastly, the child could decorate the tree with small stars, glitter or gold/silver markers. |
Large Group Christmas Tree Step 1 This activity can be done with large groups of children eg 6. The aim of the activity is for the children to work cooperatively to paint and decorate a large tree. The tree is going to be big enough to cover a large pin up board or wall. Firstly, put a group of tables together and cover the table with a large piece of strong white paper. Prepare some green paint in trays and place these on another table close by with some sponge rollers. Have the children use the rollers and paint in the trays to paint over the large piece of paper. The children will enjoy rolling out the paint this way. Make sure they cover most of the paper. Repeat the activity again, but this time with trays of brown and black paint so that the children can create the trunk of the tree. When both of the painted papers are dry the teacher can cut out a tree shape and trunk shape and staple these together. Step 2 The next part is for the children to decorate the tree. Pin the tree in the area it is going to be displayed. Put a table nearby with materials such as tinsel pieces, coloured and foil cake pans, streamers, foil and wrapping paper pieces, confetti etc. The children can glue these on at their own pace to decorate the tree. The children will be really impressed with the big tree when it is finished. |
Handprint Christmas Tree Paint both of each child' s hands with either red, green or yellow paint and have the child print their hands onto paper. When all the hand prints are dry, cut them out (and remember to write names on the back). Collect all the handprints and then use these to create a small Christmas tree on a wall or pin board (ie use the hanprints to make the trunk and the shape of the stree). Looks very effective! |
Cake Pan Christmas Tree Cut out a Christmas Tree shape onto green paper (or on white paper painted green). Provide the children with lots of coloured and foil cake pans and get them to glue thse onto the tree in rows starting from the bottom to the top (no patty pans on the trunk though). The glue needs to go on the bottom of the cake pan.Next provide them with glitter, foil pieces and little bits of tinsel to glue into some of the patty pans. Pin the tree onto a wall or board. This looks very bright and colourful when finished. |
Bright Ideas! * Bring in a xmas tree and some decorations and get the children to help you decorate it * Use Christmas lights around pin boards or windows for a very Christmasy classroom |
Angels banner and graphics by snogirl |
"Christmas Trees" banner by Flaming Text |
- Portfolio Activity |
