Back To School Crafts!

It's that time of year again....Back To School! We know that this year will different than any other year. Whatever your family's school plan looks like, here are a few cute crafts that you can make to celebrate a new school year!

Apple Paper Plate

                             (Photo/Idea from simplytodaylife.com)

This is a great activity for toddlers! It really helps them develop their fine motor skills.

Materials Needed:

• Paper plate
• Green, red, & brown construction paper
• Glue stick

Steps:

• Show your child how to tear paper into smaller pieces. Let them finish tearing enough to cover the paper plate. (You could also let the cut the paper into pieces with child safe scissors if you'd like.)
• Show your child how to glue the papers onto the plate. You want them to fill up as much of the paper plate as possible.
• Help your child draw a stem and a leaf. You can help them cut them out or they can try to tear these as well. Glue the stem and leaf onto the plate

The joy of this craft is that there really is a wrong way to do it. Let your child lead and see what they come up with. The main objective is to get the using those fine motor skills. 

Rainbow Name

The wonderfully creative folks at teachingspecialthinkers.com have a great craft idea to help your preschool/kindergarten age kiddo work on their name. Let's make a rainbow!!

Materials Needed:

• Colored construction paper
• White construction paper
• Paper to write out your child's name
• Scissors
• Glue stick

Steps:

**Depending on your child, you may need to help more with some of these steps. Let your child try to do as much as they can without getting frustrated. Feel free to help when they need it. 

• Draw and cut out a cloud shape from the white construction paper.
• Cut out strips of paper from different colors of construction paper. You can do it in rainbow order if you'd like and can use this as a way to teach about rainbows or you can let your child choose whatever colors they would like. You will need one strip of paper per letter in your child's name.
• Using a glue stick, have your child glue the strips to bottom of the cloud. 
• Have your child write their name if they can or help them do it. Talk about the letters as each one is written. 
• Lastly, your child can cut around the letters and glue them in order on the strips of colored paper on the cloud. 

**Just a reminder, please feel free to help your child with any of these steps if they need it. 

DIY Pencils

This last idea is for school age kids of really any age. I think kids that are elementary, junior high and high school ages might like this one! We love that the creative people at southluminastyle.com came up with this great back to school idea!!

Materials Needed:

• Pencils
• Foam paint brushes or small paint brushes. We usually use the paint brushes to add paint directly on the pencils and the foam brushes for the modge podge top coat.  But you can use either brushes for both paint and the topcoat.
• Modge Podge– we used the gloss finish topcoat
• Acrylic Paint – these can be found at stores like Walmart, Target, and craft stores.  We used the matte finish.
• Masking tape or painter’s tape
• Dropcloth or something to cover your workspace
• Tin foil
• Paper towels
• Paper plates
• Clothespins (can be found at the dollar store, Walmart, Target etc) to clip on the eraser as a stand when the paint is drying. You could also use something like a cereal box or small shoe box to rest one end of the wet pencils on the top edge of the box so the paint can dry

Steps:

Make sure to cover your workspace before you begin.  Using masking or painter’s tape, cover over the erasers of each of the pencils.  If the pencils come pre-sharpened, you might want to cover the sharpened tips with tape as well.

If they choose to paint their own designs a small paint brush might work better, but some little hands might prefer the foam brushes.  You might need to let the pencil dry and add a second coat of paint if you are hand painting them.

To create a marbled look we spread out a sheet of tin foil and added splatters of at least two different colors of paint. Make sure that the “pool” of paint is as long as the pencil so when you roll the pencil it covers from the tip of the pencil to the eraser. Use a new sheet of tin foil for each of the different color combinations.

Place the pencil down and gently roll it across your color combination to cover all of the pencil in a thin coat of paint.

Let the pencils dry.  You can clip the eraser end of the pencil with a clothespin and stand up the wet pencils to dry or try leaning the erasers against a slightly raised surface like the lip of an old cookie sheet or even a small box out of the recycling.  Something to rest one of the edges of the pencil to keep it slightly elevated and not sitting flat when it’s drying.

Once the paint is dry it’s time to add the top coat.  Apply a thin layer of Modge Podge to each pencil and let it dry.  Gently remove the masking or painter’s tape and marvel at your craftiness.

Sharpen the pencils and enjoy using them!

I hope that you enjoy getting crafty with your kids with these back to school ideas!