Chinese Lanterns

Our second week of Songs and Rhymes and the aim was to introduce a new one. Well, its actually quite an old one, but new to me and certainly to the children. Quite handily, it tied in with Chinese New Year. So, the craft just had to be... 'Chinese' lanterns!!

The finished article

I can't claim any credit fro the idea, we used a printable from Twinkle, a UK based teacher's resource site. It's full of great ideas. You have to register to use it. Some ideas are available for free, but for others you have to pay a subscription fee.

Incidentally, the song we decided to use alongside this activity was called, 'My ship sailed from China.' It has some great actions, so if children don't know the words, they can always join in with the actions. If you'd like to learn them, this clip from You Tube is quite handy.

Equipment:

• Paper cups 

• Pipe cleaners

• Stickers

• Paper strips

• PVA glue & glue spreaders

• Scissors with sharp points

Preparation:

1. Make two small holes in the top of each cup. I used the sharp points of scissors to do this.

2. Cut thin paper strips.

Method:

1. Show children how to thread both ends of a pipe cleaner through the two holes in the top of the cup. 

2. Look inside the cup and pull both ends of the pipe cleaner towards you and twist the ends together. 

3. Pull the loop at the top of the cup. The twisted ends should prevent the pipe cleaner from coming all the way back out.

4. Embellish the lantern with stickers of your choice.

5. Spread a line of PVA glue around the inside rim of the cup. Stick one end of the paper strips to the line of glue, to make a tasseled edge to your lantern.

6. If you, can, hang to dry.

Work in progress

Autumnal Leaf Wind Spinners

The idea for this craft was acquired from a group I helped with the other year, who were putting on a Light party. 
I carefully stored the idea in my head and up it popped at our Autumn Term planning meeting. 

Unusually for me, I'm posting it BEFORE we've done it, as I'll be missing from the group next week, and wanted to leave my instructions where they could easily be found!

Hey presto...

The original completed flat 'Spinner' that inspired this week's craft.

The craft is based on those snake spinners you may have made as a child. You cut out a spiral, which once decorated and opened up, looks something like this:

Hanging 'Spinner'.

Unfortunately, this one has dropped slightly. The more you stick on it, the more it will stretch and drop, so you might need to warn the parents that this could happen.

Hopefully, the cute little foam stickers that we ordered from Baker Ross*, which are smaller than the leaves in the original version, will drag our spinners down less!

Equipment:

• Card in Autumnal hues

• Scissors

• Hole punch

• Ribbon

• Leaf stickers/shapes

• Paint in Autumnal hues

• Paint trays

• Baby wipes

• Overalls

Foam stickers are great for little fingers

Preparation:

This craft is quite prep heavy!

• Order/buy leaf shape stickers.

• Photocopy spinner onto light card in Autumnal hues (eg. red, orange, yellow).

• Cut spinners out.

• Use a hole punch to punch a hole in the end of the spinner. Or you could stick yarn on with sellotape.

• Cut short lengths of ribbon or wool (ours is from Baker Ross*).

• Pour poster paint in Autumnal hues into some paint trays.

Painted fingerprints add additional skill and interest.

Method:

1. Help children put on overalls.

2. Give each child a spinner with their name written on the back first. It may help to add the ribbon at this stage too!

3. Show children how to finger print paint along the spiral (great for practicing the kind of motor skills they need for tracing letters).

4. Give children a selection of Autumnal leaves to stick on their spinner. I would suggest doling these out, once they've finished their painting, to avoid running out before the end of the session.

5. Place on 'Home' table to dry. Wipe sticky fingers off with Baby wipes.


*Please note: We are not affiliated to Baker Ross. Any mention of brands is purely to aid sourcing of materials. There is no financial gain from running this blog.

Autumn Wreath

I don't know about you, but I love seeing art 'in progress'. 

There are so many decisions to be made; over colours and composition. I love watching little ones working this out for themselves. Sometimes the art produced is not what you had in mind, but its all part of the learning process for those little brains, eyes and hands. 

This particular craft created so much opportunity for taking pictures, I couldn't help myself. I hope you enjoy them too, as I take you through this simple and effective craft. It was another one of 'those' that the parents loved straight away. It was inspired by our Holly Wreath craft from last Christmas, and was just as fun to make.

Focus on the process

Equipment:

• Paper Plates

• Leaves cut from light card in various autumnal hues

• Autumn Leaf shapes (bought pre-cuts)

• Ribbon

• Scissors

• Sellotape

• Poster paint in autumnal hues

• PVA/pots/glue spreaders

• Paint trays

• Paintbrushes

• Painting Overalls/shirts

• Wet wipes

Preparation:

1. Buy pre-cut leaves* and/or cut leaves from light card stock. We had a mix of both, to keep costs down, but you could use all card, or all bought.

2. Cut out centre of paper plates.

3. On the day, when setting up, mix poster paints with one at least third PVA, so you can stick leaves directly onto the paint. We gave the children a choice of a mustard yellow or brown, to paint onto the wreath.

4. Cut short lengths of ribbon for hanging, and stick them to the back of the cardboard circle shape, using sellotape.

5. Make an 'example' so the children can see what you're aiming for.

Easy craft for little ones

Method:

1. Make sure each child is wearing an overall and has sleeves rolled up before they start. This one is going to be messy!

2. Give each child a card circle and help them to write their name on the back (you can do this at the end, but it will be a lot more messy).

3. Show the children how to apply the paint to the card circle and then to stick leaves on to the paint.

4. As the children begin to layer leaves, they may have difficulty making some to stick, this is where the pots of glue and spreaders come in to play.

5. Once the child is finished, place the wreath to dry and clean up. At this stage it is advisable to clean the child's place before the next child comes along, otherwise their work well may stick to the table.

A completed wreath

*We got our leaves from The Works (£1 a packet). You can also buy them at The Range. We are not affiliated to these stores, but mention them purely to aid sourcing. There may be other places that also stock them.