This webpage provides a collection of free arts & crafts recipes to use in stimulating the creative imagination of your children and students.
Shampoo Dough
Materials:
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup white glue
- 1/2 cup thick shampoo
- Food coloring (if desired) or paint
Mix ingredients thoroughly to make a sweet smelling mixture. Knead. Add more flour if needed. Model or roll out and cut. Paint if desired.
Pilgrim Girl’s Apron and Boy’s Pocket Bag
Materials:
- Drawstring kitchen garbage bag
- Brown lunch bag
- Two 36-inch lengths of yarn or ribbon
Two aprons can be made from each bag by cutting the bag in half along the side seams. Carefully pull the drawstrings on both sides to gather the apron or add ribbon or yarn to the drawstring to lengthen it. Wrap the drawstring around the waist and tie it in back. For boys, punch holes along the top edge of the lunch bag. Carefully turn the bag inside out to give a rounded look. Thread one piece of yarn through the holes and draw together and tie a bow. Wrap the other piece of yarn around the waist and tie in a bow. Tie the waist ends to the pocket strings to let the pocket dangle from the waist.
Pilgrim Boy’s Sugar-Loaf Hat
Materials
- Black painted paper plate
- Brown construction paper
- Glue
- Scissors
Cut 3/4 around the inside circle of the paper plate (to leave a rim for their heat to poke through). Cut a sugar-loaf, conical shape into the middle of the plate in order to fold cone-shaped part up. Cut a brown piece of construction paper to fit across cone-front to resemble a hat band and glue to the cone-shaped bottom along the rim edge.
Pilgrim Girl’s Coif
Materials:
- White construction paper
- 12 inch string
- Glue
- Scissors
- Hole punch
On a 8-1/2 by 11 inch sheet of white construction paper. Make two 2-1/2 inch deep cuts perpendicular into the long side – making two side sections. A middle section will exist, in which you punch two holes (1/2 inch from the bottom edge and 1 inch from the cuts made above). Round the opposite long side, starting about 3 inches from the tope of the short side. Fold and glue the side back sections under the middle sections. Thread a 12 inch length of string through the holes and tie in a bow on the outside.
Traffic Sign Folder Game
Materials:
- Traffic sign shaped or photocopied signs
- Clear self-stick paper
- Folder
Photocopy traffic sign patterns. Color the patterns, cover them with clear self-stick paper for durability, and cut them out. Trace around the pattern shapes on the inside of a file folder. Let the children match the cutout sign patterns to the appropriate shape outlines on the folders. Store the patterns in the folders.
Rubber Glove Puppet
Materials:
- Old rubber glove
- Felt-tip Marker
Wash and dry an old rubber glove. Draw facial features on each finger with a felt-tip marker. Use the rubber glove puppet for telling multiple character stories.
Left and Right
Materials:
- White construction paper
- Markers
- Tape
Give each child an outline of a right hand and a left hand or draw around their own hands on white construction paper. Ask them to color the right-hand shape red and the left-hand shape green, then cut them out. Tape each child’s cutouts in appropriate corners of their desk tops or at home on a table they sit at often. No more confusion over which is which.
What's in my pocket?
Materials:
- Felt or material, thread
- Miscellaneous objects
Create a tactile experience for children by sewing a pocket out of felt or similar material. Gather a variety of objects which can be identified by the children. Place them in the pocket, one at a time (so they cannot see what it is), and then pass the pocket around to see who can guess what’s in the pocket. The child who first guesses the item correctly chooses and places a new item in the pocket and then hands it to another child. The pocket is passed until the item is identified. Play continues until all items have been passed and identified.
