Saturday 17 August 2013

Playgroup Crafts

This year seems to be going so fast and I find myself constantly in planning mode for Playgroup, especially when it comes to the weekly crafts.  Our group is growing in size, which is wonderful, but it is also challenging me time-wise to prepare so many crafts each week - I usually work on preparing for 40-50 children. If I can find something in a kit form, it is a bonus, but those usually work out too expensive and so I revert back to something that is the most cost effective.
 
So where do lots of my ideas come from?  Well I gather them from all over the place.  Sometimes we work on a theme each term and other times crafts are a bit more random.  Pinterest is one of my favourite places to source ideas from, but I also borrow ideas from crafts my own children might make at school, especially during that first year at school. 
 
So for those of you who might have the need to come up with craft ideas for young children, be it for using at home or elsewhere, I thought I would share with you a few of our latest crafts.  None of them are difficult.  Most only require glue and decorating, so they are relatively easy.
 
A green frog - with lots of sparkling glitter!

Snake made from a paper plate
This looks good when pulled up from the head in the centre

Crown decorated with Dot Markers & gems

Birds in a Nest

We've been doing a bit of painting too.  Last week we did magic pictures where I had drawn pictures onto white paper using a white crayon and then gave the children a watered down paint wash to paint over the top and reveal the picture.

Another fun form of painting which all the children love to do is marble painting. 


We use a jumbo sized marble for this, almost a golf ball size, dip it in paint and place it in a shallow container with a piece of paper already placed in the bottom.  The children just need to roll the marble around inside and it creates a fun painting, especially when using multiple colours.

I don't always remember to take a photo of our crafts each week, but I am trying to be more diligent at doing that so that I can build up my own craft resources and then rotate them every few years as new groups of children come through.

If you have any great ideas for that 2-5 year old age group or know of some great websites with inexpensive but creative ideas, I would really value your feedback.  If we all help one another out, we will have enough ideas to share around for a very long time to come!



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