Cut-and-paste activities make adults and children happy.
Seasonal crafts are fun for kids, but sometimes the tediousness--and mess--involved makes them less than desirable for parents or educators. On the other hand, kids may benefit from activities that involve hand-eye coordination. Cut-and-paste activities are a nice compromise; kids get to make something crafty and adults don't have to worry about the mess that follows.
Simple Christmas Tree
During the holidays, kids like making crafts they can put on display for others to enjoy, and these simple Christmas trees from Danielle's Place will let them do just that. You'll need some green and brown construction paper, a toilet paper roll, glue and any craft items they may want to use to decorate their trees.
Trace a paper plate or some other round item on the piece of green construction paper, then let your child cut it out. Fold the paper circle into quarters, then have your child cut one of the quarters out. Holding the two ends where the quarter is now missing, roll the paper together to form a cone shape and glue in place. Meanwhile, cut a piece of brown construction paper long enough to cover the outside of the toilet paper roll and let your child wrap it around the roll and glue it in place. Your child can then place the green cone on the paper roll and use glue to attach it. If he wants, he can glue on some embellishments, such as pompoms, sequins and anything else he wants for decoration.
Paper Loop Snowman
This 3-D snowman craft just might put everyone in the holiday spirit. Provide your child with white construction paper and instruct her to cut out three strips, each slightly more narrow than the last. Once she has her strips cut, she'll loop them each together and glue each into a circle. At this point, glue the largest loop to whatever base she's using (consider using a sheet of white cardstock) standing upright. Have your child glue the medium-sized loop on top of that one and the smallest loop on top of the medium one At this point, she can decorate her snowman, giving him eyes, a nose, a mouth and buttons. Have her cut some white strips out of the leftover construction paper to glue on as arms, then tie a ribbon around the neck for a scarf. On the remainder of the white cardstock, add more snowmen to make a family.
Christmas Gift Tags
These adorable paper gift tags are fun to make and will save parents money when buying gift labels. Draw some simple Christmas-themed characters--such as Santa, a snowman, reindeer, a gingerbread man or an angel. Make sure that anything you draw has a hand of some sort (for reindeer, the antlers will be fine.) Have your child decorate the drawings and cut them out. Then he'll need to use a hole punch to punch a hole through the hands of his characters. Use the back of the characters to write the "To" and "From" information, then loop a mini-candy-cane through the hole in the characters' hands. You'll use the "hook" of the candy-cane to hang the character on the side of gift bags.
Tags: construction paper, your child, paper roll, roll glue, brown construction, brown construction paper