crafts lasting longer than 5 minutes!

[starbound25]

ok so I need some craft ideas to do with my preschoolers that will last more than 5 minutes
today we did glueing of a flower picture with pipe cleaners and pompoms and buttons, it lasted maybe 3 mintues, "now what" they ask me, ok we play with the pipe cleaners for 5 mintues "now what" they ask me

painting is the only thing that lasts maybe 30 minutes for my kiddos but I dont want to paint everyday

HELP!

(oh going outside right now not an option because the 3 year old is deathly afraid of bugs!)

[j924]

What about instead of a craft have a craft area. Put out the pom poms, sequins, craft sticks, beads, string markers, glue etc and letting them create something. One of my dc teachers had a creation station where she put all the marker covers, old puzzle pieces and other recyclable stuff. After the supply was built up she would put out glue and let them at it. They came home with some really cool stuff.

[emmasmommy]

My just turned 5yo dd loves stringing beads and making necklaces. My mom bought her a huge tub of big foam beads (different shapes and sizes) from Michaels and it came with plastic string for making necklaces. It can take her at least 10-15 minutes or more to do a necklace depending on how many beads she decides to use.

[momuveight2B]

My kids love melt beads. They have them at Walmart and I can't remember the name brand but they are beads that you put on forms and then an adult uses an iron to melt them. You can then add magnets on the back for the fridge or they can do other things. These take a long time and lots of eye/hand coordination. My kids ages 4-17 like to do these and dad even gets into it. The four year old needs a lot of help though. I have them work on cookie sheets so the beads don't end up on the floor.

[emmasmommy]

I forgot about melt beads. My dd loves those too! We bought our set at IKEA.

[ChocolateNummies]

Not sure if you consider this a craft, but my kids will play with play dough for an hour. That's not including the time it takes for them to help me make it and color it.

I second the idea of stringing beads.

What about some sort of stamping craft? You could make your own stamps out of potatoes.

Gluing beans, rice, popcorn, etc to make pictures.

Cutting out paper dolls and clothes and coloring them. Sometimes we print them out online but usually we just draw our own. This requires more involvement from me, though, so not good if you're looking for a break for yourself.

[AnnesMoM]

I second the play-dough. I make it and let dd pick the color and she'll play with it for 2 hours if I let her.

ETA: I also give her some plastic dishes and kitchen gadgets and she pretends she's making food.

[mom22girls]

Originally Posted by ChocolateNummies

Cutting out paper dolls and clothes and coloring them. Sometimes we print them out online but usually we just draw our own. This requires more involvement from me, though, so not good if you're looking for a break for yourself.

Get some roll paper and trace each child and let them color themselves in - my kids like this. Feet and hands are good too! Or, shaving cream (the cheapest is the best) and a tiny bit of kids paint - can even be done on a laminated table top.

[Beth-TX]

I know people have already suggested stringing beads, but I wanted to add that stringing big wooden beads on pipe cleaners is even easier for the littles.

My girls like to sew on plastic canvas with plastic yarn needles. They also like glueing stuff like sequins and pompoms to paper. Squirt a little glue in a dish and give them paint brushes or Q tips to spread it.

My dad suggested that a good way to teach kids to draw is to cut out a picture from a magazine, trace it's outline on a piece of paper and have the kids fill in the details. It helps them learn about proportion. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds interesting. Or, you could just give them old magazines to cut up.

Paper chains are also fun. We use masking tape because it's easier than glue.

Have fun crafting!

peace, Beth

[nova22]

Get some clear contact paper and small pieces of poster board (or construction paper), let your kids search through old magazines (ask for them on Freecycle!) and cut out pictures they like. They can make their own placemats (or bookmarks, coasters, whatever) by arranging the pictures face-up on the posterboard and laying the contact paper on top, sticky-side down. It takes a while to look through the magazines, arrange them, and carefully set the contact paper on top, but if you still want to do more, you can make another one. My kids really enjoy this craft.

You could also make your own crayons, which my kids also loved. I collected broken crayons over several weeks, unpeeled them, and broke them into very small pieces. I have a minimuffin pan...we lined it with mini-cupcake papers, and the kids took turns filling the holes with broken crayons. They watched while I put them in the oven and after about five minutes, we checked on them. Once they were all melted together we took them up and let them dry and cool, then the kids popped them out of their papers and used them to color pictures. That was a lot of fun and it took a while.

[starbound25]

that crayon idea is really cool, thanks for all the ideas ladies, keem em coming!

[mamastotwo]

My DS loves making sculptures out of recycleables . We come up with recyclable ways to tie them together so we put the whole thing in the bin when we're done. We have made a robot, person, and giraffe. He also likes projects that last a couple of days like building a town or airport with found items. We do a lot with corks ( parents love their wine) and bottle caps and stuff like that. He also got into making necklaces and friendship bracelets.