The benefits of making crafts for a child's development
The need to perform numerous and precise finger movements is beneficial for the development of fine motor skills, which in turn leads to the development of speech and thought processes.
Making interesting and unusual crafts contributes to the development of creative thinking and aesthetic qualities in children.
Regularly making a variety of crafts with your own hands helps students develop such important qualities as:
- hard work,
- curiosity,
- independence,
- accuracy,
- self-discipline,
- responsibility,
- ability to work in a group.
Technology lessons are designed to actively promote the all-round development of the child. And making crafts at home will create a special atmosphere of mutual understanding between family members, teach the child to listen to other people’s opinions and to fantasize on their own.
Ideas for creativity, as well as material for crafts, can be taken from everyday life. This will teach a child to see beauty in simple objects, to think creatively, and will help adults relieve stress after a busy day at work.
The tree of Life
When talking about what a DIY craft for a school competition might look like, don’t forget to look at the photo with your child - let him choose exactly what he can do without your help. Any simple materials are suitable for such ideas: paper, cardboard, toilet paper rolls or egg cartons, plastic cups, bottles, disposable spoons and forks.
Another simple craft for a first grader is the tree of life. To make it you will need materials and tools:
- Craft thick paper (can be replaced with beige or light brown cardboard);
- Colored green paper;
- Paper napkins, pink or other desired color;
- Scissors and glue;
- Twine or lace.
From craft paper we cut out a circle with a diameter of 20 cm. Then we draw another smaller circle inside and cut it out. From the second sheet we cut out a tree template so that the ends of its branches are on the already cut out circle (see figure). If the paper is too thin, glue a double layer.
We cut out leaves from green paper and fix them on the tree. Using pieces of paper napkins we make “flowers” and also glue them to the tree.
All that remains is to make a hole in the top of the template and thread the ribbon or lace. An original craft for a first grader is ready! Such a tree can also be made with a 2nd grade child, and the older the child, the more branchy the tree can be.
Craft materials
Natural materials
The beginning of the school year traditionally coincides with the beginning of the calendar autumn. Nature pleases with bright colors.
Autumn leaves are the most accessible and varied material for creative activities.
Collecting them is easy. And you can prepare for work in two simple ways:
- the sheet is placed between the pages of a thick book, after a few days it dries, maintaining its shape,
- You can speed up the process by using an iron. Simply place the sheet between two sheets of clean paper and iron it gently with a hot iron.
There are so many interesting ways to use autumn leaves.
Applications as an option will provide a wide scope for creative thought. Leaves can be combined with painted backgrounds, ranging from a simple birch tree with real leaves to complex portraits using willow leaves for hair. Starting with the simplest options, fourth grade students can implement more complex tasks.
You can make floral arrangements from autumn leaves on a bright background, decorating the craft with a beautiful frame.
The leaves can also be used for voluminous crafts. Using a cardboard backing and plasticine, you can make a real autumn forest by attaching leaves instead of trees, and sculpting the remaining elements from plasticine. Mushrooms, a hedgehog or hares will make such a craft interesting and entertaining.
Cones, acorns, twigs of unusual shapes, sunflower seeds, nuts and their shells are also traditional materials that are accessible for creativity. They are often used in the manufacture of crafts of varying complexity. They can be decorated with elements cut from colored paper or molded from plasticine. It is convenient to use matches or toothpicks to fasten them together. In this way you can make figurines of animals and birds, fairy-tale characters. For example, from a pine cone and three acorns secured with matches, you get an excellent Gorynych Serpent.
Crafts made from vegetables are also relevant in the fall. The gifts of the garden and vegetable garden can be used to make figurines of various animals, birds, fairy tale characters, ships, cars and much more.
Paper and cardboard
Working with paper requires attention and accuracy. Hands perform a lot of small movements, because you need to fold sheets, straighten, mark out parts, cut. This is very good for activating fine motor skills, and, therefore, for the development of speech and thinking.
Using paper as the main material, you can make colored applications on any theme, three-dimensional figures, and bring a variety of non-standard ideas to life.
Handmade holiday cards will be a wonderful gift for family and friends on any occasion.
For 4th grade schoolchildren it is very easy to make a three-dimensional daisy from strips of paper:
- cut nine identical strips of white paper,
- yellow circle for the center of the flower,
- the strips are folded in half,
- fasten the strips together
- glued to the base
- glue the middle.
This way you can make a postcard with voluminous daisies. You can complicate the task and secure the flowers on paper tubes using plasticine. These daisies will look great in a vase.
To report on the class’s participation, for example, in an environmental action, you can make an original collage on a sheet of Whatman paper, combining photographs and students’ palms cut out of colored paper.
It's fun to make paper crafts using the origami technique, and there are many books and themed resources with step-by-step instructions for this activity.
You can make not only interesting crafts from cardboard, but also necessary things. One of the most common options would be a cardboard dollhouse, which can be used for children's games. Or homemade flat cardboard dolls that can be dressed up in paper dresses and suits.
The original materials for crafts are newspaper and paper tubes. They are made by winding long strips of paper onto a knitting needle or pencil. The edge is fixed with PVA glue. When the glue dries, the material is ready for use. Preparing the tubes requires patience and perseverance, but is more than justified by the end result.
Weaving baskets and vases from this material requires certain skills, and not only a master, but also a fourth-grade student can assemble a well frame, a house or a wicker fence from them. After finishing the work, the product can be painted and varnished. The result is unique crafts suitable for decorating an interior or a thematic exhibition.
Original crafts are also made using plasticine. For example, interesting wall panels.
How to make a fruit panel:
- To make this craft you need cardboard and colored plasticine.
- A small piece of cardboard is painted with watercolor paint; this will be the basis of the craft.
- Patterns are cut out of paper, shaped like a pear and an apple.
- The plasticine is rolled out like dough and fruits are cut out according to the pattern (a red apple and a green pear, for example).
- Glue onto a cardboard base.
The panel is ready, you can coat it on top with colorless varnish.
New Year's crafts for fourth grade students
This is an integral part of preparing for the holiday. Paper garlands and beautiful Christmas tree decorations create a festive mood already at the very first stage of production. For New Year's crafts, paper, cardboard, pine cones and much more are traditionally used.
The main thing is that Christmas tree decorations should be light and safe products. The simplest ones can be easily made from wrapping paper using tape.
It's easy to glue birds or angels from white paper. Using a toilet paper roll, you can make gnomes, Santa Claus and the Snow Maiden.
Cutting snowflakes to decorate the school is also fun. New Year's crafts provide an opportunity to show your imagination and show off the skill of your hands.
Origami
Wonderful DIY crafts for first graders are made from paper. To implement ideas, you can use either ordinary thick office paper of different shades or special colored ones. Also useful in creativity are corrugated paper, craft (packaging), scrapbooking paper, velvet paper, paper napkins and plates, old newspapers and magazines, books and music notebooks, even old wallpaper.
We invite you to look at several ideas for crafts for first graders that are easy to implement with your own hands and even made for a competition.
The first craft is a butterfly made from a beautiful paper plate, a popsicle stick and chenille wire. You will also need scissors, glue, and doll eyes for this toy.
More ideas for children's creativity at school:
Crafts on an environmental theme for fourth grade students
An important point is to educate the younger generation to care about nature. Now our country is actively promoting the technology of separate waste collection to make it possible to recycle materials harmful to the ecology of the planet.
As part of the promotion of this program, a competition of crafts made from recyclable materials can be held among fourth grade students:
- plastic bottles,
- plastic stoppers and containers,
- batteries,
- cardboard,
- paper,
- disposable plastic tableware.
You can make space-themed crafts from plastic plates and bottles, and you can make a beautiful fan from disposable forks using bright ribbon. Containers of chocolate eggs can be easily transformed into chickens or piglets using plasticine parts.
Bird feeders also fall into this category. Fourth graders can make the simplest ones themselves from milk cartons or plastic bottles. More complex products can be made from plywood or planks with the help of parents.
Indian headdress
This paper craft for grade 2 needs to be made with templates. Templates will be needed for feathers: the creators of the original headdress recommend cutting feathers in 7 different sizes, plus two more sizes (the smallest) for pendants.
There are 9 variations in total, the largest of which reaches a length of 35 cm. You can refuse such a strict division and cut the feathers by eye, but then a beautiful result is not guaranteed.
What should also be considered in advance:
The length of the main tapes. The headdress is based on a blue ribbon, onto which all the feathers are glued.
When the feathers are already glued, red tape is placed on top to hide the attachment points. The lengths of both tapes should correspond to the circumference of the child’s head.
The length of the threads for pendants that are attached to the temples. They should not be too long, otherwise they will get in the way.
To make it you will need durable and thick corrugated cardboard. You should also prepare threads or thin ropes for pendants, and beads for them. In addition to scissors and glue, you will need a needle.
Creation order:
- Cut out the feathers. Stick on blue tape in several rows.
- Place red tape over it. To make the craft hold better, sew the tape together with thread. It is enough to make a few cross stitches, as if sewing a button.
- In the area of the temples, sew circles in the same way, using cross stitches. In a circle for each temple.
- Thread another rope through the thin rope that attaches the circles to the ribbon, the base of the pendant. String beads onto a thread.
- Thread the end of the rope through small feathers, pre-cut for pendants. Tie or seal on the back.
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A second grader can make such a headdress with the help of a parent. The craft will not just remain on the shelf; if you make it from durable cardboard, you can fully wear a hat.
Themed crafts for fourth grade students
They can be timed to coincide with various events and holidays. These could be greeting cards for the New Year, school anniversary, traditional days February 23 and March 8.
Fabric crafts, very simple dolls made from scraps, will be interesting for children in anticipation of Maslenitsa.
You can also come up with original crafts for Easter.
There are a lot of ideas for crafts; even the simplest paper applications are useful for the development of children. The list of advantages can begin with the development of fine motor skills, which directly affects the development of the child’s speech and thinking.
In addition, by using different materials for work, children gain additional knowledge about the world around them, learn to think creatively, be organized and independent, and acquire their first work skills.
Joint activities provide social communication skills, the ability to solve problems in a group, and be responsible for the overall result.
In a family circle, this way of spending leisure time is also useful, it helps family members get closer and spend time usefully.
