Science and Art Activities for Kids

Fun Craft Ideas for Kids

Doing crafts for kids has been a popular parent-child pastime for generations. The benefits are many: doing kids' crafts allows for special bonding time, and it helps children engage their creativity while learning important lessons about planning and executing projects. No matter what your child's age or relative skill level, there are endless craft ideas for kids that you can explore together.

While it's fun to do preschool crafts for their own sake any time of year, they're especially popular on special occasions. Halloween crafts help kids get in the spirit of the scary season (in case the promise of a mound of candy isn't enough), and creating crafts around the holidays can make great homemade Christmas gift ideas for friends and family members.

Crafts for Kids: Ideas for All Ages

Craft ideas can be classified by the age range of the children for which they're suitable. As motor skills improve with age, children can take on more challenging projects.

Here are some preschool crafts for children under the age of five:

• Box town. Using old cardboard boxes, you and your child can make roofs and windows out of construction paper, or by drawing them right on the boxes themselves. This fun craft also has a side benefit of introducing children to the importance of reusing and recycling.
• Stamp making. You can take a regular rubber eraser and have an adult use a sharp utility knife to cut a design into the eraser's surface. Then, together you can press your creation into an ink pad and put your stamp on everything you make!
• Straw sculptures. To make a straw sculpture, you only need to plan a figure, cut your straws to various lengths and make small slits in the base of the straws so you can connect them together. Try multicolored straws for a unique and colorful look. You can also try a similar variant of this craft by using pipe cleaners instead of straws.

Try these crafts for kids in kindergarten to fifth grade:

• Squirt paintings. With finger paints and specialty paper, simply add a bunch of different paint colors to the paper in a random design. Then, tape the paintings to your shower wall and squirt or spray them with water. The colors will mix before your very eyes and trickle down, an effect that even older kids will enjoy.
• Tie dye butterfly. For this easy craft, all you'll need is a tie dye filter, which you can squish in the middle to form even wings on both sides. Secure the middle in place by wrapping a pipe cleaner around it, then affix magnetic tape or a clip to the back side so you can hang it up around the house.
• Friendship bracelets. As your kids start to get a little older, their social lives take on increasing importance to them. Using twine, hemp and colored beads, along with clips or tape, your children can make their own set of bracelets to wear with their friends.