Easy Toilet Paper Japanese Beetle Craft

In Japan, the the Japanese rhinoceros beetle "Kabuto mushi" and Stag Beetle "kuwagata mushi " are famous and popular among children. They are highly sought after and prized by school aged bug hunters. Large ones can be bought in pet shops for $20-30 a piece. This is a fun craft to do for a nature or bug unit. There are two designs, the black one with the "T" is the rhinoceros beetle, the brown one with the scissors shape is the stag beetle.

Materials:

toilet paper roll cut in two lengthwise

brown or black construction paper

6 rectangles for legs, aprox. 2 1/4 inches(6 cm) long, 1/2 inch (1 1/2 cm) wide.

"T" (horn) or scissors (jaws) cut-out

2 small white circles for eyes

glue

black marker

Directions:

1. Beforehand cut the toilet paper rolls lengthwise and cover the outer side with brown or black construction paper.
2. You may want to cut all the other pieces beforehand as well. The legs and eyes might be difficult for younger children.
3. Glue the eyes on the front.
4. Glue the legs on the back, 3 on each side.
5. Glue the horn or jaws on the back side on top of the head.
6. Use a black marker to draw in the eyes and a mouth if you like.

In addition to regular dot eyes, you can draw curved lines for smiling eyes, or a sideways "v" with a third line in the middle for a winking eye.

You can play a "Sumo" game with your beetles. Draw a circle on a box top. Stand two beetles up in the circle. Tap he box gently like a drum and wach the beetles jump and fight. The first one to fall down loses.



Japanese rhinoceros beetle or "kabuto mushi"

stag beetle or "kuwagata mushi"



Easy Butterfly Straw and Paper Craft and song

 This is a ridiculously easy butterfly craft that kids can use to dance with in the classroom.

Materials:

• butterfly cut-out from colored paper
• drinking straw
• tape

Directions:

1. Precut enough butterflies and prepare enough straws for each student.
2. Tape the butterfly to the end of the straw.

Depending on age and abilities, your students could cut out the butterflies. This craft is meant to be used with a song that students can dance to and make their butterflies fly around the room.

Here are the words to the original Japanese song in English:

Butterfly, butterfly
flutter in the sunshine bright.
Little flowers bid you come.
Dance and sway and have some fun!
Cherry blossoms, pink and sweet.
Primroses your favorite seat!
Come and play! Come and play!
Frolic in the breeze all day!

I couldn't fnd an English video, but here's the song in Japanese so you know the music. Or simply substitute any butterfly song you like. Have fun.

Easy Hand and Foot Print Craft

Preserving your child's hand and foot prints are a quintessential craft. This star shaped craft is easy and looks great.

Materials:

• paper or molding clay
• pencil to make holes
• various colored tempura paints
• ribbon

Directions:

1. Flatten and shape a big piece of paper  or molding clay. I prefer paper clay because it's lighter and softer. This one looks like a star.
2. Poke two holes at the top.
3. Press the child's hand and then foot into the clay.
4. Paint the background one color, then the hand and foot prints different colors. Be careful not to mix the paints too much or it looks brown.  Allow to dry.
5. Later paint the back also for added strength.
6. Tie up with a ribbon.
7. Don't forget to put the date and child's name.

Mother and Baby Hand Print Clay Craft

 I was astonished at how beautiful this craft was. This is a great project to do together with mothers. It serves equally well as a Mother's Day or Valentine's Day craft.

Materials:

• paper or molding clay
• colorful marbles
• colorful beads
• shells
• glue
• ribbon

Directions:

1. Shape a large piece of clay into a heart shape. This one kind of looked like rabbit ears. Don't make it too thin, a little thicker is better.
2. Don't forget to make two holes at the top to hang up.
3. Mama presses her hand deep into the clay.
4. Baby or toddler first presses her hand into pink paint and then presses into mommy's hand print.
5. Decorate by putting liquid glue onto marbles, beads and shells and then pressing deep into the clay.
6. Allow to dry and then tie up with a ribbon to display.

It kind of has a beach theme to it, too. In the picture, you can see there are several beads glued into the shell like pearls. Just beautiful.

Easy Pine Cone Creature Nature Craft

 This is a great and simple craft to do after an excursion outside to collect pine cones and leaves. Great nature craft.

Materials:

• pine cone
• long length of yarn to make the necklace
• small loop-topped screw
• short lengths of colorful yarn
• two small balls of paper or molding clay
• two google eyes

Directions:

1. Beforehand, thread the yarn through the loop of the screw and screw into the bottom of the pine cone.
2. Kids wrap short lengths of colorful yarn around the pine cone.
3. Push two small balls of paper clay into the pine cone.
4. Push two google eyes into the soft clay and let dry.
5. Don't forget to put a leaf shaped name tag on the string of each necklace.

Easy Snowball Necklace Craft

 This was actually a craft from a  winter theme math lesson teaching patterns. The kids could string together blue pom poms and balls of paper clay into any repeating pattern they wanted. It's a cute necklace.

Materials:

• blue pom poms
• paper clay
• thread
• needle

Directions:

1. After teaching various kinds of simple patterns, give each child several blue pom poms and some paper clay.
2. Roll the paper clay into small balls.
3. Help the children to thread the pompoms and clay balls onto the thread with a needle in any pattern they choose.
4. Tie the ends of the thread to make the necklace.

It looks like a string of snow and ice balls. Patterns could include:

ABABABABAB

AABAABAAB

AABBAABBAABB

Have fun.

Easy Paper Plate Sunflower Craft

 Summer brings all kind of beautiful flowers, but none catches the essence of summer more than the sunflower, especially if you're from Kansas, the Sunflower State, like me. Here's an easy sunflower craft to do with your kids.

Materials:

• 1 paper plate
• 1 or more leaf cut-outs from green construction paper
• yellow and brown tempura paints
• Glue

Directions:

1. Have the kids dip the side of their pinky finger in yellow paint and make marks all around the edge of the paper plate to make the petals.
2. Dip one finger in brown paint and make dots in the center to make the seeds, let dry.
3. Glue one or more leaf cut-outs on the back of the paper plate. You're done. Have a great summer.

Easy Christmas Tree Card Craft

This is a sparkly Christmas Tree craft you can do with your preschool or kindergarten class.

Materials:

• one piece of white construction paper
• green Christmas tree paper cut-out.
• brown trunk paper cut-out
• red square base paper cut-out
• small pieces of colorful Christmas wrapping paper cut into little squares and rectangles
• colorful multi-shaped dazzle sequence
• small foil stars
• glitter glue
• glue
• scissors

Instructions:

1. Cut out the Christmas tree, trunk, and base beforehand or have the kids do it.
2. Fold the white construction paper in half to make a card.
3. Glue on Christmas tree, trunk and base on the front of the card.
4. Glue on the dazzle sequence shapes for ornaments.
5. Put lines of glitter glue for tinsel.
6. Glue on a foil star to the top of the tree.
7. Glue small pieces of wrapping paper to look like presents under the tree.

Regular stick glue is fine for the paper, but I recommend using white glue for the sequence pieces.

Easy Paper Plate Christmas Wreath Craft

 This is a cute and easy Christmas wreath you can make from a paper plate. Great for your kindergarten class.

Materials: For each child, prepare:

• one paper plate
• short length of red ribbon
• cute ribbon, macaroni, or shell pasta and Christmas theme pasta (if you can find it.)
• red, green, and white tempura paints.
• glitter glue or glitter
• paint brushes

Directions:

Before the craft:

1. Paint the pasta red and white, allow to dry.
2. Cut the center out of the paper plates, one for each child.
3. Punch a hole at the top.
4. Put students' names on the paper plate.

With the kids:

1. Have the kids paint their paper plate ring green on both sides.
2. Put on colorful pasta around the ring. (The paint should act as a glue)
3. Sprinkle on glitter or put on lines of glitter glue, allow to dry.
4. Help the students loop the ribbon through the hole at the top and hang up your wreaths.

You can decide how much you want the kids to do themselves. If they do everything, it should be in two parts. To cut the middle out of the paper plate, bend the plate in the middle without folding. Then cut a slit from the middle to the inner edge of the ring. After that, open the plate and start from the slit to cut around the edge. The green paint should act as a glue for the pasta and the glitter. Have fun.

Easy President's Day Paper Plate Mask Craft

 Here’s a simple, fun craft to do for President’s Day, the third Monday of February.

Materials:

• 1 medium paper plate (about 7 inches wide is good)
• 1 black hat paper cutout
• 1 craft stick/popsicle stick
• Black tempura paint
• Sponge pieces
• Tape

Instructions:

1. Cut out the center of the paper plate, so only the rim is left.
2. Dip a small sponge in black paint and dab on the rim. Cover about half to make the beard. Allow to dry.
3. On the opposite side, tape the popsicle stick for the handle.
4. Tape on the hat cutout on top.

This is great for a lesson about President’s day or Abraham Lincoln. You could use them to make a short presentation or play.

This and hundreds of other simple and easy craft ideas are from the "Arts and Craft For All Seasons" series books for Preschool/Kindergarten and 1^st through 3^rd grade. The crafts are fun, simple, and easily adaptable. These books are a great resource and are a must have for any preschool-K or early elementary program.

Easy Reindeer Paper Craft, "Just Add Antlers"

This is a great and simple craft you can do for Christmas.

Materials: For each child, you need,

• 1 sheet of white construction paper
• Reindeer head cutout from brown construction paper
• Circle cutout from red construction paper for the nose
• Red or brown tempura paint
• Glue
• Shallow tray
• Black marker or crayon

Instructions:

1. Glue on reindeer head to the bottom of a sheet of white construction paper.
2. Use black marker to draw two eyes and lines to accent the ears.
3. Glue on the red circle for the nose.
4. Pour red or brown paint into a shallow tray and have students press both hands into it.
5. Press hands on top of the reindeer’s head to make the antlers. Allow to dry.

Game

At our Christmas party, I used one of these reindeers to play “Pin-the-nose on the reindeer” game. I put the reindeer head with only a circle for a nose on the wall and gave a red nose to each student with their name on it. One by one, we blindfolded them and spun them around and let them go. Whoever was the closest to the circle was the winner. We didn’t use a blindfold, but an oversized Santa hat. What fun! Merry Christmas.

This and hundreds of other simple and easy craft ideas are from the "Arts and Craft For All Seasons" series books for Preschool/Kindergarten and 1^st through 3^rd grade. The crafts are fun, simple, and easily adaptable. These books are a great resource and are a must have for any preschool-K or early elementary program.

Easy Hallowen Banner Craft For Kids

Here’s a fun, simple craft for your classes at Halloween.

Materials:

• Sheets of light green, orange, or yellow construction paper. One for each child.
• Halloween shapes from black construction paper. (Templates from “Arts and crafts for all Seasons”)
• Tiny cutouts for eyes and mouths
• Glue

Instructions:

1. Glue black cutouts on background.
2. Glue on tiny shapes for eyes and mouths.
3. Great for hanging in the window or tape them all together for a classroom banner.

This and hundreds of other simple and easy craft ideas are from the "Arts and Crafts For All Seasons" series books for Preschool/Kindergarten and 1^st through 3^rd grade. The crafts are fun, simple, and easily adaptable. These books are a great resource and are a must have for any preschool-K or early elementary program

Easy Spring Lamb, Sheep Card Craft For Kids

Here’s a fun and easy sheep craft. It’s good for a Spring theme.

Materials: For each child, prepare,

• Half a piece of black construction paper, folded in half like a card
• Lamb cutout on white construction paper
• Grass cutout on green construction paper (Templates from “Arts and Crafts for All Seasons”)
• White tissue paper or cotton balls/stuffing
• Glue
• Scissors

Instructions:

1. Trace or photocopy lamb and grass templates for students
2. Have students cut out lamb and grass templates.
3. Glue onto front of folded black construction paper.
4. Glue on cotton balls for wool.
5. Allow to dry and display your spring lamb cards cards.

Variation

The original instructions called for gluing on tiny balls of white tissue paper. For my craft, I substituted cotton instead. Either would look nice.

This and hundreds of other simple and easy craft ideas are from the "Arts and Craft For All Seasons" series books for Preschool/Kindergarten and 1^st through 3^rd grade. The crafts are fun, simple, and easily adaptable. These books are a great resource and are a must have for any preschool-K or early elementary program.

Easy Paper Plate Snowman Craft

Here’s an easy, fun winter craft.

Materials:

• 2 medium paper plates for the base and torso (about 7 inches wide is good)
• 1 slightly smaller circle cut from heavy card stock for the head
• Black cutout top hat
• 4 pipe cleaners
• 1 small button
• Black marker
• Hole punch
• String
• Scotch tape

Instructions:

1. Use one paper plate as the base. Cut off the rim of another paper plate for the torso. Tape them together. The torso plate should be face down
2. Punch a hole at the top of the torso plate. Punch a hole on the slightly smaller card stock circle for the head. Tie together with a string.
3. Twist one pipe cleaner around another to make a three fingered stick hand. Make two hands and tape them to the back of the torso plate.
4. Tape on the top hat to the front of the head.
5. Draw two eyes and a mouth.
6. Glue on a button for the nose. Hang up your snowmen

Variations
This craft is easily adaptable. The directions I presented here are good because students can practice both taping and stringing, though you will probably have to assist students with tying. It also gives the snowman more strength at the bottom, but flexibility in the top. However, you could choose to tape everything or string everything. You can use whatever size paper plates are available and adapt as necessary. You could also draw on a corn cob pipe or give your snowman a broom. It’s a great craft after romping outside in the snow or watching or singing Frosty the Snowman.

An interesting note, snowmen in Japan only have two balls instead of three, a head and lower body. They are called yuki daruma (snow daruma). The shape is inspired by daruma, a kind of good luck doll which is itself takes its name from Bodidaruma, the legendary sage who introduced Buddhism to Japan.

This and hundreds of other simple and easy craft ideas are from the "Arts and Craft For All Seasons" series books for Preschool/Kindergarten and 1^st through 3^rd grade. The crafts are fun, simple, and easily adaptable. These books are a great resource and are a must have for any preschool-K or early elementary program.

Easy Sand Footprint Craft For Kids

This is a fun and simple footprint craft to do with your kindergarten or elementary class. Great after a school trip to the beach. You can collect sand and shells and do this craft as a follow-up. It’s also good for any sea related theme lessons.

Materials:

• Yellow construction paper
• Black markers
• Elmer’s or other craft glue
• Blue tissue paper
• Sand
• Box or tray
• Glitter (optional)
• Small shells (optional)

Instructions:

1. Give each child a piece of yellow construction paper. Put the paper on the floor and have each student stand on it, barefoot. Depending on the age, teachers can trace their feet with black markers or put students in pairs and they can trace each other.
2. Tear off a piece of blue tissue paper and glue on as the ocean.
3. Spread glue inside the footprints. Place sand in a large tray and students put their paper in the box and cover with sand. Lift out the paper and pour off the excess. As an option, mix glitter in the sand for a sparkle effect. Allow to dry.
4. Glue on small shells or plastic sea animals like crabs. Display your sand footprints.

Variation
The original directions called for cutting out the sand footprints after dry and gluing them on a second piece of yellow construction paper. This gives added strength as the sand can be heavy on the paper and gives a more 3D effect. For time constraints and to save paper, I cut out this step with no problems.

This and hundreds of other simple and easy craft ideas are from the "Arts and Craft For All Seasons" series books for Preschool/Kindergarten and 1^st through 3^rd grade. The crafts are fun, simple, and easily adaptable. These books are a great resource and are a must have for any preschool-K or early elementary program.

 

Easy Apple Tree Paper Craft

This is a simple and fun craft to learn about trees.

Materials:

• A sheet of construction paper for the background. Light blue or other colors, one for each child.
• Scraps of brown construction paper for the trunks and branches.
• Small leaf shapes cut from green construction paper.
• Red tempura paint
• Several two-liter pop bottle caps

Directions:

1. Paste a large strip of brown construction paper on the background to make the trunk. Crinkling the paper trunk beforehand gives a more wood-like surface.
2. Paste on smaller strips of brown construction paper to make the branches.
3. Paste on the small green leaves.
4. Pour the red paint into a shallow tray. Dip the flat side of the bottle cap and press onto the paper to make the apples. The apples will be thick and sticky. Allow to dry.

It takes time to dry, but the end effect is really nice. The craft is also good because you use recycled scraps. I used this craft for a lesson about trees, keeping in mind to be environmentally friendly.

This and hundreds of other simple and easy craft ideas are from the "Arts and Craft For All Seasons" series books for Preschool/Kindergarten and 1^st through 3^rd grade. The crafts are fun, simple, and easily adaptable. These books are a great resource and are a must have for any preschool-K or early elementary program.

 

Super Easy Christmas Tree Collage Paper Craft

This is a super simple craft I did with my daughter on the spur of the moment. It was Christmas time and we didn’t have a tree as they are expensive and difficult to come by in Japan. I was inspired by my daughter’s “biri-biri” activity books. “Biri-biri” in Japanese is the sound paper makes when it’s ripped. And she had a lot of leftover scraps of origami paper around the house, so I decided to make use of them.

This is what you’ll need

• A large piece of white paper
• Some crayons or markers
• Assorted colored paper. Origami, construction paper, anything will do. For this craft I especially need various kinds of green, brown, and metallic silver and gold.
• Scissors
• A hole-punch
• Glue (I prefer the stick kind.)

Directions

1. First, on the white paper, draw the outline of the tree in green, the trunk in brown and the star in yellow.
2. Then rip up the colored paper into small pieces. Also use the hole-punch and make multi-colored dots.
3. Glue-on the colored pieces , arranging them more or less within the outline. If the pieces overlap, that’s fine. In fact it’s better. It gives a terraced effect. Using various shades of green and brown looks better. Use gold for the star. You might have to cut triangular shapes to make the star fit.
4. Glue-on the dots to look like Christmas lights.
5. Cut thin strips of gold and silver and glue them on for the tinsel.
That’s it.

This craft is so simple and easy to do in no-time. I used it here for a Christmas tree, but you could apply it to anything. Make a Robot, fish, or dragon. Let your imagination go, great for a rainy day. Have fun!

Polar Bear Arctic Animals Craft for Kids

This a great, simple craft you can do with your kindergarten/ preschool class about arctic animals, but the concept could be applied to any theme.

Materials- For each child, you will need:

• 1 sheet of light blue construction paper
• Arctic animal template cutouts (from "Arts and Crafts For All Seasons", or make your own)
• White tempura paint
• A toothbrush

Directions:
1. Place bear, rabbit, and fox templates on light blue construction paper.
2. Dip toothbrush into the white paint and flicking your thumb, splatter the white paint all around the edge of the cutouts. (The paint shouldn’t be too thick or it won’t splatter. Dilute with a little water as necessary.)
3. Remove templates and allow to dry.

The end effect is really cool. The silhouettes give the impression of watching the animals walking through a snowstorm. You could try the same concept with dessert animals through a sandstorm. Let you imagination go wild.

This and hundreds of other simple and easy craft ideas are from the "Arts and Craft For All Seasons" series books for Preschool/Kindergarten and 1^st through 3^rd grade. The crafts are fun, simple, and easily adaptable. These books are a great resource and are a must have for any preschool-K or early elementary program.

Easy Yule Log Ornament Craft For Kids

 Yule or Yule-tide is the old English word for the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, which falls on or around Dec. 21^st. Today however, it refers to the end of year time and is nearly synonymous with Christmas, though Yule celebrations predate the Christian holiday and is very important for modern day pagans. From ancient times, the main activity on Yule is the burning of the Yule log in the family hearth. This was often an entire tree that was carefully chosen, cut down, and brought home. Tradition says the Yule log must never be bought. It must be brought home by the family or received as a gift. After being brought home it would often be soaked in wine or other spirits beforehand and decorated with mistletoe and holly. The Yule log must be big and burn as long as possible. In times past, it was a whole tree, with the base burning in the fire and the trunk sticking outside the door. It should at least burn all night and in some cases, for several days. It is sometimes associated with the twelve days of Christmas. The burning of the Yule log symbolizes burning away the mistakes of the past year. It also provides light and warmth during the longest night and brings good luck to the household. The whole family would sit around the hearth all night telling stories and perhaps singing songs. From the day after the winter solstice, the days would start getting longer, the earth renew again.

These days, not everyone has a fireplace, so the modern tradition is the eating of a Yule log cake. It’s a long, chocolate roll cake decorated to look like a log. This is now a popular Christmas tradition, especially in England and France, where it is called Bûche de Noël. Another modern tradition is viewing a Yule log video or DVD. People without a fireplace can just play the video and watch the crackling Yule log burn for hours.

Yule-Log Craft

There are many Christmas crafts for kids, but not many Yule crafts. This is a fun and easy Yule log ornament craft to do with your youngsters and hang on the Christmas tree.. I did this with my preschool students in Japan. You’ll need:

• a toilet paper roll
• brown construction paper
• red and yellow colored paper or cellophane
• a black marker
• some string or yarn
• scissors
• glue
• tape
• glitter (optional)

Directions:
1. Cut a brown piece of construction paper big enough to wrap the toilet roll and with a little extra sticking out on the ends.
2. Cover the toilet roll with glue and wrap with the brown paper, folding the excess down inside the toilet roll.
3. Use a black marker and draw wavy lines on the outside to simulate bark. For practice, my ESL students wrote “Yule Log” on the front.
4. Cut out four little flames shapes from red and yellow paper or cellophane. My daughter put a little yellow inside the red using extra origami paper we had around the house. It looked great. Glue to the top of the log.
5. Tape the ends of a short length of string inside the ends of the toilet roll.
6. Apply a little more glue at the top under the flames and sprinkle with red glitter.
7. Hang on the tree.

Variations:
The Yule log pictured above is hollow. In my preschool, we simply filled the inside with yellow tissue paper. If you want a more finished look, cut out two paper cups from an egg carton. Paint the inside a light yellow and add concentric circles to simulate tree rings and glue into the ends of the toilet roll. If necessary beforehand, use a hole punch to make a hole near both ends to string the yarn through instead of taping. I felt this step was a little too difficult for my students and besides, egg cartons in Japan are clear plastic. At first, I was planning to cover the outside with white paper and then pant it brown. In the end I used brown construction paper to eliminate and extra step and save time. First, we talked about the winter solstice in Japan and Europe. I taught them the word Yule, then we did this craft. It was so much fun.

In Japan
Just in case you’re interested, the winter solstice in Japan is called Toji and there are two main activities. First, people will take a hot bath with yuzu, a type of Asian orange that superficially resembles a small grapefruit. A few whole fruits are floated in the bath and they give off a very pleasant aroma. Yuzu is famous in Japan as a folk remedy. Yuzu baths are said to warm the body, ward off colds, and soothe the mind. In addition, yuzu can be cut and soaked in honey to make a marmalade-like syrup that is a folk remedy for colds and a sore throat. The other thing people do on Toji is eat pumpkin. Japanese pumpkins are small and green on the outside and bright yellow on the inside. They are also very thick and hard. Pumpkin has a lot of vitamin A and is said to help prevent colds. The pumpkin would most likely be cut up and cooked into a hot stew or soup.

To Buy:
Amazon has a lot of Yule related books and other unique products. Of course, they also have Yule log cakes and you can even get your own Yule log DVD.