Kindergarten Nation

Creative Crafts And Educational Activities

Arts and Crafts Ideas

Jack and the Beanstalk Craft – Make Your Own Giant Beanstalk!

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Jack and the Beanstalk Craft – A giant construction paper beanstalk hangs from the ceiling tiles, making for a whole-class creation that adds a touch of magic to the room!

jack and the beanstalk craft

After it’s put together, kids can have fun re-telling the story of Jack And The Beanstalk using character puppets made out of construction paper and popsicle sticks!

Materials:

  • large sheets of green construction paper
  • scissors
  • green glitter
  • green sequins
  • glue
  • green yarn
  • markers

Instructions:

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  1. Start out with a piece of large green construction paper.

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2. Use a green marker to draw a spiral outward, starting in the center of the construction paper.

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3. Cut around the spiral shape and cut off the edges of the paper with scissors. Make a crevice where the kids will begin cutting into the spiral.

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4. Pour a tiny bit of glue over the paper and sprinkle it with some glitter for an extra magical effect! Leave overnight to dry.

5. Cut out leaves, beans, and sprigs. Make curly sprigs by cutting thin strips of green construction paper. Wrap them around a pencil, slightly unrolling afterward.

6. Create leaves by cutting football shapes out of the green construction paper. Curl these around a pencil slightly. Beans are just slightly elongated football shapes.

7. Students can cut out their own leaves, but it may be helpful to place some precut leaves out on the tables for inspiration.

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8. Kids begin by cutting along the spiral until they have a long curvey beanstalk.

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9. Next, glue on some paper leaves, beans, and curly sprigs!

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10. Hole punch the end of each beanstalk and tie a small loop of yarn to the end of each one.  String a longer piece of yarn through the yarn loops on the individual beanstalks and attach the whole thing to the ceiling tiles by this string.

11. Now all you need are some kindergarten-made character puppets and kids can use their imaginations to re-enact the story of Jack And The Beanstalk!

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A Couple Pictures of The Finished Product:

Jack and the Beanstalk Craft – Make Your Own Giant Beanstalk!

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Click Here to grab your FREE Jack And The Beanstalk Mini-Book Easy Reader when you sign up for my Newsletter!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Miss Vanessa

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Products Used For This Project (Amazon Links):

More Jack And The Beanstalk Products Available on Amazon


Torn Construction Paper Landscapes

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Tear construction paper into strips to create beautiful landscapes! 

paper desert craft

Sunset in the Desert

torn paper landscape

The Rocky Mountains

Materials:

  • Construction paper
  • Glue sticks

Directions

Before you begin, figure out what kind of landscape you want to create.  Will you be creating a desert or a mountain landscape? Maybe something else? What time of day will it be in your picture? Next, decide what colors you will be using.  You can even use pictures from books or magazines as inspiration!  Now you’re ready to begin!

1. Choose a color for the sky in your picture.  Place this piece in front of you. This piece will be the background that you glue all the other pieces to.

2. Begin by tearing a strip of paper for the top part of your landscape.   Tear it so it is the same width as the background.  Position it a couple of inches from the top, leaving enough room for the sky.  Don’t glue anything down yet!

3. Continue to tear and arrange pieces of construction paper until you are done adding the mountains, plains, and hills.

4. Tear a circle shape for the moon or sun

5. Adjust and arrange the construction paper until it is the way you want it.

6. Glue each torn strip to the background piece, starting with the highest paper strip and working your way down. Tuck in the sun or moon behind the top piece and glue it down to complete your beautiful picture!

Snail Craft & Writing Activity

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This Snail Craft And Writing Activity is a fun way to promote creative arts and early writing skills in the classroom and at home!

Students use fine motor skills to cut, color, and roll paper into a curly snail shape!

snail craft for kids

What You’ll Need:

Preparation

  1. Download and print the Snail And Leaf Templates. I’ve included snail and leaf templates you can print on white or colored copy paper or, depending on your printer, directly onto construction paper. You can also create stencils of the snail and leaf and trace them onto construction paper if you cannot print directly onto it.
  2. Cut the snails apart along the dotted lines, or you can pre-cut around each snail outline if needed for your students.
  3. Cut apart the leaf templates. Make sure you have enough leaves and snails to give every student at least one of each.
  4. Place the paper snail and leaf templates out on tables along with markers, glue, and scissors.

Click Here To View And Download The Snail And Leaf Templates Plus a BONUS Snail Writing Prompt (TeachersPayTeachers.com)

Instructions for Students:

  1. Color and decorate the snail template with markers while it is flat.
  2. Carefully cut around the eyes and along the outline of the snail.
  3. Roll up the snails, starting at the end opposite from the eyes.
  4. Color and cut around the leaf template.
  5. Glue the bottom of the snail onto the top of the leaf.

It’s such a fun activity. I think we will end up making them all week long!

snail craft image

snail craft

*Updates*

We ended up using our snails to decorate our Summer bulletin board!

I also made some really tiny paper snails that were super adorable. You can make smaller versions of the snails and pair the tiny snails with a larger snail to make a whole snail family! 

 

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Snails for Kids on Amazon:


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A Lion Puppet Craft – Inspired by the book Dandelion by Don Freeman

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This craft is inspired by the book Dandelion by Don Freeman, a book about a lion who nobody recognizes! For this craft, you will use brown and yellow construction paper to make a lion puppet that is perfect for preschoolers and kindergarteners. 

Lion Puppet Craft Image

Materials:

Directions:

  1. Download the Lion Face And Mane Template PDF
  2. Print the Lion Face Template on yellow construction paper. This page has two lion faces on it so you will only need half as many copies of the Lion Face Template.
  3. Cut the paper down the middle so there is one lion face on each half and one for each student.
  4. Download and print the Lion Mane Template onto light brown construction paper.
  5. Cut out the mane piece and snip carefully around the edge towards the middle, to create the look of fur.
  6. Cut out the lion’s face and glue the face onto the mane.
  7. Finally, tape a straw onto the back side to complete your lion puppet!

Dandelion by Don Freeman Book

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