These icicles are a wonderful fine motor activity for children, an exercise in hand-eye co-ordination and an opportunity to explore color and patterns. It’s a lovely sensory experience, and often they’ll stop to talk about the particulars of a bead they’ve found: the color, the shape, how shiny it etc., so while this is a very simple Christmas craft, it still presents lots of opportunities for learning. Supplies needed; Metallic pipe cleaners, pony beads, a thread for hanging
Directions; Twist a loop at the top of the pipe cleaner, this will be used later to tie on the string. Thread as many beads as desired onto the pipe cleaner. Once the pipe cleaner is sufficiently beaded, twist the bottom of the pipe cleaner around the last bead, to prevent the other beads from falling off. Take the beaded pipe cleaner and twist it around a pencil to create a spiral effect. Finally, tie a 4-6" piece of thread through the loop you created in the beginning and hang. Supplies Needed; Batter operated tea light, holiday ribbon, black felt, 2 wiggly eyes, sharpie pen, and a glue gun.
Directions; Use sharpie pen to draw black dots (for mouth) on tea light. Use glue gun to attach wiggly eyes. take black felt and cut a hat shape, and attach it to the top of the tea light. take about 4" of ribbon and tie it around the tea light tie it in a knot to hold it in place. Finally, take about 8" of ribbon and tie it in a loop. glue the loop to the back of the tea light, be sure to not obstruct the "on/off" switch. Supplies Needed; Empty toilet paper roll, pipe cleaner, 2 pompoms, 3 small buttons, orange construction paper, 2 wiggly eyes, white paint, black pen, and a hole punch.
Directions; Start with a toilet paper roll, paint it with white paint. Hole-punch a hole near the top on either side of the tube. String a pipe cleaner through to make the band of the earmuffs. Then glue on the pompoms to each side (covering the holes). Add buttons, wiggly eye, a paper carrot nose and draw on the smile with a black pen. Supplies Needed; 1 (8-in.) Green Cone-Shaped Styrofoam Form, 1 Package of Green Chenille Stems (Pipe cleaners), Wire Cutters or Utility Scissors, Dark Green Temper Paint, 1 Package Gum Drops
Directions; Begin by painting your styrofoam cone dark green. Cut chenille stems in a variety of lengths. Insert the shorter stem pieces in the top of the form, and increase the stem lengths as you work down toward the base of the cone creating the christmas tree shape. As you work your way down, push different colored gum drops into the chenille stems. Cover the form with the chenille stems and gum drops. You can bend them in any direction you desire since no Christmas tree is perfect. When you are finished, print and cut out the star shape (see below). Place a 3" stem into the top of the tree. Glue the star (sandwich style) to the top stem. Supplies needed; Styrofoam ball, white yarn, white felt, pink felt, pencil, glue, festive ribbon, 2 blue beads or micro pompoms, small black pompom.
Directions; Wrap Styrofoam ball in yarn, until the ball is completely covered and Styrofoam is no longer visible. When the yarn completely covers the ball, tie a knot and cut off the excess yarn. Using the white felt, use your pencil to draw two long oval shapes (for exterior ear), then draw two slightly smaller shapes using the pink felt (inner ear). Cut out both sets of ears. Glue the pink felt to the center of the white felt, to create the ears. Once dry, glue the ears to the desired location on your yarn wrapped foam ball. Glue your small black pompom in the nose location, next glue on the blue beads or micro pompoms as the eyes. Finally, cut about 6-8” of ribbon and glue it centrally between the ears. Allow to dry before hanging. Here is what you will need:
* beads * pipe cleaners * string (for hanging) 1. String your pipe cleaner with beads. 2. Shape it into any shape you want. 3. Tie string around it and hang it up. |
ChristmasArchives
December 2014
Categories
All
|