1.   “Mrs. Gift, when can we make another craft?” is something I frequently hear in my classroom. And, who can blame them? Creating art out of paint, paper, glue, glitter, pipe cleaners and tons of other fun things is so enjoyable!

Here are some ideas that I have tried in my classroom and a few new ones that I am going to try this coming school year... 

Lady Bug Valentine's Day Bag

Materials you'll need: 

• Construction paper: black, light pink, red
• Lunch bag
• Sharpie

Students need to cut out 2 big red hearts, 6 small black hearts, and 1 light pink heart. They can glue the black hearts to the red hearts, glue the red hearts together, and glue the light pink heart to the red hearts. Then, they need to cut out 6 black legs and 2 antennas. Have them glue the black legs to the backside of the red hearts and the 2 antennas to the small pink heart. Then, students can draw a face on the ladybug. Have students glue the ladybug to their bag and write with a sharpie “Some Buggy Loves You!” 

Spring Butterfly

Materials you'll need: 

• Pipe cleaner
• Construction paper or foam
• Clothes pin
• Googly eyes

Have your students cut out 2 wings out of foam or construction paper and decorate them. Glue the wings and googly eyes onto the clothes pin. Have students cut the pipe cleaner into fourths and take two of the fourths and glue them on for antennas. 

Easter Cross

   Materials you'll need: 

• Glue
• Colored paper with quote: “Bunnies, eggs, jelly beans, that’s not all that Easter means. There’s another message too, Jesus died for me and you.”
• Foam: blue, purple, pink, yellow, green

Have students cut out a cross and a few Easter eggs out of foam. Then, paste them onto a larger piece of foam. After that, have your students cut out the quote and glue it onto the cross or near it.  

Mother's Day Flowers

Materials you'll need: 

• Foam
• Student photo
• Sharpie
• Glue
• Flower pot or glass jar
• Sand

Have a flower, circle, and stem outline for students to trace onto foam. Have your students trace and cut out 3 flowers, 3 stems, and 3 circles. On one of the circles have students glue their picture. On another circle have your students write, “Happy Mother’s Day!” and on another write, “I Love You!” Next, your students will glue the circles to the middle of the flowers and the stems to the back of the flowers. They will then fill a jar or flower pot with sand and stick the flowers into the sand. 

Mother's Day Handmade Flowers

Materials you'll need: 

• White paper
• Crayons
• Glue
• Pipe cleaners
• Ribbon  

                                                                                                                                                            

Your students can draw and color a big flower and a smaller flower.  Then, cut them out and glue the smaller flower in the center of the bigger flower. Next, they can glue a pipe cleaner on the back of the large flower to look like a stem. Have them create as many as they have time for and tie it with a ribbon. 

Tissue Paper Apple

Materials you’ll need:

·         Various shades of green and red tissue paper

·         Black apple outline

·         Liquid glue

On the black apple outline, the middle of the leaves/stem and apple can be cut out before giving to students. Then, the children can cut the outside of the outline out. They then glue one big red (Or whatever color they want their apple to be) piece of tissue paper to cover the empty apple space and a piece of green tissue paper to cover the leaves/stem. They will rip up smaller pieces of tissue paper and glue them to the larger pieces of tissue.

You can hang this craft in the windows of your classroom and it looks adorable!

Pumpkin:

      Materials you’ll need:

·         Construction paper: orange, green, brown

·         2 Brass fasteners

Have students cut about 5 strips “the hot dog way” from an 8 ½ in by 11 in orange piece of construction paper. Then, have students cut those strips in half. Next, cut a leaf and stem out of paper.  Put a brass fastener at the end of the 10 orange pieces and secure the fastener. Grab another fastener and put the leaf and stem through it. Fold the empty orange ends on the fastener with the leaf and stem and secure that end.  

“I’m Thankful For…” Thanksgiving Turkey:

Materials you’ll need:

·         Toilet paper roll

·         Construction paper: brown, black, other colors

·         Glue

·         Tape

·         Googly eyes

Have students begin by covering a toilet paper roll with brown construction paper. Then, they can cut out a head for the turkey, a beak, feet, pilgrim hat and feathers. As a class, brainstorm things the kids are thankful for and have them write those things on their turkey’s feathers. They can then glue the hat, googly eyes and beak to the turkey’s head. After that, they can tape the feet to the inside of the toilet paper roll and either glue or tape the feathers to the back of the roll.  

Christmas Lights

Materials you’ll need:

·         Various colors of construction paper

·         Glue

·         String or ribbon

·         Glitter

You can have the Christmas light bulbs traced and copied for students beforehand, or your students can draw and cut light bulb shapes out on their own. Students need the same number of bulbs as letters in their name. After they have cut out the light bulbs, they need to glue on a small black piece of construction paper as the base of their bulb and then glue the bulbs to a piece of ribbon or string. Then, using glitter they can write the letters of their name. These are great to hang up around the classroom at Christmas time!