Easy Classroom Crafts

Put supplies out where students can reach them.

Working on crafts helps children develop their imaginations, but with so many students and so few teachers in the room it can be challenging to assist each student as he works. To make things easier on yourself, give students a general guideline for each craft project. Let them decide how to complete the project rather than needing you to tell them.

Pretend Play

Crafts that encourage pretend play help children use their imaginations during craft time and beyond. Children can make masks or puppets that they can use in the classroom to put on skits or play house. To make masks, give children paper plates and art supplies. They can cut eye and mouth holes out of the plate, decorate them, and tie on an elastic band to go over the back of the head. Children can also make easy puppets by decorating paper lunch bags.

Lessons

Use crafts to reinforce lessons and check that students understood the material. Have them make collages or mobiles about a certain subject. Once you finish a lesson on dinosaurs, have children cut shapes out of construction paper. They must write or illustrate one fact on each piece, then tie them all to a clothes hanger and hang them in the classroom. You can also have students cover a sheet of white paper with drawings and facts that they learned on the subject. Laminate the sheets so students can use them as place mats.

References

• Scholastic: 5 Easy Crafts for Bad-Weather Days