Friends Stick Together Crafts for Preschool
Teaching preschoolers about friendship is important because they're beginning to understand the value of making and keeping good friends. "Friends Stick Together" is an ideal theme because the word "stick" has several associations. Incorporate actual sticks, such as craft sticks, into the art projects, or use items that stick, such as magnets, chewing gum, tape and stickers.
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Craft Sticks
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Give each child two craft sticks and tell them to draw faces on them so they look like people. Glue them to a piece of paper, and show kids how to draw arms for each stick person, making them hold hands to show friendship. A variation on this idea is to use a strip of masking tape to represent the arms. Instead of gluing the craft stick to the paper, tape it down using a perpendicular strip of masking tape, which looks like the stick man's arms. For another variation, place a smiley-face sticker on the craft stick instead of drawing a face.
Magnets
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Make magnetic bracelets from a strip of paper. Let kids decorate the paper using markers and craft embellishments, leaving 1 inch empty on either side. Give each child a 2-inch magnetic strip. Help children put a loop of transparent tape on the back of the strip and attach it to the two ends of the bracelet. Let kids stick the magnets on their bracelets together. Another idea is for kids to use strong magnets to make friendship paintings. Gather nuts, bolts washers and other metallic notions, and let kids dip them in paint and place them on a white sheet of paper. Show kids how to put the magnet under the table to "magically" move the metal items around the paper to make designs. Kids should give their paintings to a friend.
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Chewing Gum
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Preschoolers can make bubble-gum bouquets for their friends. Cut kabob skewers in half, and instruct kids to carefully insert the pointed end into a piece of wrapped bubble gum. Make sure the bubble gum doesn't have a hard candy shell, as that will be more difficult to penetrate. Tie several bubble gum flowers together with a ribbon to make a colorful bouquet. Another idea is to let kids glue various kinds of gum wrappers to a piece of construction paper. Collect gum wrappers in different colors and shapes. Show kids how to draw a smiley face on each wrapper and glue them to the paper to look like a group of friends.
Paper
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Even though paper isn't sticky, you can use it to make relevant crafts. Make a paper-person chain by folding a long piece of paper accordion-style. Draw the outline of a person, making sure the hands touch the folded edges. Cut it out and unfold to reveal a chain of people connected by their hands. Let children color paper people to look like themselves. Hang the chain in the room for all to see. A variation on this idea would be to have kids make a paper loop chain. Have children write their names on a strip of paper and decorate it with stickers. Let them form the strip into a loop, connecting it with a sticker. Loop all the chains together to make a decoration for the room.
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References
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