Around the World Crafts for Young Children
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Crafts are a wonderful way to take your children on a trip around the world without leaving the comfort of your home. You can virtually visit many different continents, exploring their countries, cultures and lifestyles through a variety of art and craft activities. The simple crafts below are made with plastic cups, construction paper, markers, paints, empty toilet paper rolls and other items commonly found around most homes.
Africa
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Turn two plastic cups into a small drum. Glue the bases of the cups together, then cover everything with strips of masking tape. Use long pieces to completely span the openings of the cups and shorter pieces on the cup sides. After cups are completely covered, use black, brown, yellow and dark orange markers or paints to decorate the drum with African symbols.
If your child likes to play dress up, print out a couple of the free printable African masks available at Scissorcraft.com. EnchantedLearning.com has instructions for making a simple woven African placemat out of strips of construction paper.
Australia
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Make a didgeridoo--an aboriginal musical instrument--with a long cardboard tube or PVC pipe. Children can decorate it with acrylic paints, feathers or beads. To make the mouthpiece, roll a piece of cardboard into a cone and tape it to one end of the tube. To imitate the sound of a real didgeridoo, make a boat sound while blowing into the mouthpiece.
DaniellesPlace.com has a pattern for making a cute platypus puppet out of a brown lunch bag and directions for making a music player pouch that looks like a kangaroo. DLTK-Kids.com has six koala-themed projects, including a puppet made from an empty toilet paper roll.
Asia
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Glue inexpensive chopsticks together to make a trivet or placemat. Make a mobile using figures from the Chinese zodiac: a rat, an ox, a tiger, a rabbit, a dragon, a snake, a horse, a sheep, a monkey, a rooster, a dog and a pig. MakingFriends.com has instructions for making simple puppets out of wooden craft sticks shaped like people. FreeKidsCrafts.com shows you how to turn a piece of round construction paper and a few inches of yarn into an Asian hat. FamilyFun.com shows you how to make a carp windsock to celebrate Japan
s Children's Day and a garland of paper lanterns to celebrate China's Lantern Festival.
Europe
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Turn a bit of wire and colored beads into German "perlensterne" snowflake decorations for your Christmas tree. Learn to make a typical Bavarian "Edelweiss" hat out of construction paper on the FamilyFun website. Turn a toilet paper roll, gray paint and pipe cleaners into a miniature Leaning Tower of Pisa. Decorate wooden eggs in geometric Ukrainian folk patterns. Dress up clothespins to look like dolls from Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands or other European countries. You can find basic directions on MakingFriends.com
South America
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Rainsticks, which duplicate the sound of rain falling in the forest, are easy to make with a large cardboard tube, aluminum foil, brown paper, glue and dry rice. EnchantedLearning.com has step-by-step directions for making rainsticks. If your children are interested in exotic birds, check out DLTK-Kids.com, which shows you how to make a brilliantly colored Quetzal, the Guatemalan national bird, from an empty toilet paper roll.
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