Creativity Corner: Week #7

Suggestions for Creative Crafts From Our Homes To Yours

Each of these art projects will be featured in the Creativity Corner of next week’s Daily Schedule for COVID-19 Week #7. We’ve listed all the necessary supplies, and while you may have many of these items already, there are a few we had to order! 

For this weeks crafts, the theme is simplicity! We've come up with five different crafts that should be possible without having to buy many intricate supplies. Think egg cartons, cereal boxes, floss, play doh! By getting creative, we can teach our kids how to recycle, how to use their imaginations, and save ourselves a trip to the store!

We can’t wait to see your finished products, so please share them with us on Instagram @gethappyly! Happy crafting!

Trash Robots

Materials:

• Trash of your choosing for body (food boxes, paper towel rolls, cans, etc.)
• Tape
• Glue
• Bottle Caps
• Shells
• Various creative decorations

Collect empty boxes and usable trash and grab tape, glue, bottle caps, and maybe even some shells and let them rock it! Build a robot body with your cereal boxes, arms with smaller boxes, cans or tp rolls, and use bottle caps for eyes! Get creative and let your kids use their imaginations!

Egg Carton Finger Painting

Materials:

• Egg Carton
• Paint
• Decorations of your choosing
• Honest or other wipes (rinse between using colors)
• Paper towels or other base layer 

To start off, get your creativity space in order! This is a fun project to do outside in case it gets messy. Lay down a sheet to avoid getting paint on anything, consider letting the kids paint in the nude, and lay your egg cartons upside down! The kids will love dipping their fingers into the colors and decorating. The textures are great for little learners to experiment with too!

Watercolor Postcards

Materials:

• Blank postcard, or make your own!
• Watercolor paint and brush
• Stickers or any other decorations
• Pen, marker or crayon to write a note
• A stamp
  

Teach your kids to get creative with mail! Decorate postcards with watercolors and whatever other decorations you have before writing a little note to your loved one, attaching a stamp, and sending it off. Mail is a great way to stay connected with loved ones during this period of physical distancing. There is no better time to bring back this special form of communication!

Play Doh People

Materials:

• Play Doh
• Googly Eyes
• Any Play Doh Tools
• A favorite character book

Start off this craft by reading a favorite character book with your kid(s), then invite them to create Play Doh people or shapes they saw in the book. We ended up most inspired by the Sesame Street characters in our potty training book "Too Big for Diapers."

Younger ones will need more assistance flattening and rolling but can be great at assembling. After you've got the bodies down, use Googly eyes to animate the characters and be sure to practice identifying parts of the face and body. After complete, ask your child if they want to re-read the story and use their Play Doh people to talk, add some extra fun to the story, or even imagine a whole new one!

Bottle Cap Fish

Materials:

• Blue paper (for base)
• Bottle caps
• Colored paper
  (for the fish tails)
• Google eyes
• Green tissue paper, pom poms, or glitter glue for seaweed
• Glitter glue (we received ours from our friends at Craftprojectideas.com)
• School glue

To make this cute bottle cap fish scene, you'll want to start out with your fish. Glue a googly eye to your bottle cap to make an eye, then cut out a triangle for the tail and one for the fin. Glue these to your bottle cap and let dry. Now you'll want to attach your fish to the blue paper with glue.

Begin decorating your under water scene! I used pom poms for my seaweed, although any decorations will do and add as many fish to your scene as you wish. Get creative with your kids! And don't forget to give your fish a smile!

What are your favorite recent crafts? We welcome suggestions and photos to be featured in next week's Creativity Corner at share@happyly.com. 

If you have recipes you'd like to share for our June edition, we would love to hear from you at share@happy.ly  If you feel inclined, please share your family's favorites from this list by tagging us on Instagram@gethappyly.

We welcome you to check out our blog for more inspiration from a list of ways to Disconnect to Reconnect with games for every age group, join as we Run For Fun With Our Kids or explore helpful tips on 5 Ways To Nurture Your Partnership in light of social distancing.

Also, please take a moment to explore Week #6 of our Daily Schedule For Preschool and Grade School. As always, we welcome your family's highlights! Tag us on Instagram @gethappyly!