Monday - Craft Day!

OK, so a bit of a bad start - this was meant to be published earlier today so that you could be ready for tomorrow, but not coming home between services today made that a little difficult :)

Of course, you can use whatever you find interesting anytime you like - not just the days they are published for!

CRAFT TIME!

It is great to have a box filled with bits & pieces for creative craft time - this can include paper rolls, pipe cleaners, glitter, paddle pop sticks, stickers, coloured paper, tinsel, etc. Having things all together makes it easy to get out and use without much of a fuss. There are many inexpensive things that can be used for lots of fun. I do recommend however, to have some better quality textas and pencils on hand. You can teach your child to take good care of these things.

Card making – encourage your children to make cards for those close to them, teachers, neighbours etc.

Puppets - Felt finger puppets,

Sock puppets, paddle pop stick puppets

Coloured rice/pasta art. Mix food colouring in with rice or pasta. Lay the rice or pasta onto a cooking tray and leave in a low heated oven until dried. Children can create a mosaic picture on cardboard with glue and the coloured rice or pasta.

Still life drawing. Set up some toys, items around the house, fruit etc. Children can draw the items concentrating on texture & perspective.

Stenciling. Using cardboard or freezer paper, children can draw & cut out a basic silhouette. Using paint or oil pastels, children can create pictures from the stencils. Children can stencil onto a t-shirt using fabric paint.

Portrait/self portrait. Children can draw detailed pictures of friends, family members or themselves. Encourage them to look for and include detail - 5 year olds are great at this! You can help them with proportions by using the following:

Draw the shape of the face to fill the page. Divide the face into sections with faint lines. These can be erased later on - a horizontal line half way through the oval (this is where the eyes will go). Draw another horizontal line halfway from the middle line to the chin (this is where the nose will end). Draw another horizontal line from this 'nose line' to the chin (this is where the mouth will be).

And if that is all too confusing, here is a little [creepy] picture to help explain it:

Paper weaving. Using 2 coloured pieces of paper, show your child how to weave paper into a mat.

A picture outline or draw something, using whatever scraps you have such as bright material, wrapping paper, wool, make the picture into a mosaic by cutting/tearing into smallish size pieces and stick onto the picture.