Lovely childcare

Recommended for 1-year-olds! Craft play ideas and fun crafting techniques

10 years as a kindergarten teacher / elementary school teacher / junior and senior high school teacher / childminderkepiko
Graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, Faculty of Music (now: Department of Music Culture and Education, Early Childhood Music Education major). In elementary school, my homeroom teacher was Jun Kusaba, a game researcher. After graduating from university, I worked for 10 years as a kindergarten teacher and for 7 years as an after-school childcare instructor, then took a post as a music teacher at an international school in Singapore. In addition to music education, I also engaged in activities that shared Japanese culture, traditional games, and recreational play, working with many children. Afterwards, through freelance writing, planning, and editing work at Shogakukan, I met many delightful adults and experienced the joy of communicating and conveying ideas. Leveraging the perspective cultivated in educational settings and my experience as an editor, I aim to deliver practical information—focusing on fields related to music and children—that values both input and output. Hobbies include instruments, singing, handcrafts, toys, drawing, traditional play, the outdoors, books, DIY, and crafts. Special skill: spinning-top tricks.
Deputy Editor of RAG MUSICsasashina
Deputy Editor of RAG MUSIC. JFC-certified fact-checker. I’m Sasashina, a mom currently raising an elementary schooler and a preschooler. During my student years at Kyoto College of Science and Technology, I studied a wide range of fields including sound, lighting, and video technology, building a foundation in comprehensive stage production and creative expression. After graduation, I joined a music production company, where I still work, consistently building experience in production and engaging in a variety of music-centered tasks. Currently, I mainly handle articles for children, drawing on what I’ve learned about parenting and what I feel and discover through daily interactions with my kids. I hope my work can be of help to you, even in a small way!

Creative activities are not only great for developing fine motor skills; they also let children touch a variety of materials, enjoy different textures, and express their own ideas—making them an essential part of healthy growth.

In this article, we’ll introduce craft ideas recommended for one-year-olds.

From projects that use various techniques to ones you can play with after making, it’s packed with fun, sensory-rich ideas.

We’ve gathered lots of activities that one-year-olds can enjoy, like crumpling paper and touching paint with their fingers.

Watch over the children’s expressions and creative gestures, and try making them together!

Because the children’s creations are regarded as works (art pieces), we use the term “seisaku” (制作) in the text to refer to them.

Recommended for 1-year-olds! Craft play ideas and fun crafting techniques (41–50)

Magnet and fabric sticking play

https://www.tiktok.com/@nagoya_kodomo/video/7119471763578244353

It’s fun how they stick with a snap! Here are some ideas for magnet-and-fabric sticking play.

Let’s make fabric toys that even infants can enjoy! You’ll need fabric or felt, magnets, fabric adhesive, needles, and thread.

If you create popular characters or illustrations from picture books with fabric or felt, children will be captivated! Sew magnets into each piece, and they’ll snap together so kids can play over and over.

Please be very careful to prevent accidental swallowing of magnets.

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Recommended for 1-year-olds! Craft play ideas and fun crafting techniques (51–60)

Valentine’s chocolates made with paint and stickers

Why not try making a cute heart-themed craft for Valentine’s Day? First, prepare two types of hearts: pink and white.

The key is to make one slightly larger so that when you layer them, the white creates a border.

Have the children paint on the hearts with brown paint.

Once the paint is dry, add stickers to decorate the hearts even more.

Next, make a pastry chef holding a heart.

Prepare facial parts in advance and let the children glue them on freely.

Arrange it so the pastry chef is holding the heart, and it’s complete!

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Rapeseed blossoms made with cotton swab stamps

@hoiku.labo
[Easy Spring Craft for Kids] Make Rapeseed Blossoms with Cotton Swab Stamps 🌼Childcare Nursery teacher / Childcare worker Kindergarten Teacher Childcare job openings Childcare Column #NurseryTeacherThings #IWantToConnectWithChildcareWorkers #Nursery School Craft #DaycarePreparation Nursery School Practicum Childcare student Aspiring childcare worker Childcare Job Lab Nursery teacher skills Job change activities #JobChange #nursery_teacher_job_change Nursery teacher employment Production #Craft work Production drawing paper #ConstructionPaperCrafts #Wall Creation
♬ Give Love – AKMU (악뮤)

Speaking of spring, the bright yellow fields of canola flowers are so beautiful, aren’t they? Here’s a craft featuring canola blossoms that even one-year-olds can enjoy.

Prepare construction paper, paint, and five cotton swabs, and let’s get started.

First, make the base for the canola blossoms and stems using construction paper.

Bundle the five cotton swabs with a rubber band to create a stamp for the flower portion.

Dip the bundled swabs, thinned with a little water, into yellow paint and stamp the flower area.

The slightly raised paint texture looks so delicate and really brings out the canola-flower feel.

It’s also fun to change the paint and paper colors to create your own original canola blossoms.

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Penguin made by tearing tissue paper

Why not try making a penguin while enjoying the feel of tearing and sticking tissue paper? For preparation, get the penguin’s body, the white belly piece, and the penguin’s flippers ready.

Have the children tear white tissue paper and glue it onto the construction paper for the belly.

The fluffy texture of the fur is expressed with the tissue paper, so it’ll be fun to hear what the children say about it.

Once the belly is attached to the body and you add a face with round stickers, it’s complete.

It’s a simple method, so feel free to add your own twists.

Have fun making a cute penguin!

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Goldfish made with balloon stamps

We’ll introduce a colorful, pop, and cute goldfish craft made with balloon stamps.

Prepare paint, brushes, water balloons, construction paper, glue, and scissors.

After cutting the construction paper into the shape of a large jar and goldfish, dip an inflated water balloon in paint and stamp it onto the jar-shaped paper.

Switching colors as you stamp makes it even more fun.

Stick adhesive eyes on the goldfish, place them wherever you like, and you’re done.

Give it a try!

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Strawberries made with torn-paper collage

[Something to make in spring] Tingly Stick-on Strawberry Torn-Paper Collage 🍓 #preschoolcraft #nurseryteacher #teachingideas #withkids #origami #origamicraft #tornpapercollage #strawberry #easycraft #shorts

Strawberries made with torn-paper collage

Let’s create using our fingertips! Here are some ideas for making strawberries with torn-paper collage.

You’ll need red origami paper, patterned origami paper, a backing sheet, glue or double-sided tape, scissors, flower-shaped cut paper, and strawberry calyx-shaped cut paper.

Use your fingertips to boldly tear the origami! It’s fun that the sound changes depending on how fast you tear.

Even things that seem obvious to adults can deepen the activity when you enjoy children’s discoveries as you work together.

Paste the torn pieces onto the backing sheet, then have a caregiver or teacher cut the sheet into a strawberry shape with scissors to finish.

It’s also great if the children can glue on the strawberry calyx themselves.

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Fluttering butterfly

[Preschool Craft] Spring Craft! Colorful Paper Butterflies Made with Construction Paper

Fluttering butterfly

Don’t you see yellow and white butterflies in the spring? Children chasing the gently fluttering butterflies are so adorable, aren’t they? This craft project is all about those cute butterflies.

Teachers can prepare butterfly-shaped templates by cutting them out, and let the children freely enjoy decorating them with stickers.

They can make them while recalling the butterflies they met outside, or by looking at picture books and field guides—it sounds fun either way! Once finished, you can display the butterflies on the wall, or attach clear thread and hang them so they look like they’re flying around the room.

The children are sure to love it.

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