Let’s make it with 3-year-olds! Fun handmade toy ideas
Let’s make and play with handmade toys together with your three-year-old!
Making your own toys lets children experience the joy of creating original pieces and gives them a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment—there are so many benefits.
So this time, we’ve gathered ideas for DIY toys recommended for three-year-olds.
Everything uses familiar materials and involves simple tasks with few steps, making them easy for three-year-olds to try.
Have fun drawing freely, adding decorations, and creating a one-of-a-kind special toy together.
- [Childcare] Recommended for 3-year-olds! Craft activity ideas
- Toddler-approved fun! DIY toy ideas for 2-year-olds
- Let's play with paper cups! Crafts and indoor play
- Let's make toys with straws! Easy and fun DIY toys
- [For 3-year-olds] A roundup of craft ideas to enjoy in summer! Introducing various motifs and techniques
- [Childcare] Recommended for 3-year-olds! Play ideas everyone can enjoy
- Irresistible for 3-year-olds! A collection of fun Halloween craft ideas to make
- Let's make toys with milk cartons! Easy and fun DIY crafts!
- Age 4: Simple and Fun! Handmade Toy Ideas
- Craft activity ideas that parents and children can enjoy together during a preschool observation day
- [Nursery/Kindergarten] Crafts you can play with after making them
- [Childcare] Easy! Make a DIY target game. Playful craft and fun game
- [November] Enjoy with 3-year-olds! Craft activity ideas recommended for autumn
Let’s Make It with 3-Year-Olds! Fun DIY Toy Ideas (21–30)
Magnet UFO
Unpredictable! Irregular motion is fascinating! Here’s an idea for a magnetic unidentified flying object.
What comes to mind when you hear “UFO”? Some people might imagine round lights or being taken away in a bright beam.
The charm of this UFO is its irregular movement.
Let’s make a toy with addictive, unique motion by taking advantage of magnets’ properties! If there’s any chance a child might swallow a magnet, make sure a parent or teacher is always supervising nearby.
Handmade musical instruments
Let’s have fun making sounds and playing! Here are some ideas for homemade instruments.
Try playing while getting familiar with music using DIY drums, maracas, and castanets.
You can make instruments like drums, maracas, and castanets using paper plates and paper cups, and by freely decorating them with stickers and pens, you’ll nurture children’s creativity.
As they make sounds and keep the beat, they can experience the joy of playing along with music, which also helps develop fine motor skills and a sense of rhythm.
Let’s Make It with 3-Year-Olds! Fun DIY Toy Ideas (31–40)
origami
We’re introducing how to fold a stylish spinning top that you can make with just three sheets of origami paper! It’s perfect for making and playing together with your child or friends.
You’ll create each part with the three sheets of paper and assemble them at the end.
There aren’t many difficult steps, and you won’t need glue or scissors, so kids can easily give it a try.
You can also freely customize it by changing the colors or adding patterned paper, letting you express your originality! It would make a delightful handmade gift from a child, too!
Snow globe made from a plastic bottle
Here’s how to make a snow globe using a plastic bottle.
Prepare an empty bottle from a lactic acid bacteria drink, decorative pom-poms, beads, glitter, liquid glue, and a hot glue gun.
Put the beads and decorative pom-poms into the empty drink bottle.
Fill the bottle about halfway with liquid glue, then add water.
Color a piece of paper with colored pens, place it into the bottle, and let it tint the liquid.
Mix everything together, then top up with water to push out any air, and you’re done.
Close the cap tightly and secure it with a hot glue gun so it won’t open.
Wrap vinyl tape around the top to finish.
Decorating with washi tape might make it even cuter!
Making houses out of thick paper (cardstock)
Here’s a guide to making an adorable cardboard house.
Use a ruler to sketch the house’s dimensions on the cardboard.
Carefully cut along the guidelines with scissors or a craft knife.
Add color to the cardboard using construction paper.
Cutting the construction paper with scissors is recommended, but tearing and pasting pieces might add a charming, handmade feel to the work as well.
Use glue to attach the parts and assemble them so they don’t fall apart.
Once you add the final decorations, your cute dollhouse is complete.
If you like, adding sparkly stickers or beads can make it even more charming!
Handmade tambourine using 100-yen shop materials
Make it with a one-year-old! Here are ideas for handmade tambourines using materials you can get at a 100-yen shop.
What you’ll need: paper plates, washi tape, air-dry clay, disposable chopsticks, bells, and stickers.
Let’s create handmade instruments together with one-year-old children! The finished instruments can be tambourines or drums, and the charm is that each child can play freely.
It’s adorable to see children freely perform to music with their own original instruments, decorated by cheerfully sticking on stickers.
Perfect for button practice! Onigiri
Here’s an idea for felt rice balls that help kids practice buttoning! First, cut a rectangle from white felt and fold it.
Keeping the middle of the folded edge intact, cut it into a rice ball shape.
Make fillings like pickled plum or salmon and sew on snap buttons.
Sew matching snap buttons to the center of the rice ball’s inside as well.
Sew a two-hole button to the upper inside part of the rice ball, and make a slit on the opposite side.
Finally, glue a strip of seaweed cut from black felt to the outside, and you’re done! Attach your favorite filling and close the rice ball with the buttons to enjoy making onigiri.
