Wonderful school festival / cultural festival

Recommended crafts for cultural festival exhibits. Ideas that are also perfect for venue decorations.

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 as a kindergarten teacher for 10 years and as an after-school childcare instructor for 7 years, then took a position as a music teacher at an international school in Singapore. In addition to music education, I engaged in activities that introduced Japanese culture, traditional games, and recreational activities, working with many children. Later, through freelance writing, planning, and editing at Shogakukan, I met many delightful adults and experienced the joy of communicating and sharing. Drawing on the perspective cultivated in the field of education and my experience as an editor, I provide practical information with an emphasis on both input and output, mainly in areas related to music and children. My hobbies include instruments, singing, handicrafts, toys, drawing, traditional games, the outdoors, and books. My special skill is spinning-top tricks.
Keyboard playerSAKI
I’ve been playing the Electone since I was six, mainly performing Disney music, anime songs, and music from dramas and films. I post performance videos on YouTube and social media, and I also give concerts. Building on my Electone experience, I took up synthesizer and piano during my student years and performed at school-sponsored events. As a writer, I’ve covered not only music-related topics but a wide range of genres, so I hope to draw on my experience to deliver articles that make readers think, “I want to try that!” or “I want to listen to that!”

At school festivals, many classes probably display crafts that everyone made together, right?

There may also be classes that sell handmade goods they created themselves!

In this article, we’ll introduce plenty of ideas for crafts and DIY projects that are perfect for a school festival.

We’ve gathered lots of projects you can make with familiar materials like cardboard and plastic bottles.

Handmade goods and DIY projects are trending, so let’s create something that will amaze everyone in your class!

Recommended crafts for cultural festival exhibits: Perfect ideas for venue decorations (41–50)

Peel art

Peel Art: “Peel Art” that enjoys fruit peels

Peel art

Have you ever heard the term “peel art”? As the name suggests, peel art refers to artworks made using peels.

The peels are from vegetables and fruits—materials that would normally be thrown away as trash.

For citrus fruits like mandarins, you make cuts while the peel is still soft, shape your piece, and then let it dry for a few days.

If you make many and hang them up, they become a very beautiful art display, and everyone will be amazed to learn it used to be “garbage.” You could also try making items like lampshades using vegetable peels.

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Giant mosaic

Using about 500,000 one-centimeter-square colored paper pieces, high school students joined forces to create a giant mosaic in Takamatsu City.

Giant mosaic

Let’s take on a mural! Here are some ideas for a giant mosaic.

When holding a school cultural festival, many schools set a theme or a main illustration, right? This time, how about expressing your theme or illustration as a giant mosaic using about 500,000 one-centimeter-square pieces of colored paper? All you need are colored paper, glue or double-sided tape, and so on.

Cutting and pasting the paper may seem tedious, but the finished work will make a strong impact and leave a dynamic impression.

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Cardboard Air Hockey

[Experiment] We Built an Air Hockey Table Out of Cardboard and Had a Serious Showdown! [DIY]

Cardboard Air Hockey

Air hockey is a popular game in arcades.

Kids love it, but adults also can’t help getting serious and fired up about it.

How about making a small version of that air hockey game and playing it together? You can easily make one using items from a 100-yen shop, like a whiteboard, cardboard, and empty snack boxes.

Even if it’s not the main activity, just leaving it in the corner of the classroom could secretly turn a quick time-killer into something super exciting (lol).

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Target shooting

[Craft] Gun Target 2_Akibako Factory 71

Target shooting

How about making a shooting gallery like the ones you often see at festival stalls, using cardboard and other scrap materials? And of course, the targets are treats that everyone would be happy to win! It’s exciting when you can snag one, and it gets kids—and even adults—totally pumped (lol).

You could make a few in regular cardboard-box size, or go the extra mile and build a big target and stand to really liven things up.

You can use toy guns, but making the guns by hand out of cardboard and the like is also an option.

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Character made of cardboard

Cardboard Transformer Appears

Character made of cardboard

It might be a good idea to make and display robots or mecha from manga and anime out of cardboard.

The harder they seem to recreate, the more surprising they’ll be, and they’re sure to attract attention.

Even if they’re not anime characters, things like sports cars or heavy machinery used at construction sites would probably be a hit too.

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Fishing showdown

[Experiment] A cardboard fishing showdown turned into a far more heated battle than expected… [Crafts]

Fishing showdown

Draw your favorite fish on cardboard and have a fishing showdown.

Everything you need is easy to prepare, so you can start right away.

The more unique the fish, the more fun it is, right? And who knows—if you draw not just fish but all kinds of things, it might get even more exciting!

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Mask making

I tried making a fully functional Stone Mask!!

Mask making

The masks you often see at festival stalls.

Those masks could probably be made using paper as a base, but how about trying to create a stone-like mask using clay? I have a feeling it would look more artistic than making it with plain paper.

You could use air-dry paper clay that hardens after it dries, but these days there are many types of modeling clays available, and you can easily buy stone powder clay and wood powder clay at 100-yen shops.

Wood powder clay in particular becomes wood-like once it dries, and you can carve and shave it with chisels.

It also sounds fun to try making one freehand without using molds.

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