![[For Seniors] Craft ideas to enjoy Children’s Day: cute decorations of carp streamers, samurai helmets, and Kintaro](https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/KI9gniSg4Q8/maxresdefault.webp)
[For Seniors] Craft ideas to enjoy Children’s Day: cute decorations of carp streamers, samurai helmets, and Kintaro
This article introduces craft ideas themed around Tango no Sekku (Children’s Day) that are perfect for older adults! May-only motifs like carp streamers, samurai helmets, Kintaro, and iris flowers are colorful and uplifting just to make.
Everything uses familiar materials like origami and construction paper, so they’re ideal for recreational activities in senior care facilities.
Please enjoy a moment of seasonal celebration with your fingertips, together with everyone.
[For Seniors] Craft ideas to enjoy Children’s Day. Cute decorations of carp streamers, samurai helmets, and Kintaro (1–10)
Kabuto decoration made from paper plates
Let’s make a compact kabuto (samurai helmet) decoration, imbued with the wish for children to grow strong, using a paper plate.
The key is to make it three-dimensional by taking advantage of the folds and layering small parts.
The ridged rim of the paper plate is also a feature—by emphasizing it with a pen, you can convey the weight of the helmet.
A paper plate alone can look plain, so it’s important to add other colors using origami paper or string.
It’s recommended to think from the perspective of how to creatively express a sense of heft and strength.
Koinobori wall decoration
When it comes to May, many people think of carp streamers gliding gracefully across the sky.
Here’s a craft that lets you enjoy those carp streamers indoors anytime.
Using a paper cup cut to one-quarter size and Japanese-pattern origami, make your own koi nobori.
Use eye stickers for the eyes and draw the whiskers with a permanent marker.
Create the true love koi, the red koi, and the baby koi with your favorite origami patterns.
We’ll also fold a kabuto helmet, a pinwheel, and irises using quarter-size chiyogami.
Make a backing board from construction paper and origami, and attach the carp streamers and pinwheel.
Build a wall-hanging base with four disposable chopsticks, fix the backing board in place, and it’s complete.
Japanese-pattern origami brings a calm, refined atmosphere.
Choose patterns you like and create your own original wall decoration.
carp-streamer ornament
This is a small tabletop koinobori ornament that lets you enjoy the spirit of May anytime.
Let’s build the base using wood-like craft materials you can get at a 100-yen shop: an MDF board, felt, bamboo skewers, and toothpicks.
Use an awl to make small holes in the MDF board and secure the bamboo skewers and toothpicks.
Make a ring with craft band, and create three carp streamers using patterned origami and colored paper.
Also make a spinning ball with craft band, and an iris flower and a samurai helmet with origami; attach each to the bamboo skewers and toothpicks to finish.
It doesn’t take up much space, so it’s perfect for displaying in the homes of older adults or in rooms at care facilities.
Since there’s a lot of fine work involved, it’s recommended for people who enjoy crafting.
Kintaro made with a Yakult container
Kintaro, whose kindness and robust figure are depicted in folktales.
The Kintaro dolls displayed on Children’s Day are put up with the wish that children will grow up healthy and kind-hearted.
How about making such a Kintaro ornament using a familiar Yakult bottle? Cut a circle from thick paper the size of the Yakult opening and attach it to the mouth.
Stick double-sided tape on the bottle and wrap skin-colored yarn around and around.
Wrapping it carefully without gaps will give you a neat finish.
Wind black yarn around your hand to make the hair and topknot.
Make the belly apron from red felt and the axe from black felt, and add eyes with rhinestone stickers to complete it.
You might also make a carp streamer and display them together.
Tsumami-zaiku: Koinobori displayed in a frame
This is a three-dimensional carp streamer made by attaching quilt batting and chirimen fabric to thick paper to form the body, then finishing it by gluing on scales made with the round pinching technique.
Gold decorative cord is used for the carp’s face and tail fin patterns, making the piece very glamorous.
The key point for adding individuality is the scales.
Please design them using your favorite chirimen fabrics.
Let’s also make irises and pinwheels to decorate the frame.
A frame from a 100-yen shop is fine.
You won’t use the front acrylic panel, so please remove it.
Plump-scaled koinobori (carp streamer)
Why not make koi-shaped streamers with cute, plump scales to decorate your wall? Just hanging them in a senior facility or your own room will instantly brighten the atmosphere and let you feel the season anytime.
Use two sheets of colored construction paper to make the base of the koi streamer.
Add a slight curve to suggest it’s swimming.
Join the two pieces together and trim the tail into a triangle.
For the scales, cut origami paper into teardrop shapes, snip them slightly, and glue them on so they become three-dimensional.
Using multiple origami patterns makes them extra cute.
The more scales you add, the more impactful it will look, so why not work together during activity time to create them as a group?
A three-dimensional koi-nobori you can place and display
Let’s make a koi-nobori carp streamer from origami that you can place as a decoration.
Take a 7.5 cm square sheet of origami paper, fold about 1 cm along one side, then fold the two adjacent sides so their corners meet at a slight angle to form the koi-nobori.
Using round stickers for the eyes makes it quick and easy.
Make two of these.
For the streamer, use a 7.5 cm square of white origami paper.
Fold about 1.5 cm along one side and secure it with tape, then attach red, yellow, and green origami strips measuring 1.5 cm by 7.5 cm.
Attach pipe cleaners to both the koi-nobori and the streamer, and fasten them to a straw fixed to a base to finish.
Enjoy crafting koi-nobori that gracefully “swim” in the refreshing May weather.