[January] Enjoy with 2-year-olds! A collection of craft ideas that capture winter and the New Year
January in early childhood education is a season to enjoy traditional New Year’s games and decorations.
For two-year-olds, creating crafts inspired by Japanese culture—such as kites, daruma dolls, and kagamimochi—turns into an experience full of new discoveries.
Hands-on activities like stamping and collage, which let children freely express themselves through textures, expand their imagination and deepen their interest in seasonal events.
Here, we introduce January craft ideas you can enjoy together with two-year-olds.
Savor the joy of making things together while feeling the spirit of January! Because the children’s creations are treated as works of art, we use the term “seisaku” (artwork/production) in the text.
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[January] Enjoy with 2-year-olds! A collection of craft ideas that capture winter and New Year’s vibes (51–60)
Oden that can also become a wall!
Here’s a craft project for making oden that even toddlers can do, and it can also be used for wall displays! First, let’s make the oden shop.
Cut colored construction paper into a face shape, then draw or glue on the oden shopkeeper’s facial features.
For very young children, prepare the face parts in advance.
Apply glue to the head area and stick on yarn hair piece by piece.
It’ll be fun to have yarn in various colors.
Next, let’s make the oden ingredients.
Stamp the konnyaku pattern using a cotton swab, make lots of your favorite ingredients, and then glue them onto colored construction paper of your choice to finish!
Make oden together with adults! From 0-year-old children
This is a craft activity where you stick oden ingredients made from construction paper onto a paper plate.
Depending on age, children can enjoy mainly sticking on pre-made pieces, or they can cut construction paper with scissors, draw patterns, and make the ingredients themselves.
The examples shown here include konnyaku, mochi-filled pouches, and kelp rolls.
There are many other classic oden ingredients too, so it would be fun to freely create them with construction paper.
It’s an idea that excites viewers as well, as they can see what kind of oden each child has made.
A wall display of oden that even two-year-olds can enjoy!
Stick this on the wall and it’s sure to make you hungry! First, cut out the shapes of a pot and soup from construction paper and glue them in place.
Next, cut out your favorite oden ingredients from construction paper.
If teachers at kindergartens or nurseries, or parents/guardians, pre-draw the shapes of various oden ingredients on the paper, children will only need to do the cutting.
Once the ingredients are cut out, arrange and paste them however you like inside the pot you made at the start—that’s it! Paste lots of your favorite ingredients and complete your very own original oden pot.
Made with sponge stamps! Fun oden
Using sponge stamps, we’ll create patterns for oden ingredients.
For example, for konnyaku, if you press a coarse-textured sponge or a sponge with raised bumps onto a triangle-cut piece of gray construction paper like a stamp, you can make the konnyaku’s speckled texture.
In the same way, using a sponge with carved grooves will make the daikon’s striations, and a sponge with fine cuts can create the wavy, mottled pattern of fish cakes.
Once your oden ingredients are ready, paste them onto construction paper cut into the shape of a pot to complete your oden hot pot!
[January] Enjoy with 2-year-olds! A collection of craft ideas that feel like winter and New Year (61–70)
Snowman made with tissue paper
Let’s make a cute snowman using tissue paper flowers! It’s a simple craft that even two-year-olds can try.
First, prepare several sheets of tissue paper and tear them vertically.
Next, stuff the torn tissue paper into a plastic bag and tie the opening.
Finally, round both ends of the bag, tie the center with a chenille stem (pipe cleaner) to shape it, and add eyes and a mouth to finish! Using round stickers for the snowman’s face and decorations makes it easier for two-year-olds to participate.
Give it a try!
[Tissue Paper] Fluffy Snowman
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Recommended winter craft for 1-year-olds! Here’s how to make a cute snowman using tissue paper and a paper plate.
What you’ll need: a paper plate, tissue paper, glue, crayons, a white drawing paper circle cut just a little smaller than the paper plate, and colored construction paper cut into a hat shape.
First, fold the paper plate in half and cut out the inside.
Tear the tissue paper into vertical strips, apply glue to the paper plate, then crumple the tissue paper and stick it on.
Using various colors to make it colorful is also cute.
Draw the snowman’s face with crayons on the round white paper, glue on the hat you made from construction paper, then attach the face to the paper plate—and it’s done!
[Stamp] Shishimai (lion dance) production
@user5055055172884 Kishiwada#Kishiwada KanKan Bayside MallOrange Nursery School#Company-led childcare centerRecruiting childcare workersAges 0 to 2Visiting Our Park Empty-HandedNew YearProductionShishimai (lion dance)#SMAPThe One and Only Flower in the World
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Have fun with cardboard stamping! Here’s a recommended shishimai (lion dance) craft for 1-year-olds.
You’ll need: face parts for the lion made from colored paper, body parts, cardboard stamps, paint, and glue.
First, put double-sided tape on the back of the face parts in advance.
Stick the parts on like a “fukuwarai” game to make the lion’s face.
An adult should help peel off the tape.
Next, dip the cardboard stamp—made by rolling cardboard into a spiral—into paint and have fun stamping! Stamp patterns onto the lion’s body.
Finally, glue the face and body together, and you’re done!