[For 3-year-olds] Perfect January Winter & New Year Crafts! A Collection of Fun, Hands-On Ideas

Origami Plum Blossoms Kids Can Enjoy—Perfect for New Year’s Too!

Childcare Ideas for New Year and Winter Origami: Easy Ume (Plum Blossom) Flower Origami (Kids Can Make It Themselves!) · Origami Flower Ume – Easy

Free-thinking sparks children’s creativity! It’s a great idea that lets kids enjoy both the focus of folding origami along lines and corners, and the excitement of tearing it dynamically.

Use the torn origami as beautiful branches, then stick on carefully folded plum blossoms to create your very own plum tree.

Drawing the pistils and stamens with crayons or colored pencils will help capture the distinctive features of plum flowers even more.

Take this opportunity to give it a try!

Handmade toys you can play with during the New Year

[Production] Handmade toys you can play with at New Year (spinning tops/kite flying/hanetsuki)

Try making New Year’s crafts that you can enjoy and play with even after they’re finished, together as a parent-child activity.

You’ll make a spinning top, a kite, and a hanetsuki set (paddle and shuttlecock).

For the top, draw pictures on the sides of a paper cup, cut four evenly spaced slits and flare them open, then attach a plastic bottle cap as the handle.

For the kite, slightly offset and layer two sheets of origami paper and glue them together; attach sparkly tape as the tails to complete the body, then add a lactic-acid drink bottle as the handle and tie on kite string.

For the hanetsuki paddle, use cardboard and disposable chopsticks: cut two paddle-shaped pieces from cardboard, sandwich the chopsticks between them, and glue.

For the shuttlecock, tie a knot in the middle of some raffia (suzuran) tape, press a small ball of tissue onto the knot, and wrap it with origami paper.

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Let’s enjoy New Year’s games!

[Ages 0–2] Let’s Enjoy New Year’s Games!

Let’s set up various stations in the playground so the children can experience New Year’s traditions.

We’ll introduce five activities: rice-cake pounding (mochitsuki), spinning tops (koma), karuta card games, kite flying (takoage), and visiting a shrine to offer prayers.

For mochitsuki, we’ll actually use a mortar and pestle to pound the mochi, while the tops, karuta, kites, and shrine are all handmade.

By making good use of cardboard and milk cartons, you can create remarkably authentic items.

Children can play with the toys you’ve made, or they can take on the challenge of making them themselves.

Enjoy New Year’s experiences suited to the children’s ages.

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Cute Daruma origami

[ New Year Origami ] Easy and Cute Daruma Folding Method | Origami Daruma

Auspicious! Making colorful daruma with the children and lining them up as decorations would instantly brighten up the room, wouldn’t it? Daruma are often displayed as New Year’s ornaments, and it’s said their origin as lucky charms comes from their characteristic of getting back up even after they fall.

It’s also lovely to make them with origami in the children’s favorite colors.

However, since the colors of daruma each carry meaning, it can be a great time to deepen learning while crafting.

This is a recommended idea for preschool classes, so be sure to give it a try.

Cute wobbly daruma doll

[Preschool Craft] New Year’s decoration: cute wobbly Daruma | Daruma doll for New Year’s decoration

Let’s make a cute daruma that wobbles when you poke it.

You’ll need a paper plate, construction paper, and a pen.

Please prepare construction paper in four colors for the body, face, eyes, and decorations.

First, cut the body piece of construction paper into a circle to match the size of the paper plate.

Next, cut an oval from the face-colored paper, and cut two small circles from the eye-colored paper.

Glue them in order—body, face, then eyes—and draw the pupils with the pen.

Then cut three ovals from the decorative paper and stick them below the face.

Fold the paper plate in half and attach the daruma to one side—that’s it! If you’re making this with small children, adults should prepare the parts in advance.

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Let’s make a hat with wax-resist painting!

Crayon-resist Art: Perfect winter crafts for 4- to 5-year-olds! A preschool teacher explains how to make hats and mittens.

Let’s enjoy wax-resist painting with winter-themed motifs! First, draw a hat and a pair of mittens on white paper.

Have the children trace the outlines with a white crayon, then let them add any patterns they like.

Since they’ll be drawing white on white, it’s hard to see—but hang in there! Once the patterns are done, paint over everything with watercolor diluted with water.

This will make the patterns drawn with the white crayon appear as if they’re popping out.

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Fluffy giant kagami mochi!

[January Wall Decoration] Fluffy Extra-Large Kagami Mochi [Easy Craft] Kagami mochi

Let’s brighten up your January wall display with a fluffy kagami mochi! You’ll make a kagami mochi, mandarin orange, sanpō tray, urajiro fern, shihōbeni (red-bordered paper), gohei (ceremonial paper), and a ribbon.

For the kagami mochi, stack several sheets of flower paper, accordion-fold them, tie the center with string, then fluff out each sheet one by one.

For the other parts, cut the shapes from colored construction paper or kraft paper and glue them together.

For the sanpō, it’s recommended to crumple the kraft paper once to add wrinkles for texture.

Along with the kagami mochi, adding origami flowers and the zodiac animal will make your wall display even more charming!

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