Fun January Crafts! A Collection of Ideas You Can Make and Play With for 5-Year-Olds
The arts-and-crafts activities you include in January childcare are a perfect chance to share the fun of New Year’s traditions.
While exploring seasonal motifs like the lion dance, sacred Shinto ropes, and ema wishing plaques, it’s important to spark five-year-olds’ desire to “try it myself!” Here, we introduce ideas that stimulate children’s creativity—making snowmen with colorful cotton, creating waddling penguins from paper cups, and expressing a three-dimensional kagami mochi with whipped paint.
Enjoy the start of the new year together as you help children connect with tradition through hands-on projects! Since the children’s creations are treated as works of art, the term is written as “seisaku (制作)” in the text.
Fun January Crafts! A collection of make-and-play ideas with 5-year-olds (1–10)
Let’s tear and make it! Shishimai-kun
Let’s make a New Year’s shishimai (lion dance) using torn paper.
For the lion’s face, just fold about one-third of a sheet of origami paper, then attach the facial parts to finish it.
Use construction paper to create the body.
Prepare washi-style origami paper that you’ll tear by hand.
Apply glue over the area that will be the lion’s body, and stick the torn origami pieces on as you like.
Once it’s nicely covered, draw in the legs and other details, and attach the face last.
Since the color scheme is the key, it might be a good idea to think about your color combinations before you start tearing the paper.
Moving! Paper Cup Snowman
When January comes, there will surely be regions where snow piles up.
One of the seasonal symbols of snowy weather is the snowman.
So let’s make a snowman craft using a paper cup.
Draw the snowman’s face on the paper cup.
Then make a hole in the cup, insert a straw, and attach a mitten made from construction paper to the end of the straw.
When you move the straw, the hands will flap.
Kids are sure to enjoy a craft with a moving mechanism like this.
Perfect for New Year too! A Daruma you can make and play with
https://www.tiktok.com/@n.annlee321/video/7045232229122886914In January, it seems many regions hold Daruma markets.
Crafting a lucky Daruma is perfect for a January art project.
Prepare three strips of construction paper cut into small tanzaku-like pieces.
Take one marble and glue the paper strips together to wrap around it.
Draw a Daruma face on a round sticker and attach it to the marble-filled paper to finish.
Because the marble is inside, the Daruma will roll around amusingly when you set it in motion.
If you make a slope and hold Daruma-rolling races, the children are sure to get excited.
Let’s make it snow with Choki-Choki-Pon!
https://www.tiktok.com/@hoiku.labo/video/7447001460157582599Let’s make it snow using stencils cut from origami paper.
First, fold the origami into quarters to make a triangle, then fold it even more finely.
Once folded, use scissors to cut along the outside and inside and then unfold it.
You’ll see unexpectedly beautiful snowflake shapes appear.
Load a sponge with white paint, place the stencil on a dark-colored backing paper, and dab to make lots of snowflakes.
It might be fun to shift the stencil slightly and dab again.
If you try different cutting methods when making the stencils, you’ll get all kinds of snowflakes, which makes it really interesting.
Easy-to-make snowman using a plastic bottle
https://www.tiktok.com/@hoiku.labo/video/7442147500036787464For winter crafts, many projects use snowmen as their theme, don’t they? If you use an empty plastic bottle, you can easily make a snowman craft.
Stuff cotton into the empty bottle.
Once the container is tightly filled, put the cap on, then draw eyes with a pen or decorate it with stickers.
Wrap a thin, long strip of felt or ribbon around the snowman’s neck area and glue it on to finish.
You can display it in your room as is, or make several and line them up to play like bowling—it sounds fun either way.
Let’s make winter animals!
https://www.tiktok.com/@hoiku.labo/video/7461832077416107282Let’s make a winter animal—a snow rabbit—using colored construction paper.
First, use white paper to make a plump, egg-like shape.
Cut out nandina (heavenly bamboo) leaves and berries from colored paper as well.
Create a window with falling snow from colored paper, then paste the rabbit there.
If the snow pieces for the window are too small and tricky, a parent or guardian can cut them, or you could draw them with a white crayon instead.
Putting this on a wall or mounting it on a backing sheet will enhance the winter mood and look lovely.
You could also change the wall decorations with each season.
Shimenawa you can make with chiyogami paper
https://www.tiktok.com/@haruharo_made/video/7309046150202477842We’ll make a shimenawa-style decoration using washi paper.
The base will be a paper plate with the center cut out.
The cut-out center of the plate will be used as the knot of the shimenawa.
First, glue crumpled brown-toned washi paper onto the paper plate that will serve as the base.
Attach washi paper to the knot in the same way.
Once that’s done, create and stick on decorations such as the zodiac animal for that year, as well as pine, bamboo, and plum blossoms using colored construction paper.
And that’s it—you’re finished.
If you make the zodiac ornament removable, you can likely reuse the decoration the following year.
Give it a try!