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.
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Fun January Crafts! A collection of make-and-play ideas for 5-year-olds (21–30)
Easy! Long-tailed Tit Origami

Adorably round! The long-tailed tit known as the Shima-enaga, a wild bird native to Hokkaido.
In recent years, we often see goods and items featuring its cute appearance as a motif.
Here’s an idea to make a Shima-enaga using a single sheet of origami paper, plus a pen and glue.
Once you’ve folded the creases, the base is done.
Making the wings and tail seems like something you could enjoy while teaching and learning together with friends or teachers! It could be fun to give it a smiling expression, too.
If you display the finished pieces lined up on a branch, like real Shima-enaga keeping warm together, both kids and adults are sure to feel soothed.
Fun for childcare! Indoor winter activities

Let me introduce some winter indoor activities that include crafts.
You can roll up cotton to look like fake snow, or put it into a plastic kiddie pool and play dynamically as if it were a bubble bath.
Use stamps on black construction paper to represent snowflakes, then glue origami penguins on top to create a winter-themed wall display.
A glowing tunnel made by sticking phosphorescent stickers onto cardboard is a space where kids will want to stay forever.
Why not fully enjoy winter indoors while incorporating children’s free ideas along the way?
Perfect for New Year! Cute origami osechi

Let’s make osechi ryori—New Year’s dishes that taste great when everyone eats together—using origami.
Using black origami paper, make four folded box parts for the outer box and glue them together in a box shape.
Attach them while checking the balance.
Next, make four inner boxes.
Once you set the inner boxes into the outer box, the base is complete.
For the contents, fold shrimp, nori (seaweed), kamaboko (fish cake), kelp rolls, and kampyo (dried gourd strips), making firm creases as you go.
Before you start, reading a picture book about the New Year to learn about its origins and meanings will help you enjoy making them even more.
How to Make a Kite You Can Enjoy Playing With on New Year’s

Here’s an idea for making spinning tops with acorns—very popular as an autumn craft.
You can buy acorns online, but since they’re often found on the ground in season, it’s great to use ones you’ve collected.
If you do, be sure to wash them and disinfect them with boiling water to prevent bugs before using.
The method is very simple: just make a hole in the acorn and insert a toothpick.
If the acorn is hard and difficult to pierce, have an adult help.
Drawing faces or patterns with a pen makes them extra cute!
A cute kotatsu you can make with 100-yen shop items!
The kotatsu makes its appearance when winter comes and temperatures drop.
The only downside is that once you get in, it’s hard to get out—but that gentle, enveloping warmth makes you feel so happy, doesn’t it? A kotatsu also makes a perfect motif for winter craft ideas.
Here, two ideas are introduced: one kotatsu made by placing a circular piece of fabric over a doll-sized table, and another made by cutting and shaping a square box.
There’s also a tutorial for making mandarins using decorative pom-poms and pipe cleaners, so feel free to use it as a reference and give it a try.
Cute! How to make mandarin oranges
@yuumaama2022 How to Make Mikan (Mandarin Oranges)TranslationchildChildcare#mikan#Child'sToy
♪ Original song – Yuumaaama – Yuumaaama
One of the classic winter fruits, mikan (mandarins), can also be made using familiar materials.
Crumple up some newspaper and wrap it with two or three sheets of orange tissue paper.
Put the tissue-wrapped newspaper into a small plastic bag, add a leaf, and you’re done.
Even four-year-olds with their small hands should be able to crumple the newspaper and wrap it with tissue to make a mikan.
They’ll probably enjoy squeezing and crumpling the newspaper tightly.
With a slight change of shape and color, you could even turn it into a strawberry.
It also sounds fun to try making various fruits by changing the tissue paper colors and more.
A fun igloo with stamp play
@hekimen_25 [Building a Kamakura with Stamp Play ☃️] Using a sponge to stamp—pop! pop! A stamping craft that kids can enjoy with total fascination 😆✨ In snowy regions, their imaginations might expand even more, making it even more fun… 🤭#Childcare Crafting#Production VideoNursery teacher / Childcare worker#Nursery school ProductionKamakura Stamp #paint
Tomodachi Collection – Love
Let’s try a fun winter craft with stamping.
First, apply white paint to a square sponge and stamp it all over a sheet of blue construction paper.
After the paint dries, cut the paper into the shape of an igloo.
Cut out the entrance of the igloo, a kotatsu, and the face and hands from construction paper, then glue them onto the igloo to finish.
Draw expressions on the face parts with crayons, and add any pattern you like to the kotatsu.
You can also use stamps or stickers to add patterns.



