Lovely childcare

Enjoy with everyday materials! Fun ideas for making oden

10 years as a kindergarten teacher / elementary school teacher / junior and senior high school teacher / childminderkepiko
Graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, Faculty of Music (now: Department of Music Culture and Education, Early Childhood Music Education major). In elementary school, my homeroom teacher was Jun Kusaba, a game researcher. After graduating from university, I worked as a kindergarten teacher for 10 years and as an after-school childcare instructor for 7 years, then took a position as a music teacher at an international school in Singapore. In addition to music education, I engaged in activities that introduced Japanese culture, traditional games, and recreational activities, working with many children. Later, through freelance writing, planning, and editing at Shogakukan, I met many delightful adults and experienced the joy of communicating and sharing. Drawing on the perspective cultivated in the field of education and my experience as an editor, I provide practical information with an emphasis on both input and output, mainly in areas related to music and children. My hobbies include instruments, singing, handicrafts, toys, drawing, traditional games, the outdoors, and books. My special skill is spinning-top tricks.
20 years of experience as a nursery teacher / kindergarten teacherhiyoko sensei
I’m Hiyoko-sensei, a former nursery school teacher from Hyogo Prefecture. Ever since I was five, my dream was to become a childcare worker, and before I knew it, 20 years had passed since I achieved that dream. Through singing and playing with the children, I kept working with the spirit of someone in their twenties, even as I increasingly felt my physical limits year by year (haha). From here on, I’d like to share helpful information carefully and thoughtfully, drawing on my on-site experience.

Oden, a popular winter craft! Why not try a fun project with children using colorful construction paper, felt, and yarn? With paper daikon radish, felt mochi pouches, and konnyaku knitted from yarn, you can create a warm, cozy world of oden using a variety of materials.

It’s a classic winter activity that everyone can enjoy together, whether at home, daycare, or kindergarten.

Let your imagination run wild and create your very own original oden! Note: Because the children’s creations are treated as works of art, the term used in the text is “制作 (seisaku)” rather than “製作 (seisaku).”

Have fun with familiar materials! Enjoyable Oden Craft Ideas (1–10)

Oden that can also become a wall!

https://www.tiktok.com/@chuwakosan.hoiku/video/7171736034940620033

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!

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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.

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Kids can play with it! Felt Oden

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Felt oden completed 🎀✨Handicrafts I want to connect with fellow handmade lovers Felt Handmade Sewing #HandmadeGirls Playing house #PlayHouseCommunity #Oden #Beginner Translation overcast stitch Blanket stitch
♫ Kewpie 3-Minute Cooking ORIGINAL COVER Instrumental Version – NIYARI Project

How about this for your child’s pretend play? If you stuff yellow felt with cotton and tie it with white felt, you get a kinchaku-style rice cake pouch.

Stuff cotton into a triangle made from gray felt to make konnyaku.

You can also make chikuwa by rolling light orange felt into a tube and attaching small brown felt pieces, and make daikon by shaping beige felt into a tire shape and stuffing it with cotton.

Since these use soft materials, it’s a safe and highly recommended idea for small children to play with!

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Enjoy With Everyday Materials! Fun Oden Craft Ideas (11–20)

Oden made with origami and tissue paper

Tissue paper can transform into all sorts of oden ingredients! For chikuwa, wrap white tissue paper around a toilet paper roll core and brush on brown paint with a cotton swab—done.

For mochi kinchaku, put a small crumpled piece of tissue inside yellow tissue paper and twist the opening shut with a chenille stem—OK! Combine these with other oden items made from origami, and you’ve got a full plate of oden.

You can also make kombu by accordion-folding black tissue paper and securing the center with a chenille stem, and make an egg by sticking a ball of yellow tissue paper onto light orange origami!

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Oden made with drawing paper and origami

[Made in February] Oden

Oden made with drawing paper and origami

How about warming up this cold winter by making oden with origami? Prepare construction paper for the pot and broth, and origami paper for the ingredients.

After cutting the construction paper into the shape of a pot and the broth, start folding eggs and daikon with the origami.

It’s cute to draw patterns or faces on the octopus, konnyaku, and kelp.

Paste the ingredients onto the pot you made with glue, and it’s complete.

This craft helps develop concentration while engaging with seasonal foods.

It’s also fun to ask the children what their favorite oden ingredients are and let them freely create them with origami.

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Felt oden

Oden made of felt, felt pretend play, pattern, manimani mamagoto, felt toy, pretend play, felt pattern, handmade toy, sewing

Felt oden

When winter comes, you crave warm foods, don’t you? So this time, let’s make oden out of felt fabric.

Soft felt is perfect for kids’ pretend play, too.

Cut and sew the felt to match your favorite ingredients—daikon radish, satsuma-age, konnyaku, chikuwa, mochi pouches, stuffed cabbage rolls, and more.

Add stuffing at the end to give them dimension, and they’ll look just like the real thing.

For the pot, prepare felt, fusible interfacing, thick cardstock, and quilt batting.

Make the pot’s base with the cardstock, then add the core layers—the key is to build the sturdy parts well.

Kids are sure to have a blast playing pretend cooking with the finished set.

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An oden stand made from a tissue box

[Crafts / Making] [Handmade Toy] Oden Stand Pretend-Play Set Made from a Tissue Box

An oden stand made from a tissue box

Perfect for winter make-believe play! Here’s how to make an oden shop set using a tissue box.

You’ll need: an empty tissue box, colored construction paper, yarn, tissue paper, felt, double-sided tape, clear tape, glue, kitchen twine, a utility knife, and scissors.

First, cut a larger opening around the tissue slot, then attach construction paper to the cut-out piece to create a lid.

Wrap the outside of the tissue box with construction paper using double-sided tape.

Add handles to make it look like a pot! Make your favorite ingredients—like eggs, shirataki noodles, and hanpen—and place them in the pot.

Your oden set is complete.

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