[Childcare] Summer wall display ideas: fun summer craft activities
When you think of summer, it’s the season packed with fun activities like summer festivals, swimming in the ocean, fireworks displays, and Tanabata.
You’ll want your wall displays to be wonderful, too, so they convey the joy of summer to the children.
In this article, we’ll share ideas for summer wall displays.
Alongside classics like the sea and fireworks, we’ll also introduce ideas that incorporate delicious summer foods and seasonal events.
There are ideas you can make together with the children, so they’re great to include as craft activities.
For older preschoolers, it might be nice to discuss last summer’s memories and choose a theme based on that.
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[Childcare] Summer wall display ideas. Fun summer craft activities (91–100)
Curtain of the Sea
Let’s try making a cool, ocean-themed curtain using items like raffia ribbon.
Cut several strands of blue-toned raffia ribbon to match the width of your window.
Then freely attach paper cutouts shaped like sea creatures, origami sea animals, or drawings of the ocean that you’ve cut out.
You’ll end up with a piece that feels just like being under the sea or in an aquarium! If you let the children create their own sea creatures freely, they can enjoy the project without worrying much about age differences.
Underwater exploration by submarine
Many children may associate summer with the beach, but it’s not often that we get to take a good look at the scenery under the sea.
So how about creating a wall decoration that shows an underwater exploration in a submarine? Put cute animals or the children themselves aboard the submarine, and arrange lots of colorful fish and sea creatures around it.
For the fish patterns, we recommend adding cut-paper pieces, doing finger painting, or using stickers.
Let’s let the children enjoy the rare undersea views that they don’t often get to see!
Paper Cup Fireworks
Let’s use a paper cup to make a beautiful firework! Make slits all the way around the cup, cutting from the rim down toward the bottom.
Then, spread open the slits and your firework is complete! It’s a good idea to color the cup or draw pictures on it before cutting.
If you have paper cups that are already colorful or patterned, you can use them as they are.
If you prepare paper cups in various sizes, you can create fireworks in large and small sizes.
A sea of paint and transparent film
Let’s try painting a magical ocean scene using paint and a transparent film.
On a large sheet of paper, like poster board, dab paint onto the surface at random.
It’s best to use quite a generous amount of paint.
After applying the paint, cover it with a transparent film.
Then, focusing on the areas with paint, tap gently with your hands on top of the film to spread the paint.
You’ll end up with a beautiful, dreamlike ocean! If you add various sea creatures on top of the finished ocean, you’ll create a lively and delightful marine scene.
ringed crown jellyfish
Let’s make a jellyfish using paper chains, like the ones you often see as birthday party decorations! First, make the jellyfish’s head using construction paper or a paper plate.
If you’re using a paper plate, you can paint it your favorite color.
Next, make paper chains using origami in colors you like.
It’s fun to mix different kinds, such as glittery origami or transparent origami.
Unlike party decorations, you don’t need to make the chains very long—just create several strands with about 4–5 links each.
Use these as the jellyfish’s tentacles and attach them to the head you made earlier—that’s it! If the teacher prepares thin, pre-cut strips of origami paper, all that’s left is for the kids to paste them into chains, making it an easy activity for them.
Dyed shoji paper fireworks painting
If you add color to shoji paper using the dye-painting technique, you can create calm, very elegant fireworks! Dye-painting is done by folding shoji paper several times and applying watercolor paint dissolved in water.
When you unfold it, softly blurred colors appear, and it looks so beautiful! I recommend applying several colors together on a single sheet.
After the paint dries—or before applying the paint—if you make various cuts with scissors as you would for kirie (paper cutting), you can also create fireworks patterns.
You can do this with washi calligraphy paper (hanshi) as well, so please give it a try.
Wall Art Activity with Watermelons (Ages 3–5)
This watermelon craft lets you enjoy fun details like fingertip seed stamps and a pipe-cleaner stem.
First, cut the red origami paper into a half-circle.
Next, fold the green origami paper in half and cut it into many small rectangles.
Glue the green rectangles along the straight edge of the red half-circle to make a watermelon.
For the seeds, dip your fingertip in black paint and stamp them on.
For another watermelon, cut the green origami paper into a circle and paint the watermelon rind pattern with black paint.
Bend a pipe cleaner to make a stem and glue it to the top.
It’s also fun to stick your finished watermelons onto a backing sheet wherever you like!
