[Nursery/Kindergarten] Crafts you can play with after making them
At daycare centers and kindergartens, there are many opportunities to make toys using familiar recycled materials.
Making their own toys and playing with them lets children enjoy the process of creating, builds confidence, and gives them a sense of accomplishment—benefits that greatly support their development.
Let’s actively incorporate lots of these activities.
This time, we’re introducing craft ideas that kids can play with after making them.
Tops, pinwheels, puzzles—ideas that are sure to spark children’s curiosity!
Feel free to adapt them while incorporating the children’s ideas, and create one-of-a-kind toys bursting with originality!
They’ll surely grow attached to them, and the fun will double.
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- Craft activity ideas for 4-year-olds
- [Childcare] Recommended for toddlers! Toy ideas you can make and play with
- Paper cup crafts that elementary school kids will love! A collection of fun project ideas
- Let’s make it with 3-year-olds! Fun handmade toy ideas
- Recommended for 5-year-olds! Simple DIY toy ideas
- Toddler-approved fun! DIY toy ideas for 2-year-olds
- [Childcare] Easy! Make a DIY target game. Playful craft and fun game
- [Childcare] Simple DIY ideas you can use for pretend shops
- Easy to make! DIY ideas for Whack-a-Gator
- Craft activity ideas that parents and children can enjoy together during a preschool observation day
[Nursery/Kindergarten] Crafts You Can Play With After Making (31–40)
Make It with 100-Yen Shop Items! Daruma Otoshi
https://www.tiktok.com/@sayacky_be.child/video/7458612859551894802How about making the classic New Year’s game “Daruma-otoshi” using items from a 100-yen shop? It’s very easy to make, and you’ll end up with a toy you can enjoy over and over.
First, fill a dessert cup with small stones, put the lid on, and that will be the body of the Daruma.
Create the face base and patterns with tape, stick them on, then draw the eyes and mustache with a pen to finish.
For the mallet, stack and glue four plastic bottle caps together, then attach a wooden chopstick as the handle.
If the Daruma is too light, it won’t stack properly when it falls, so be sure to put plenty of stones inside.
3D horse made of Perler beads
Iron beads are a handmade toy you can even find at 100-yen shops.
You arrange small pipe-shaped pieces on a pegboard and fuse them with the heat of an iron to enjoy all kinds of designs.
Basically, you make flat designs, but like this horse idea, you can combine flat pieces to create three-dimensional results too.
Iron beads are sold in a wide variety of colors, so try making a horse in your favorite shades.
Add a horn and it might even become a unicorn!
Puppet horse
You can put it on your hand and make the mouth chomp! Here’s a handmade horse puppet idea.
You’ll use a sock, foam sheets, felt, yarn, and googly eyes.
Stack two half-circle pieces of foam sheet and tape the straight edges together, then attach them to the cut end of the sock with a hot glue gun.
Line the contact surfaces of the foam with pink felt and glue on teeth made from white felt.
Finally, add the facial features, a yarn mane, and felt ears—and you’re done!
A little horse to enjoy with a glove theater
@amico.369 2023 was the year my wish to ride a horse came true. I even turned it into a glove theater performance! lol#Glove TheaterChildcareNow available: three acclaimed books!#amico’s glove theater
♪ Original Song – Various by amico. – amico’s Glove Theater♪
How about making a glove horse that can also be used as a glove theater prop? You’ll need a brown glove, felt fabric, construction paper, and yarn.
Use the thumb of the glove as the head and the other four fingers as the legs.
First, make the horse’s face out of felt and attach it to the thumb.
Then glue hooves made from construction paper to the tips of the remaining fingers.
Finally, bundle some yarn to make a tail and glue it to the palm side, facing outward.
When performing as a glove theater, face the back of your hand forward so it looks like a horse.
Make it with a snack box! Cute little horse
Let’s make a horse toy that sticks out its head when you pinch and move its tail! All you need is a box from your favorite snacks.
First, cut the box into three ring-shaped slices about 2 cm wide.
Stand one ring vertically, then place a second ring next to it to form the horse’s neck and body, and staple them together.
Take the third ring, align its left edge, and attach it underneath the neck and body.
Once attached, flatten it so that the box juts out to the left, and staple it again.
Finally, use the remaining box material to make the head, ears, legs, and tail, attach them, and you’re done!