For summer vacation homework! Simple and amazing crafts for elementary school students that you’ll want to make after seeing them
A fun summer vacation homework project for kids: crafts! But as children move into the upper grades, they can run out of ideas and worry about making something that doesn’t end up being the same as their friends’.
So here, we’re introducing craft ideas recommended for elementary school students from lower to upper grades.
Many use materials you already have at home or can buy at a 100-yen shop, so they’re easy to try.
The ideas are designed to help kids discover their own unique projects and express their creativity.
Use these as a reference and make some wonderful summer vacation memories!
- Simple yet amazing crafts: craft ideas that elementary school students will want to make
- Elementary School Students: Simple One-Day Science Project and Craft Ideas
- Simple but awesome! Craft ideas for upper-grade girls
- Recommended for elementary school students! Science fair topics & craft ideas
- DIY science projects that elementary school boys will love: ideas you can make with everyday materials
- For upper-grade boys! Simple yet awesome craft project [Don’t call it lazy]
- Paper cup crafts that elementary school kids will love! A collection of fun project ideas
- Fun crafts using straws
- Toys you can make from cardboard crafts! Authentic ideas you can build and play with
- Simple and cute summer project crafts! A collection of ideas for girls that will make you want to create
- Crafts parents and kids can enjoy together. Recommended craft ideas to keep children entertained.
- [For Adults] Simple yet Impressive Crafts: A Stylish, Eye-Catching Collection
- Craft ideas using plastic bottle caps [for boys]
[For Summer Vacation Homework!] Simple and Amazing Crafts for Elementary School Students That You'll Want to Make (71–80)
Powerful! Chopstick Gun
Prepare seven pairs of disposable chopsticks and plenty of rubber bands as materials.
First, use five pairs of chopsticks to make the main body.
Stack the chopsticks for the body alternately left and right so that about two-thirds overlap.
Secure them firmly at two points with rubber bands, then cut a notch at the front end to hook a rubber band.
Attach a short, cut chopstick to the rear of the body as the trigger, and glue another chopstick fixed in a V-shape behind that as the grip.
Your powerful chopstick gun is complete!
A rapid-fire chopstick rubber-band gun
This is a rubber band gun made from chopsticks, finished with a mechanism that allows rapid fire by combining small pieces cut from disposable chopsticks with rubber bands.
The base is essentially a bundle of chopsticks tied together with rubber bands, to which you attach parts such as the rubber band hook (which serves as the ammunition), the grip, and the trigger components.
Although the structure is complex, the only tools you need are chopsticks, rubber bands, and scissors, so once you get used to the steps, it feels fairly simple.
It’s also important to firmly secure each part so it can withstand the tension of the loaded rubber bands.
Marble Maze
This is a craft project where you build a 3D maze using marbles and cardboard.
All you need are easy-to-get materials like graph paper, glue, a utility knife, cardboard, and marbles, so preparation is simple.
If you keep it simple, you can probably finish it in a day.
For older kids or anyone who wants to get more creative, try designing intersecting upper and lower pathways for the marble or adding trapdoors and other clever features.
hourglass
Buying a craft kit and finishing it up quickly is great, but gathering the materials yourself and making it with a little effort can be fun too.
An hourglass is perfect for that kind of project.
You can make one with a plastic bottle, a straw, and some fine, free-flowing sand! Finding sand that flows well enough for an hourglass might be a bit of a challenge, though.
Fix the straw in place with thick paper or clay, then connect two sand-filled plastic bottles with tape, and you’re done! If you have the materials, you can make it in about half a day.
Fifth- or sixth-graders can do it on their own without help.
Thin hourglasses made with thick paper are also popular.
Be sure to check them out!
How to make a paper popper
Here’s how to make a simple paper pop gun using a plastic wrap core.
First, roll up some paper to make a small ball about 1 cm in diameter.
Cut a balloon around the middle and attach it to the end of the wrap core.
Secure it with a rubber band so it doesn’t come off, and you’re done! Put the paper ball inside, pull the balloon back, and launch the paper ball you made.
You can also decorate the gun however you like or use cardboard to give it a cool gun shape.
Have fun with your own original ideas!
How to make a paper popper
Here’s how to make a simple paper pop gun using a plastic wrap core.
First, roll up some paper to make a small ball about 1 cm in diameter.
Cut a balloon around the middle and attach it to the end of the wrap core.
Secure it with a rubber band so it doesn’t come off, and you’re done! Put the paper ball inside, pull the balloon back, and launch the paper ball you made.
You can also decorate the gun however you like or use cardboard to give it a cool gun shape.
Have fun with your own original ideas!
Marble Climbing
When you think of a marble run, you usually imagine marbles rolling from top to bottom, but this one makes the marble go upward.
First, prepare a wooden board with many holes big enough for a marble to fall through, and combine it with other wooden boards at an angle to form a box shape.
Next, make a small box just large enough to hold a marble.
Cut holes in the front and back of this box so the marble can pass through.
Attach strings to the box so you can pull it from both sides, creating a mechanism that lifts the marble upward—then it’s complete.
If, while lifting the marble, it slips through the box’s holes and falls into one of the holes in the wooden board, you’re out.
If the marble climbs all the way to the top without falling, you win!
