[For 5-year-olds] Let’s enjoy summer! Summer craft ideas for 5-year-olds
A hot summer when heatstroke precautions mean more time spent indoors.
Here are some fun craft ideas that let children feel the summer even inside! Themes that five-year-olds will enjoy include fireworks, watermelons, stag beetles, and sunflowers.
Crafts using summer motifs nurture children’s imagination and expressive skills, and help them develop fine motor skills, too.
These activities are perfect for five-year-olds, so try making a variety of things and enjoy a wonderful summer! Because the children’s creations are treated as artworks, this text uses the term “seisaku” (制作) to refer to them.
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[For 5-year-olds] Enjoy Summer! Summer Craft Ideas for 5-Year-Olds (111–120)
Morning glories made with dyed paper
One of the things to look forward to as summer approaches is the morning glory.
Let’s use brightly colored dyed paper to express these flowers! First, cut a circle from washi paper, fold it, and dab paint onto the top so it soaks in; once it’s dry, unfold it.
Next, make leaves, vines, and a pot from construction paper and combine them with your dyed-paper morning glories.
If you use washi that absorbs paint well, you can beautifully recreate morning glories in soft, pale tones.
Coloring only the outer edges of the petals will make them look even more realistic.
You’ll end up with a summery piece that highlights each child’s individuality.
Be sure to include this in your summer craft ideas!
Painting with ice paints
If you’re looking for a cool idea perfect for summer, why not try painting with ice? This activity involves freezing water mixed with paint and using it to draw.
Prepare a palette with compartments, paints for coloring, and straws to serve as handles.
The key is to mix the paint a bit on the thick side.
When freezing, to keep the straws from tipping over, cover the palette with aluminum foil after the paint is mixed, poke holes, and insert the straws through them.
Slightly thicker drawing paper may also be better, as it’s less likely to tear.
Don’t set a specific composition or theme—let the kids enjoy free drawing.
fireworks
Fireworks crafts really are a hallmark of summer, aren’t they? How about enjoying the process while imagining your child’s smiling face? I recommend drawing lines on black construction paper with a white crayon, then stamping paint on top with your fingertips.
If you work from the center outward, you can create beautiful firework shapes.
Use lots of your favorite colors and try expressing dreamy fireworks you’d love to see.
If everyone works together on a large sheet of paper, it’ll make a perfect wall decoration, too.
wind chime
How about making a cute, refreshing-looking wind chime? You’ll need an empty jelly cup, washi tape, jewel stickers, a bell, twine, and an awl.
First, decorate the cup with washi tape.
Fill the open spaces with jewel stickers to finish the top part of the wind chime.
Next, please have the teacher/caregiver make two holes in the cup.
Tying the bell and the strip of paper (tanzaku) to the twine is great fine-motor practice for five-year-olds.
Let the children draw their favorite pictures on the tanzaku to enjoy customizing their wind chimes.
Flying Shooting Star
This is a flying shooting star craft made with paper cups that you can have fun playing with even after you make it! It’s also great for Tanabata, so why not include it as a seasonal project in kindergartens or nursery schools? First, make four slits in the rim of a paper cup.
Next, take two rubber bands, cross them to make one loop, and secure them in the slits of the cup.
You can use another paper cup as a launcher to play! A plain paper cup looks a bit bare, so it would be lovely to decorate it with construction paper, origami paper, or curling ribbon.
Enjoy seeing how creatively five-year-olds will finish their unique creations!
sunflower
Making sunflowers like the summer sun sounds fun.
First, draw a circle on a large sheet of paper, then extend the petals from it.
If you tear yellow origami paper and paste it on, the petals will have a soft, fluffy texture.
For the center with the seeds, crumple small pieces of brown origami paper and glue them on.
Make the leaves with green origami paper.
Tearing the paper and gluing it together with the children will make for a really enjoyable time.
Once the sunflowers are finished and hung on the wall, the whole room will feel brighter.
Summer insects made from scrap materials
Why not try making summer insects using cardboard and construction paper? This guide shows how to create bugs kids love, like rhinoceros beetles, stag beetles, and cicadas.
Use cardboard for the insect’s body, and cut it out while recalling the shape and size.
Next, tear construction paper to fit the cardboard, and twist or crumple it to form wings, horns, and legs.
Draw black pupils on a small circle of white construction paper and stick it onto the cardboard for the eyes, and you’re done.
Use construction paper in any colors you like and freely create your own summer insects!