Recommended for elementary school students! Science fair topics & craft ideas

Creeper made from a milk carton

[Elementary School Summer Crafts & Independent Research] Make a Creeper from a Milk Carton—with a Head-Popping Mechanism!

Minecraft is a hugely popular game among kids.

Creepers are characters that appear in Minecraft and explode when they get close to the player.

Let’s make a craft that captures that feature using an empty milk carton.

Besides a milk carton, prepare green plastic bottle caps, bamboo skewers, and oil-based clay as well.

Cut the milk carton and wrap it with green vinyl tape to make the Creeper’s body.

Then cut the body section further and attach parts.

Use another milk carton for the head along with vinyl string or rubber bands to create a mechanism that “explodes.” Because kids use fine motor skills to build it, it helps improve their concentration.

Once it’s finished and displayed at school, you can almost hear friends saying, “Wow, that’s awesome!”

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Nakajima Junko

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Eyeball Tile Coaster

[100-Yen Shop DIY] Summer Vacation Craft Accessory: Simple and Stylish Googly-Eye Tile Coaster

Here’s an idea where you use cork coasters sold at 100-yen shops as a base and decorate them with stickers and more.

Lately, tile stickers that were popular in the Heisei era have been making a comeback, and you can find a variety of patterns at 100-yen shops as well.

Decorations using remake sheets—those you stick on furniture or walls—are also recommended.

With a bit of creativity, the possibilities are endless, so go ahead and make coasters full of originality!

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Hane Keisuke

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Accessory box made from an empty box

Summer Vacation Craft Series ♡ Part 4: Making an Accessory Box from Empty Boxes [Koujoucho] DIY

Some children who love fashion may have lots of charms for rings or clothes, right? Since they can easily get lost, it’s handy to have a box that can store them all together.

Here’s an accessory box that’s practical too.

You can make it with an empty box you already have at home.

Add thickness by attaching pieces cut from a quilted surface to the lid and the sides of the box.

The soft, cushioned thickness gives it a luxurious feel, turning it into a proper jewelry box.

If you roll up some felt fabric and place it inside the box, you can store rings neatly.

The finished product won’t look like it was made from an empty box, so give it a try for inspiration!

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Nakajima Junko

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Let’s make a bamboo lantern

[Anywhere Art] [Summer Vacation Craft] Let's make a bamboo lantern

Here’s how to make a bamboo lantern that looks beautiful when it glows at night.

Use a saw to cut the bamboo.

Make slits in the cut bamboo, then gently tap from above with a hammer to create openings where the light will shine through.

The key is to tap with the hammer without using too much force.

Drill holes to create several small windows for the light to leak out.

Wrap yarn around the top and bottom of the bamboo tube, using double-sided tape to secure it.

Place an LED light inside, switch it on, and let it shine.

It emits a soft glow that gives off a traditional Japanese ambiance.

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mayumi

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Animal clay

[Elementary School Craft] Animal Clay 🐘

This craft involves dividing paper clay into parts, then assembling them, painting them, and finishing them in the shape of an animal.

First, check what combination of shapes makes up the animal you want to create, and make parts that match the appropriate sizes and shapes.

After that, attach the parts, refine the overall form, and add colors and patterns to complete it.

If you use a paper plate as a base and attach the pieces onto it, it will look like a three-dimensional picture—highly recommended, too.

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kappamaki

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Mini violin made of clay

It was pretty tough when I tried making a mini violin out of clay.

There are many kinds of musical instruments with different shapes, and those differences heighten our expectations about what kinds of sounds they can produce.

Focusing on the shapes of instruments, this activity has you use paper clay to make a violin shape.

A real violin has a unique form made by combining pieces of wood, so let’s carefully reproduce the details, such as the indented areas.

Once the overall shape is refined, paint it and attach separate parts like the strings to finish it as a realistic-looking violin.

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kappamaki

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Let’s make a tomato with paper clay

Let's make a tomato out of paper clay for a summer vacation craft (Part 1)

Let’s make one of the classic vegetables—tomatoes—using paper clay.

Knead red paint into the paper clay, shape it into a ball, then stick it onto a stand with a wire post.

Paint it further in red, and layer yellow at the top center to capture a tomato’s coloring.

Knead green paint into another piece of paper clay to make the calyx, attach it to the red fruit, and adjust the size and shape.

Add green coloring, and finally paint the stand to finish.

Mounting the tomato on a stand makes it easier to paint and to submit as a finished piece.

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sasashina

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