[For 1-year-olds] Fun to make! A collection of winter craft activity ideas for use in childcare
Winter is full of exciting events for children, like Christmas, New Year’s, Setsubun, and Valentine’s Day.
Many teachers are probably looking to enjoy winter-themed crafts together with their children.
In this article, we’ll introduce winter craft ideas for one-year-olds.
Along with ideas tied to seasonal events and holidays, we also feature motifs unique to winter—like snowmen and mittens—that are rich in seasonal atmosphere.
We’ve gathered craft ideas that use unique techniques to keep one-year-olds fully engaged, so we hope you enjoy creating together this winter.
Since the children’s creations are treated as works, we refer to them as “seisaku” (productions/crafts) in the main text.
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[For 1-year-olds] Fun to make! A collection of winter craft activity ideas for childcare (21–30)
Fun with black construction paper! Making snowmen
https://www.tiktok.com/@hekimen_25/video/7312804209915694354Here’s a craft idea: paint a snowman with white paint on black construction paper, then finish by adding a paper bucket and mittens, plus face stickers.
For the snowman, draw a circular outline and fill it in with paint.
Because it’s surprisingly hard not to paint outside the lines, if infants are doing this activity, it’s better to either prepare pre-painted pieces or have an adult cut a snowman shape from the child’s white-painted paper and glue it onto the background.
If you put double-sided tape on the back of the bucket and mittens, kids can use them like stickers, making them easier for little hands to handle.
Once the snowman is done, use cotton swab stamping to add a snowy landscape in the empty space to complete the project.
Fukuwarai from a one-year-old!
Here are some craft ideas for making Fukuwarai with construction paper.
Just cut out the parts from the paper, glue them together, and draw patterns with a pen to finish.
With a bit of adult help—such as pre-cutting the pieces—even young children can take part.
Put double-sided tape on the facial features and let the kids enjoy sticking them on while playing Fukuwarai.
The classics are Hyottoko and Okame, but a daruma or the zodiac animal of the year also make great motifs.
Enjoy a winter craft session to your heart’s content, with a playful spirit.
[For 1-year-olds] Fun to make! A collection of winter craft play ideas useful for childcare (31–40)
Origami Plum Blossoms Kids Can Enjoy—Perfect for New Year’s Too!
Free-thinking sparks children’s creativity! It’s a great idea that lets kids enjoy both the focus of folding origami along lines and corners, and the excitement of tearing it dynamically.
Use the torn origami as beautiful branches, then stick on carefully folded plum blossoms to create your very own plum tree.
Drawing the pistils and stamens with crayons or colored pencils will help capture the distinctive features of plum flowers even more.
Take this opportunity to give it a try!
Let’s enjoy New Year’s games!
Let’s set up various stations in the playground so the children can experience New Year’s traditions.
We’ll introduce five activities: rice-cake pounding (mochitsuki), spinning tops (koma), karuta card games, kite flying (takoage), and visiting a shrine to offer prayers.
For mochitsuki, we’ll actually use a mortar and pestle to pound the mochi, while the tops, karuta, kites, and shrine are all handmade.
By making good use of cardboard and milk cartons, you can create remarkably authentic items.
Children can play with the toys you’ve made, or they can take on the challenge of making them themselves.
Enjoy New Year’s experiences suited to the children’s ages.
Also great for walls! Paper plate spinning top
Let’s make a festive spinning top that you’ll want to display on the wall.
First, cut a paper plate in half.
Then, attach a strip of construction paper along the straight edge of the plate and decorate it with round stickers on top.
Use crayons to draw patterns for the top on the remaining white part of the plate.
Finally, attach the axle piece made from construction paper to the back of the plate, and you’re done.
Spinning tops are a New Year’s classic, and even little ones might look at this wall display—or watch older kids playing with tops—and feel inspired to try it themselves.
How to make a fun Fukuwarai
Here’s a craft idea for “Fukuwarai,” a traditional New Year’s game.
This version uses a daruma motif, letting you enjoy the game while you make it.
First, glue a daruma body—cut from construction paper—onto a backing sheet.
Then cut out the parts for the eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows, and cheeks.
Put on a blindfold and enjoy playing Fukuwarai by placing the parts on the face.
Glue the parts where they land, and decorate the empty areas of the backing sheet with flowers.
Finally, use crayons to draw the flower centers and the daruma’s patterns to complete your craft.
Let’s make a Fukuwarai and play!
How about enjoying a classic New Year’s game, fukuwarai? Have the children draw and make the base sheet and facial parts however they like using construction paper and crayons.
By creating them themselves, the kids can grasp what the finished face should look like, and after playing fukuwarai they won’t be able to stop laughing! It might be even funnier if you make it as a self-portrait.
It’s perfectly fine if the fukuwarai face doesn’t turn out “well,” so why not encourage the kids by saying, “Make a funny face on purpose!”