Giraffes

Here is a fun, simple, and easy craft if you are teaching about animals.  We were doing a week about zoo animals and thought it would be fun to make a giraffe. I outlined a giraffe face (shape of a foot, you can actually trace the child's foot if you want) and added a long neck, on yellow paper.  I had cut up brown tissue paper, but you could have the children cut the tissue paper themselves for scissor practice.  You could also used cut pieces of brown yarn.  The kids glued the pieces along the neck of the giraffe.  Then they put their finger in brown paint and made finger prints all over the body and face for the spots.  Simple and fun!

Feathered Friends

Today while talking about farm animals we discussed the animals that have feathers on the farm.  Ducks, Chickens, Roosters, Hens, Chicks, and Turkeys.  For art we created a feathered friend.  The child decided what kind of fowl it was.

I started by cutting a paper plate so that the middle was separate from the outside.  I then cut the outer ring into 3 parts and stapled it on so there were two "wings" and a "tail feather" on top.  If I had thought it through better I don't think I would have cut and stapled.  I would have just cut out areas so that there were wings and a tail left on the plate.  We also needed feathers (I had many white feathers, but also various colors - the kids all wanted rainbow colors on their bird), googly eyes, a piece of paper cut like a beak, and glue (I added yellow paint to the glue).

 The kids painted the yellow glue onto the plate and put the eyes, beak, and the feathers however they wanted.

 No two were alike and the kids loved their creations!

Scissor Practice Striped Tigers

Today we started our week about Zoo Animals.  For art we made Tigers.  I always like a chance for the preschoolers to use their fine motor skills and practice cutting with scissors, so instead of painting the tigers we cut "stripes" out of paper and glued them on.

I started with an outline of a tiger on orange construction paper.  I found a great free template at http://www.toddlerapproved.com/2014/07/sticky-tiger-craft-for-kids.html .

I gave the kids black scrap paper and had them cut them in strips. It is important that the pieces they are given are large enough for them to get a good grip on and hold onto while cutting a long strip with the scissors.

 After cutting strips they used glue sticks to glue the "stripes" onto the tigers body.

After they dried I cut out the outline of the tiger and they all turned out great!!