If you are looking for a quick and easy Easter craft idea you have come to the right place.
I’ll be honest with you, when I first started creating this Easter craft idea I really had no idea where I was going with it. I new I wanted to create some sort of shadow around the Easter egg template but apart from that I really had no plan for this. But I am super happy with how it turned out and how easy it was to create such an effective art piece using minimal materials.
Steps to create this Easter craft with your kiddos:
Cut out the Easter egg template
Place the template on top of the black card stock and starting from the inside of the template draw short lines with the coloured chalk from the template to the black card stock making sure the colour transfers onto the black card stock.
Repeat this with different coloured chalk until you have covered the outside of template with chalk marks.
Remove the template.
Allow your students to decorate their egg with glitter glue.
To stop the chalk from smudging you can use hairspray to keep it in place.
Looking for an Australian themed Christmas craft to compliment your end of year activities? Well look no further! This is one of my most favourite Christmas crafts to do each year with my kiddos.
Probably about this time of the year we spend a few afternoons a week searching for gumnuts around our school grounds (note: if you don’t have an abundant supply of gumnuts around your school – because you will need plenty – then why not check out your local parks). The kiddos love searching for gumnuts and are intrigued by the mystery of what we are going to do with them (I don’t tell them why we are collecting gumnuts, just that we are going to need LOTS!!!).
Once enough buckets of gumnuts are collected we begin our craft project.
To get started yourself you will need the following: – gumnuts – LOTS of them!! – thick cardboard – Like from old boxes. Not cereal boxes as this is too thin. The thicker the better! I pre-cut mine to the circle shape provided in the template but up to you. If you are using thick card you will most likely need a Stanley knife to cut it well so I would definitely recommend you pre-cut them! – craft glue – spray paint – I like to use gold and silver but you can choose any colour you like – Christmas ribbon
With all these supplies you will be able to create with your kiddos a wreath that looks something like this:
To get your kiddos started: 1. Separate the gumnuts between them. I use icecream buckets and place a half-filled bucket between a small group of three or four. Each table will also need glue and each child will need a pre-cut cardboard wreath.
2. Demonstrate how the gumnuts are to be glued to the cardboard wreath. Emphasise gluing the gumnuts REALLY close together – you may like to say that the gumnuts need to be touching one another. I can assure you that most won’t glue them close enough so you will need to monitor carefully to continue to remind ones to keep them close. You will always have the kiddo who races through the craft super quick and shows you their wreath with only 6 gumnuts glued to it. EVERY. YEAR. THERE. IS. ONE!!!
Make sure you demonstrate wiping a small amount of glue to an area, placing a few gumnuts on the area so they are touching one another and then placing another amount of glue to an area, etc…
3. Once their wreath is completely covered, allow to dry.
4. After the kiddos have left for the day spread out the finished wreaths onto newspaper and spray with your chosen colour. Make sure you wear a mask while doing this!
5. Once the paint has dried you can either tie the ribbon to the top yourself or, if you are brave, have your kiddos try.
And then you are done!
A super easy craft but oh so beautiful and effective!
There are a lot of different ANZAC Day Wreath ideas out there. This one is budget friendly and offers the opportunity to get your students involved as well!
You will need: – a large piece of foam board (or cardboard from a box) – at least two egg cartons (more if you want more poppies) – acrylic paint: red, black and green – scissors – stanley knife – string – skewer – lead pencil – craft glue – Lest We Forget template – paintbrushes – sponge dabber (optional)
Making your wreath: Make your wreath from foam board or cardboard. 1. This can be done by marking the centre of your cardboard with a pencil. Measure a piece of string from this centre point to the edge of your cardboard (leave a little extra before cutting. And from the centrepoint, move your string around to make sure the string doesn’t leave the cardboard – if it does make it slightly shorter).
Measure the string.
2. Tie one end of the string to a skewer and the other to a lead pencil. Stand the skewer on the centrepoint you created earlier and pull your string tight. The pencil should now be facing down towards the cardboard.
Pull the string tight. Skewer should be on the centre point and the lead pencil facing down towards the cardboard.
3. Keeping the string pulled tight move the pencil around the skewer. Your pencil should be creating a circle on the cardboard.
Keep the pencil pulled tight and draw a circle around the skewer.
4. After you have completed this large circle. Draw a smaller circle inside the large one by using the same technique (just make sure you make the string shorter.
Do the same to make a smaller circle inside the larger one.
5. Use a stanley knife to cut along both circle lines that you have created. You should now have a wreath shape.
Use a stanley knife to cut out the wreath.
Create your poppies. 6. Take your egg cartons and cut away the lid and any extra parts. Leaving you with the egg cup tray (note: don’t through away the extra pieces and lid – you will use those to create your leaves).
Cut all parts off the egg cartons except for the egg cups.
7. Use a stanley knife to cut out each individual cup and then use scissors to tidy up any excess from the cups to make them look neater and more uniform.
Cut out each egg cup.
Tidy them up with scissors to make them look neater.
8. Paint each egg cup with the red paint and then use your sponge dabber (or a paint brush) to paint the centre of each egg cup black.
Paint the egg cups red.
Paint the centre of each egg cup black.
Create your leaves. 9. Put the poppies aside and take the lids and excess pieces from your egg cartons. Paint the green all over. Leave to dry and then cut out leaf shapes from them.
Paint the extra parts from your egg cartons green.
Cut out leaf shapes from the green egg carton pieces once they have dried.
Bring it all together. 10. Take your cardboard wreath shape and glue the Lest We Forget banner to the bottom of it.
Glue the Lest We Forget Banner to the bottom of your wreath.
11. Using craft glue, adhere the poppies to the cardboard wreath.
Secure the poppies to the wreath using craft glue.
12. Use the craft glue to attach the leaves to the wreath as well.
Use craft glue to attach the leaves.
And you are done! Well done 🙂
The finished product.
Don’t forget to share your wreaths with me on your social media posts! Just use the tag @ridgydidgeresources to grab my attention so I can give your post a little love.
Looking for some simple Father’s day craft ideas for your classroom this year? Well have I got some simple ideas for you!
1. Meet Dad’s Chip Clip:
A simple template that you can find here. Simply print, colour, cut and glue onto the back of a peg. Give to dad on Father’s day with a packet of chips. He can continue using his chip clip whenever he doesn’t finish a full packet of chips!
Or you could try…
2. Dad’s notes craft
Another simple template that you can find here. Once again, simply print, colour and cut the template. Cover a thick piece of card from a cardboard box to your desired size with coloured paper. Glue a pad of sticky notes and the Dad’s Notes label on top of the covered cardboard. Include a pen and give to dad on Father’s day to keep his important notes and reminders on. Done!!
Two simple ideas for your classroom Father’s Day craft this year.
National Reconciliation Week is a great opportunity to learn more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and history. There are some great details about the purpose of this week, as well as ways of participating, on the National Reconciliation Week website.
Dreamtime stories have long been a favourite of my students. Not only do they capture the imaginations of the students, drawing their attention, but they also help reflect the culture and history of the original owners of this great land.
One of my personal favourites is the story of Tiddalick the Frog. In honour of National Reconciliation Week, I am sharing with you one of my favourite art pieces that my students enjoy year after year.
Templates for this artwork can be found in my Free Resource Library. Don’t have the password yet for the Library? Head to my Instagram account, check out my Story Highlights and inside the one titled FREE, you will find the password. Feel free to follow my Instagram account while you are there.
So here are the instructions on creating your own Tiddalick master piece.
You will need:
Glue stick
Scissors
Watercolour paints
Oil pastels or crayons (I personally prefer oil pastels as the colours are more vibrant
A3 paper
Tiddalick templates
Leaves (optional)
Note: Before I begin this art work I read to my students the story of Tiddalick the Frog. If you don’t have a picture book for the story here is a link to a video or a printable PDF with a simple story on it.
I also like my students to have completed their recount before beginning the art work as well.
Soooo….
Colour in your frogs. There are many ways you can go about doing this. Either colour them fully in crayon or oil pastel. Or partially colour them with oil pastel or crayon and then paint with water colours over the top (as I did for the spotty frog).
Cut out your frog. (Allow the water colour paint to dry if you painted them)
Putting your frogs aside, take your A3 paper. Students will now do rubbings on their A3 paper. This really can be of anything you like. I chose leaves, with the aim for students to paint them blue with watercolours, giving the illusion of a pond. For the other one we simply rubbed lines along the paper while resting the paper on concrete. This gave the lines a rough texture. This was then painted over in brown water colours to give the illusion of dirt or mud.
After rubbings are completed, students can was over the top with your chosen water colour paint.
Once the paint has dried, students can now glue their frog and recount onto the A3 paper.
Pretty simple hey?! You are welcome!
If you are looking for other activities to support Reconciliation Week, check out these resources:
