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!
If you are after the template for the wreath – head to my Free Resource Library.
If you are after other quick and easy Christmas ideas for your classroom, why not take a look at some of these resources we have in stock:
Hope you have a wonderful end of year with your kiddos!
