Image: Getty | Words: Sara Conway
1 You’re roar-some! Use your child’s fingers to make this lovely lion.
You’ll need: paint, paper, coloured card and glue.
- Squirt blobs of paint onto a plate for fingers to dip into. We used orange, yellow, red and some gold glitter paint we found lurking in a drawer.
- Let your child go wild finger painting the lion’s mane.
- Help them to cut out three paper and card hearts in yellow (biggest), orange (smaller) and red (smallest). Folding the paper helps to cut a symmetrical heart.
- Help your child to stick the hearts as shown to make the lion’s face.
- Then get them to paint a little red tongue.
- Draw eyes on paper, snip them out and stick them on. Or if you have googly eyes, use those.
There you have it… a totally roar-some lion to give to family or a friend.
2 Thanks for helping me grow: Use your child’s handprints to give this butterfly card a personal touch.
You’ll need: paint, paper, card, glue, pompoms, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, plus whatever crafty supplies you have to decorate with.
- Get your child to choose a paint colour and then paint their whole hand.
- Ask your child to press their hand on paper. If you’re doing this with a toddler, press gently on each finger to get a perfect handprint. Repeat so you’ve got two prints.
- Snip out the handprints and stick them on card.
- Use pompoms to create the butterfly’s body.
- Make two pipe cleaner antennae and glue googly eyes onto them.
- Then use whatever crafty supplies you have to decorate the butterfly’s wings.
Perfect… why not flutter this butterfly to a teacher at the end of term?
3 ‘Hogs’ & kisses: Help them transform an egg carton into a pig with a special message.
You’ll need: an egg carton, a pink pipe cleaner, a pink pompom, glue, buttons, googly eyes and paper.
It might be easier to prepare steps 1-3 before letting your child loose on this make.
- Cut a cup from the egg carton and flip it over.
- Now cut small holes in opposite sides and poke through the pipe cleaner.
- Twist one end around the pompom (the pig’s head) to hold it in place. Curl the other to make the pig’s tail.
- Ask your child to glue button feet onto the egg cup (this also balances the weight from the head).
- Now your child can make the pig’s face by sticking on googly eyes, a button nose and heart-shaped ears.
- Finally, help them to cut a little red heart from paper, and write the name of the person they’re giving the pig to. We put ours in a little envelope we made from brown paper.
And that’s it! A cute pig who loves to deliver hogs and kisses.
