Reindeer with Shapes

My daughter came up to me this morning and asked if we could do a craft. Of course we can! So I looked through my archive of craft activities and found one that we didn't get a chance to complete before Christmas.

This adorable Reindeer craft uses basic shapes to make a fun and simple craft for toddlers.

(Click on pic to make larger)

Materials:
construction paper
glue stick
scissors
googly eyes

Directions:
1) Cut out shapes of varying sizes to make three reindeer faces.
2) Separate the materials needed for each reindeer into piles.
3) Starting with the largest reindeer (or what my daughter calls the daddy reindeer), have your child glue the nose, eyes, and antlers onto the head. Repeat with the other (mommy and baby) reindeer.
4) Once all of the reindeer are put together, have your child stack them on a piece of construction paper from smallest to largest and glue down.

***My toddler is getting good at using a glue stick by herself but I'm always right next to her to help out if she gets frustrated.

While making crafts, I ask learning questions to enrich the activity.

Learning Questions:
What shapes do you see?
What shape are the reindeer's eyes?
Where should the reindeer's nose go?
How many eyes (nose, antlers) do reindeer have?
How many sides does a square (rectangle, circle) have?
Which reindeer is the largest(medium size, smallest)?

(Click on pic to make larger)

For a step by step tutorial of this need craft, see Housing a Forest.

Happy Crafting!

Fall Crafts for Toddlers

Pumpkin Circle Painting

Cut out a pumpkin from orange construction paper.
Put small amounts of green, orange, and brown paint onto a paper plate.
Use an empty toilet paper roll and dip into paint.
Press toilet paper roll onto pumpkin creating circles.

Leaf Color Sorting

Go on a leaf hunt!
Dump leaves onto table and let toddler explore while you get paper ready.
Depending on what colors you find, divide up the paper into sections for each color.
Write out the names each color using the same color crayon.
(This makes it easier for the toddler to sort.)
Have toddler sort leaves. Glue onto paper.

Turkey Paper Bag Puppet

(Found the printable for turkey here and made some modifications to the original.

I didn't use the "pilgrim" costume pieces and chose not to print onto colored paper.)

Open printable and print selected pages onto white card stock.

Color with crayon and cut out turkey pieces.

Glue pieces to paper bag.

Gobble Gobble.

Hand Print Turkey and Poem

(Found the printable for Handy Turkey here .)

Print out Handy Turkey sheet.

Paint child's hand with selected colors.

Stamp hand onto sheet.

Add turkey details with markers.

Share with someone you are thankful for.

Indian Corn

Cut out corn cob and husk from yellow and green construction paper.
Cut out many square pieces of assorted tissue paper.
Roll tissue paper pieces into little balls (aka corn kernels).
Dip the corn kernels into glue and stick onto corn cob.

Leaf Wreath

 Go on a leaf hunt!
Cut out a paper plate ring (just cut a circle out of the middle).
OR to make it more fun, cut out a shape from the middle and paint the plate.
Pick off the leaf stems.
Glue leaves to plate.

*The leaves will dry out and curl after a few days.
If you want to make a leaf wreath that will last longer, see Fallen Leaf Wreath.

Fallen Leaf Art

See Fallen Leaf Art.

I hope you enjoy these fall crafts as much as we did!

Happy Crafting!