This week's post features some old and new Christmas art ideas that I have used with various class levels over the past few years.
1. Sock Snowmen: I have explained how these are made in
my Winter post, but I love them so much, they are getting included again! They are really easy to make and the children love them! This is a craft that can be adapted for any age level too.
2. Reindeer Christmas Cards: These thumbprint cards are very effective while also being very simple! Here is a sample of one I found at:
Madeinthedessert
3. Christmas Brown Paper Stockings: I made these socks with a Senior Infant class. While they require some preparation (hole punching and gluing the sock together before you get the children to sew the edges together), they look great when finished and decorated. I put chocolate Santa lollies into each of them as a Christmas surprise on the last day of school. I got the idea from
Enchanted Learning.
4. 3D stars and angels to hang from the ceiling:
5. Christmas Wreaths: I have tried these out with senior classes, however, I think they would work well with younger children also. They start by cutting the centre out of a paper plate and colouring it green. Next, the children trace their hand on various shades of green paper and cut them out. They stick them around the outside of a paper plate. They then can add bells, berries and holly to their wreath with coloured paper.
6. Gingerbread Houses: When I taught Senior Infants, I made Gingerbread houses with them. The children brought in shoe boxes, painted them brown and then finger painted 'smarties' on the walls and roof. They drew and coloured in some 'sweets' to stick onto the outside of the house. They then added cotton wool to the roof, along with a chimney. The most difficult aspect of this project was attaching the roof the the house (it took up a lot of teacher's time unfortunately!). It's one of those painstaking projects which you feel very proud to have accomplished and vow never to do again, all at the same time!
7. Christmas Tree Decorations: This year I am making two Christmas tree decoration crafts with my pupils, both of which I found on this wonderful website,
pagingfunmums. The first is a clay owl decoration (which you can read all about
here), and the other is a reindeer craft (which you can find
here). I also really like
this Christmas tree craft too!
8. Festive Scene: I was browsing through the Lidl (I think!) Christmas brochure a few weeks ago and found this really nice craft idea. I had my class bring in shoeboxes, they used the lid as the base and the box itself for the figures and the 'roof'. We then dangled stars from the 'roof' using thread. As my class are a 4th/5th class, they were given the freedom to decide what to put in their scenes (but also the advice to 'keep it simple!').
9. Paper Plate Crafts: I thought these paper plate Christmas character crafts from
kixcereal were really eye catching and although I haven't made them with a class, they would be quite an easy art lesson for a younger class.
10. Pine Cone Christmas Trees: Recently I have seen a lot of pine cone Christmas tree art ideas and if I had a younger class, I would definitely try some of them out. Have a look at one idea
here.
Merry Christmas everyone!
