Keeping the child busy with creative activities during the first years of his life is paramount for his development. Through DIY activities, the little one learns not only to control the movements of his hands! He also gets to know the surrounding world. It is why we have decided to devote this article to the topic of manual activity for kindergarten. Stay with us to find several interesting tips and projects selected for their suitability for the ages and abilities of the little ones.
What is the use of a maternal manual activity?
Indeed, Maria Montessori, inventor of the famous Montessori pedagogy, understood the advantages of these activities. “The intelligence of the child reaches a certain level, without him making use of his hand; manual activity makes him reach a higher level and the little child who has used his hands on his shows a stronger character. Yes, there is no doubt that manual activities develop many capacities in children.
First of all – fine motor skills because knowing how to handle objects with your hands is a skill that says to be developed from a very young age. Skills like holding a pencil to make small drawings, making small constructions are of utmost importance. But aside from merely natural strengths, DIY has a beneficial effect on improving the child’s capacity. The success of a range of tasks, following a particular logic, is associated with the accusation of a precious savior-vivre. The imagination, the concentration, the sensory system are also called upon. So the advantages are to be found at all levels and cool drawings.
And let’s not forget that the craft activities could use to let the child know important details. The design of a cluster, for instance, could give rise to a little early lesson in botany. The child could thus learn to distinguish the essential parts of the flower: the stem, the petals, the stamens, and the calyx. Likewise, children could be taught to know and distinguish between different colors, shapes, animals, etc.
What kind of maternal manual activity to occupy the child?
The projects and their level of anxiety depend, on studies, on the age of the child. More simple drawing, modeling, and painting activities are preferred for children under three years of age. That is to say, activities that correspond to the level of their concentration and their motor and intellectual capacities. For example, activities with handprints are very popular. And in addition, the children have a lot of fun making them.
With children over three, we have more freedom. At this stage, we could already start to include elements of a purely educational nature such as numbers and letters, for example. More skillful, the hand of children of this age group must master more elaborate activities. For example – cut out, glue, make drawings a little more complicated in graphics, and make simple origami. Even why not give the child his first cooking class or encourage him to make his first terrarium.
Now we let you see our selection of DIY projects for kindergarten children. To make things easier for you, we will first offer you some tutorials using basic DIY materials and then continue with some ideas for activities grouped by theme, using the season as a criterion. So, given the approach of spring, we’ll start with the spring DIY ideas and finish with the winter ones. However, do not hesitate to go to the end of the article because you will find some universal ideas suitable for any season.
Make an original photo frame – a creative idea for a manual activity with ice cream sticks
Materials needed:
- Ice cream sticks
- Acrylic paint in red or green color (you could skip the paint by buying colored sticks)
- Brush
- Hot glue gun
- Foam paper (or plain paper) brown and green color
- Black felt pen
- Magnets
Production:
- Line up the 7 ice cream sticks and use glue to attach those at both ends of the alignment to secure your frame.
- Turn over the photo frame thus created and repaint as you see fit, coloring all or only the top and bottom of the frames.
- Cut 2.5 × 5 cm rectangles from the brown foam paper as stems and (5 cm) leaves from the foam paper to create the leaves. Secure with glue. Draw the seeds of the apple with a black felt-tip pen.
- Attach magnets to the back of the apple and finally insert a photo into the frame.
Manual activity with straws – a super easy and quick kindergarten DIY
Materials needed:
- Scrapbooking paper
- White and green cardboard straws
- Heart-shaped hole punch
- Simple hole punch (for making holes)
Production:
- Cut out, using your hole punch, a heart of the green paper and three other hearts of another color (red, orange, purple, pink, blue, yellow).
- Using the hole punch, punch holes at the base of each heart.
- Slide the hearts onto the straw, securing the three colored petals at the top and a green leaf below.
- Perform the same operation on the rest of the straws.
- Insert the artificial flowers thus created in a glass jar and adorn them with a ribbon if the creation will serve as a Mother’s Day gift.
I am Sylvia Wooden, write by profession. I love to write topics on different subjects.