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Hello Ladies,
I need your help with ideas! I just became the craft chairmom for the MOMS club I belong too.Well I just found out that my budget for the year is $40.I have to come up with a project a month that 5-20 kids can make.I never know how many will come > I am freaking out :-)
SO I need ideas for 1-4 year olds SUPER DIRT CHEAP.
ANy idea websites or ideas period would be greatly appreciated.
Annemarie
HI!
I am not sure what your theme is but for valentines day I purchased some foam bags and little foam shapes from Oriental Trading Company and they had a ball putting the hearts (again valentines day) and flowers on the bags. You would only need the bags and foam shapes and elmers glue. We used sharpies to write their names on them. You can get the foam shapes at walmart. That is about the only thing I can think of right now!
GOOD LUCK!
Shelley
1) Watercolor coffee filters. Use water-based markers, highlighters, etc. Let the kids draw on coffee filters. Take a spray bottle and mist the filters. Watch the colors blend and smear. They turn out very nice. I still have the ones my daughter made when she was two. Be sure to write name and date on the filter using permanent marker.
2) Marble painting. Roll marbles in paint and then roll on paper. You could use TV dinner trays or pie tins for each color of paint (or reinkers). Place the paper inside cafeteria trays or boxes to prevent the marbles from getting away as you roll the marbles around on the paper.
3) Homemade play-doh. Let the kids get their hands dirty. There are recipes on the internet. The ingredients come right out of a basic pantry. With some recipes you have to cook, but there are others that do not need any cooking. I've seen recipes that even use peanut butter. I've also seen kool-aid used in the no cook recipes. You can get pretty creative with this. It's okay with little kids. If they eat it, it won't matter b/c it contains basic food like flour and veg. oil.
4) Vegetable painting. Cut vegetables and use them to stamp/paint with. Try a half of mushroom, green pepper, carrot, radish, etc.
Oops -- were you looking for stamping ideas? You could make the watercolor craft a stamping watercolor. Use reinkers instead of paint for the marble idea.
Wendy, you have some great ideas! My daughter did the marble painting in preschool for Halloween last year. They used white paint on black construction paper to make a "spider web" and then put a plastic spider in the middle of it. Very cute, and the kids had a great time doing it. I love your watercolor coffee filters. We'll have to try that. Thanks for inspiring me!
Wendy - you have great ideas!
I have to add the apple as a stamping item. It still fascinates me that the 'star' is in the center. My children picked up on my fascination.
Coffee filters can also be cut to be flowers, and, if folded with a bit of care, snowflakes.
Is there a snack budget? I used to go to a program that started with a "food craft" - zoo cages on a piece of bread using pretzel sticks and animal crackers stands out. Anything with frosting was big with the children, but I hate stickiness.
I'll look back through our treasures saved.
Good luck
Sue
Hello!
As a former Daisy Girl Scout Leader there are alot of things you can do!!! I used to do alot of craft projects using the Trash to Treasures books!! You would be amazed at what you can make from everyday garbage! Also check out your local craft store for the clearance aisle for great deals on craft supplies... You also can CASE the premade kits that use fun foam and pompoms etc. for a fraction of the price...Good Luck and don't be discouraged...I used to do 3 craft projects a month without any funds coming in...You could also ask the parents to help by bringing differnet garbage to collect enough of an item to make your projects go quicker...
for the watercolor coffee filters, my kids made those.. and tied pipe cleaners in the middle and made butterflies.. they still play with them, over a month later. also, you could make some things out of toilet paper and papertowel rolls.
the parents could help in this contribution. take scrap material.. in a rectangle shape.. cut out the center.. glue it midshaft into the roll.. it is a poncho.. or a shirt. then take cake paper plates.. the cheap flimsy kind.. let them draw a face.. staple it to the paper towel holder.. a few flyaway pieces of colored yarn for hair.. and they have a hand made puppet they made all by themselves.
let them cut up magazines.. and make a birthday wish list of all of their "favorite" things.. call it a journal.. or a diary.. so many ideas.. i think this challenge would be fun!
Puzzles out of those wooden popsicle sticks--the big jumbo ones-- (line them up, tape them on the back side to hold in place, paint scene on front, when dry remove tape and toss pieces into zip loc sandwich bag for storage)
Rainbow Paper Magnets--punch or cut up to 5 or 6 shapes out of different colors of construction paper (all the same, like hearts or starts, etc.); glue them to each other in layers, spreading a thin layer of glue on the entire surface of each heart before pressing down the next. When glue is completely dry, sand them in different areas, revealing the color of the layer(s) beneath--sand more in some areas and less in others. Glue magnet on back.
You all are so awesome I love all these ideas!
I have strated a log book of what to do and these are in there now.I want to do a good job but I had no idea it would be somewhat difficult with such a low budget.
God Bless,
Annemarie
Something fun I did with kids years ago was to do "polyshrink" or "shrinky dink" but out of the clear deli boxes that you get from the grocery deli! One box will go a long way! If you stamp on it, color it with markers, anything you would do to polyshrink - it shrinks JUST like the real stuff! Necklaces, etc. for next to nothing.
I did not know that you could shrink the deli clear boxes.I just ate out and got one of those boxes.Guess what I am going to do :-)
Thanks again for all these great ideas.
Annemarie
HELP!
There are a bazillion web sites out there. Just do a search for "preschool art projects" and other similar titles and you will find plenty. Two I like, as a kindergarten teacher, is kinderart.com and abcteach.com. I love to do things with the kids' handprints. I just made beach bags with all kinds of sea creatures using my students' handprints. They turned out great. You could have the kids bring t-shirts of their own and all you would have to do is buy the paint which is fairly cheap at WM. BTW, at the next board meeting of this group, make them increase the yearly art project budget!! 
