|
Construction Arts & Crafts Ideas
Concrete
Concoction
Materials
Needed:
play sand, cornstarch, water, buckets, smocks
Directions:
Create a wet, almost-as-good-as-real-cement concoction of cornstarch,
sand, and water.
This variation of the infamous "goop" will have your construction workers
busier than ants!
Start with a bucket of sand, add three of four boxes of cornstarch, and
then add water
until the consistency seems right for wet cement. Have children wear
smocks and be
sure to have a clean bucket of water near this station for hand rinsing
before youngsters make a trip to the sink.
Real Blueprints
Materials Needed:
blueprints,
rulers, markers, pencils
Directions:
Get a box full of real blueprints from an architecture school or a
construction company.
Leave them actual size or cut them down to make them a bit more
manageable.
Add a few rulers and different sizes or markers and pencils.
Not-So-Real Blueprints
Materials Needed:
wooden blocks or
Styrofoam pieces in various shapes,
blue tempera paint, shallow trays, and white construction paper
Directions:
Invite little ones to make their own blueprints. Collect wooden blocks
or Styrofoam
pieces in a variety of shapes. Set out a shallow tray of blue tempera
paint
and some large sheets of white construction paper. Invite each little
architect to dip the
shapes of his choice into paint and then onto the paper to create an
original building design.
Textured Blueprints
For each child, cut off
the edges of a foam tray so that a flat sheet of foam remains.
Put the adapted trays in your art center along with a shallow container
of blue tempera
paint mixed with a few drops of liquid soap. To make a blueprint
design, instruct child
to use a dull pencil to draw a house or building on one side of the tray.
Then have the child
use a small roller or paintbrush to apply paint to the design. Next,
have him/her press the
painted surface onto a sheet of paper. Finally, instruct him/her to
carefully remove the tray to reveal a blueprint of the picture.
Easel Exploration
Materials Needed:
black
roofing paper, oil pastels, sugar chalk, or builder's chalk
Directions:
Cut some black roofing paper to fit your easel. Provide oil pastels,
chalk, or builder's
chalk for drawing designs. Hang the finished masterpieces around your
room.
Hard Hat
Every construction
worker needs a hard hat. Let your child make one to wear by building
with
blocks or role playing a construction worker. Cut the center section
out of a large white paper plate.
Save the rim. Discard the center. Place a paper or plastic
disposable cereal bowl over
the opening on the paper plate and staple the paper plate rim to the rim
of the bowl.
Decorate with bright colored construction paper or paint.
Road Construction Hat
Cut a hat band out of black
paper. Do a dotted chalk line down the middle
(there is your road.) Print out trucks, vehicles and orange barrels and
glue around your road.
My Very Own Tool Box
Use a craft knife to cut
a line around the top inch of a rectangular tissue box, leaving
5 or 6 inches uncut along one long side, to serve as a hinge.
Reinforce any loose
ends or corners with masking tape; then paint the box with three coats of
red tempera
paint. To make a latch, push two brads into the front of the box.
Help each child wind
one end of a two inch length of black pipe cleaner around the top brad;
then form the
remaining length into a hook to fasten around the botom brad. Next,
twist together
three black pipe cleaners to make a handle. Tape the handle inside
the top of the box with the center pushed through the box opening.
Under Construction
Stock your arts/crafts
area with craft glue and items suitable for building, such as boxes,
craft sticks, pipe cleaners, wood shapes, toothpicks, and scraps of
cardboard. If desired,
also provide decorative materials such as paint, wallpaper samples, and
sequins.
Encourage children at this center to use craft items to create
three-dimensional houses or buildings.
For a custom finish, invite your youngsters to use the decorative items
to further personalize their buildings.
Construction Worker Tool Belt
From a brown paper
grocery bag, cut a strip that is long enough to go around your child's
waist.
Cut the top section from a small paper lunch bag. Attach the back of the
lunch bag to the
front of the paper waistband to resemble a tool belt. Decorate paper
towel with
markers and crayons to create "tools" to place in the belt.
Bulldozer Art
Place a scoop of thick
fingerpaint on a sheet of fingerpaint paper Give your child a wide
craft stick and say, "Pretend you are a bulldozer and this is your blade
Push the blade
through the paint." Encourage your child to make engine noises as
he/she scrapes
the paint across the paper with the stick. Your child might like to
scrape
letters, numbers, or shapes in the paint with the craft stick.
Road Construction
Give each child one gray
paper and provide paint. Invite the children to paint
roads on their
paper, as well as piles of dirt and other things that may be
found on a
construction site. Ask each child to tell you about their
painting
and let dry. Cut pictures of construction vehicles from magazines or
use
construction stickers. Have the children add them to their
picture as they wish.
Make a Model
Materials Needed:
pieces of sturdy cardboard, wood scraps, cardboard shapes, mat board
shapes, sandpaper, craft sticks, aluminum foil, "glue" tinted brown or
gray
Directions:
For 3 dimensional versions of building plans, youngsters can create
models. Give each
artist a piece of sturdy cardboard for a base. Supply thin wood scraps,
cardboard shapes,
shapes cut from mat board, sandpaper, craft sticks, aluminum foil, and
anything else in your craft
closet that seems appropriate! Have youngsters use "glue" tinted brown or
gray to cement their models together.
Building
a Town
Build
a "town" with cardboard boxes. What I usually do is let the children watch me
cut windows and doors and the children go to "town" (pun intended LOL)
decorating with crayons,
markers and stickers. (we actually had one last for several weeks before
it finally had "it" and collapsed.
Pre-K Fun Theme Pages are
for educational reference only!
No copyright infringement is intended.
I do not claim any of these as my own ideas.
They are shared from friends and fellow group
members.
Thanks for sharing all your great ideas!
|
