Being crafty

Messy business

I love letting the kids get all glued up with papier mâché. You can make all sort of things – try faces for instance. Use a balloon (blown up to an appropriate size) and get the children to cover it with little bits of newspaper soaked in a bowl of wallpaper paste. It takes a while to do because they need to make a complete layer, let it dry, then add another. Keep repeating the process until they’ve built up a firm round shape. Dry it off in the airing cupboard and then the children can paint the faces on and make hair using bits of wool. If you pop the balloon inside the head, you can add a fabric body to make a glove puppet.

For a school project, we made papier mâché balls of varying sizes and hung them on a wire coat hanger, making our very own solar system. Looked pretty good, too.

And finally…

You can make masks using paper plates with holes cut out for eyes, nose and mouth. The kids can decorate or colour the mask, and then attach a lolly stick at the back to hold it up to their faces. You can also make finger puppets out of felt, and build a theatre out of a shoebox – the kids can make up a play for their puppets to perform to you.

If you have more ideas for whiling away the holiday hours with the children, post a message on our Crafts for Kids message boardand tell us about them. Take a look at some of the LIVE discussions taking place right now on the board: