
While the internet is full of art projects for children, it can be convenient to simply pull a book off the shelf when you are looking for a quick craft idea or something to keep the children occupied for a bit. In Jumbo Book of Art Ideas for Teachers and Parents: Especially for Teaching the Faith, Sr. Mary Kathleen Glavitch, SND has pulled together an assortment of craft ideas that can be used to help teach our Catholic faith but can easily be adapted for other subjects as well.
As Sr. Kathleen points out, “art brings faith to life,” and “creating something based on a concept makes it more memorable.” This is especially true for children who are hands-on learners.
Many of these craft ideas can be pulled together quickly with items you have around the house. Looking over these suggestions reminded me of some of the crafts I did as a child. Some of the ideas include: tissue paper roses, accordion books, different ways to make simple advent wreaths, book marks, doorknob hangers, dioramas, puzzles, mobiles, mosaics, God’s eyes, paper quilling, printmaking, sandpaper pictures, scratch art, suncatchers, and wind chimes. While some of the projects have photos showing finished projects, some do not. It might have been helpful to have more images, but the basic directions are easy enough to follow and allow for more imagination rather than trying to produce something exactly like the model.
Jumbo Book of Art Ideas for Teachers and Parents is a handy book to have around the house for those times when you need some help coming up with a creative idea to add to your lesson planning or for when your children say, “I’m bored!”
This work was previously published as Arts and Crafts from A to Z (Twenty-Third Publications, 2013).
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