Straw Necklaces
Cut the plastic straws into about 1-inch pieces.
Lace the small straw pieces into the string or yarn to create a straw necklace.
You can use different color plastic straws and create matching patterns for the straw necklaces.
Material: Yarn
Paper Plate Web
In this activity, pipe cleaners are optional.
Help the child to cut out a large circle from the center of the paper plate, leaving about 1-inch from the edge, and creating an outer ring.
Ask the child to punch holes all around the outer ring.
Give the child a long piece of yarn and instruct him to string the yarn through the holes he punched. Have the child string the yarn from one hole to the next going back and forth to form a web.
On the construction paper (preferably black or gray), draw a medium size oval for the spider’s body and a smaller size circle for the spider’s head. Let the child cut out the shapes you drew to make a spider. You can also ask the child to draw a spider and cut it out.
If you are using pipe cleaners, have the child punch 3 holes on each side of the oval (the spider’s body) and place a small piece of pipe cleaner in each hole (to form the spider’s legs).
Have the child glue the spider on the web or attach the spider to the web by banding the pipe cleaners onto the yarn.
Paper Bag Fish
Have the child crumple the newspapers into small paper balls.
Stuff the paper bag with the crumpled newspapers.
Use the yarn or a ribbon to tie a knot close to the edge of the open end to close the paper bag.
Ask the child to paint the filled paper bag using either a brush or cotton balls.
Glue large googly eyes.
For grading, you can ask the child to draw eyes on construction paper and cut/glue it onto the paper bag.
Lay a piece of yarn on the fish (below the eyes) to make a mouth. Use some glue to hold it in place.
To promote tactile perception, you can let the child finger paint the paper bag instead of using other media.
Fish Bowl
Download and print the fish bowl and fish templates.
For this activity use green yarn or tissue paper.
Ask the child to color the images.
Instruct the child to cut out the fish bowl and fish images.
If child has difficulties cutting, provide thicker lines/boundaries. For the fish image, you can outline the picture/draw a circle or a square around to grade down.
Glue the fish bowl on a piece of construction paper.
Use the sand and instruct the child to glue it at the bottom of the bowl.
Have the child glue the fish into the bowl. Using the string of yarn of pieces of tissue paper, create the seaweed and glue into bowl.
Colorful Bookmark
Let the child trace or draw a 3″ x 10″ rectangle (if you want to work on cutting curves, you may draw wiggly lines instead of straight ones). Have the child cut the rectangle out.
Using a single hole hole-puncher, assist the child in punching a hole in the top part of the rectangle. Then, have the child thread a piece of yarn through the hole.
Using the markers and stickers, let the child decorate the bookmark and make it colorful.
Additional ideas for decorating the bookmark:
1. Have the child crumble small pieces of tissue paper
2. Cut/trace a 2.5″ x 9″ rectangle with white printer paper, and glue onto the center within the 3″ x 10″ construction paper.
3. Have the child cut out pictures that he likes from newspaper and magazines
4. Laminate the bookmarks to preserve them!