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DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Friendship Necklaces
Everyone gets to make beads and then swap them with each other to make
these fun friendship necklaces. If you have fewer children, you can
make bracelets instead of necklaces (or just have everyone make a couple
beads per person). Younger children can make clay beads (age 3+) and
older children can make paper beads (age 8+) |
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Materials:
- lengths of embroidery floss, ribbon, string or wool long enough to hang
around the children's necks (about half way down their chest so the
necklaces will easily slip over their heads)
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Bead Clay (younger children)
OR
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Materials for Paper Beads (older children) -- it talks about keychains,
but they work for necklaces too
- one plastic container per child (margarine containers work well) - you
can label this "beads I made" if you like
- one ziploc bag per child - you can label this "beads from my friends" if
you like
Directions:
- All of the directions on making the beads are found in the
Bead Clay or
Paper Bead making sections -- follow those depending on which type of
beads you're making
- clay beads: you can premake the beads for the children and just let
them paint them. That way, you won't have to wait 48 hours for the bead
clay to dry -- if you want to be finished in one sitting, use acrylic
paint for decorating (wear paint smocks!) as it will dry in 15 to 20
minutes
- paper beads: these are easily finished in one sitting if you use
glue sticks to put them together -- white glue can take a little longer
to dry if the kids get carried away squeezing it on.
- Have each child make 1 bead per person in the group (the children should
end up making about a dozen beads each -- no more than 20 or they'll get
bored)
- Once the beads are dry have each child fill their plastic container with
the beads they made
- All of the children should sit in a circle and then one at a time, have
them walk around handing a bead to each of the other kids (who place those
in their ziploc bag)
- as the children are handing out their beads, you can have them say
"this bead is for my friend <name>" (a good way to learn names)
OR
- "<name> is my friend because..." (I like it when we play
together, he has a nice smile, etc) -- this is harder so use it if the
children know each other quite well
- After all of the margarine containers are empty and all of the ziploc
bags are full (ie: after all the kids have distributed their creations to
their friends), thread the beads onto the string
- tie a knot (may need adult assistance)
- Proudly wear your friendship necklace
- Optional: you can thread a name tag onto the middle of it (poke a hole
in a laminated paper name tag and tie it on with a short piece of string) to
make a name tag the kids can wear each week
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