DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Easy Frog Paper Craft
SCROLL ABOUT 1/2 way for the craft...
A NOTE FROM LEANNE:
I often have parent's indicate their child is too young to craft at age 2 or 3. I also have some people lament that their crafts aren't "turning out".
The best advice I can give is to focus more on the enjoyment and skill-building rather than the end product. The craft should be enjoyable for the child, hold the child's attention until completion and should be recognizable to them ... Nothing too abstract at young ages (a froggy! Ribbit, ribbit! is better than something they're unfamiliar with).
A good portion of the craft should be done by the child (not them watching you put it together... You're better off with a less than perfect product that they did themselves, than a perfect craft made by you!). Try making a craft and they make one too (kids like to imitate!). You can put yours together step by step along with them... If I'm pretty sure Kaitlyn's following along well, I'll ask her advice (Gee Kaitlyn, where should mommy put this froggy's eye?). She gets a big kick out of instructing mommy and doesn't seem to balk at mommy instructing her as much when we share teacher duty.
When helping the children decide where to glue the pieces, you can make a small dot on the template with a black marker and say "put glue on the dot", then "put the eye on the glue" and so on. This way they get to practice their hand eye coordination and following instructions.
Do activities to go along with
the craft. Crafting should be fun, not work... Take a break if you need it! or do
some frog activities before/during/after the craft to inspire the child. Sing
frog songs (mm, mm went the little green frog one day OR 5 green and speckled
frogs).
If you're desperate, Old McDonald could always have a frog on his farm! Hop
around on the floor like a frog saying ribbit, ribbit (yes daddy, you too!). Eat
"flies on a log" as a snack (ants on a log... just call them flies)... celery
covered in cheese whiz with raisins on it... Or pretend the raisins are the 5 green and
speckled frogs and eat one with each verse..
These crafts are FREE so if it isn't going well STOP! wait for a better day or choose a different craft. This is one of the benefits of not spending a fortune on craft supplies *grin*.
Just so you get a feel for how my 2 year old's projects turn out, here's Kaitlyn's froggy...
Click here for a full size photo. Close photo window when done viewing.
THE CRAFT:
OK, enough babbling from me... Here's the craft!
Materials:
- a printer,
- glue,
- scissors,
- something to color with,
- a piece of paper.
Instructions:
- Print out the template of choice.
- Color (where appropriate).
- Cut out the template pieces (adult assistance
required... can be predone).
- If you precut, you can put scotch tape on the back of the pieces and tape them to a piece of clean white paper while the children colour the pieces.
- Glue on the head, mouth, eyes, arms, and legs. Look at the picture above if you get stuck.
Templates:
- Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
- Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).
Template (color) or (B&W)
Print friendly version of these instructions