Arts & crafts materials

[mumofone]

What arts and crafts materials do you supply for your mindees?

[Sammy Jo T]

What arts and crafts materials do you supply for your mindees?

I've been picking some good stuff up from this seller: creationbox on eBay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/creationbox?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2754)

[Gill Brownsword]

Crazy crocodiles are good and yellow moon. I try to get together with other people and put in one big order to save on postage. I love my craft, my cupboards are overflowing :)

[FussyElmo]

I went into Fred Aldous in Manchester yesterday and oh my word it was an Aladdin's cave of pure loveliness. I didn't know quite how many items I needed till I went there. Bit pricey though but pure indulgence.

FLORADORA I thought of you because 2 of my friends brought adult colouring books :thumbsup:

[FloraDora]

What arts and crafts materials do you supply for your mindees?

Now with this question did you mean which suppliers or the type of materials we provide in arts and craft for LO's ?

So far the interpretation is supplier, but I read it as supplying to the mindees?

Just looked at FA web site as Manchester is now a regular place for us to shop now youngest has emigrated there, it may be a place for me to actually avoid as also big on model making for DH too until we become richer! I am desperate to make a profit this year!

[FussyElmo]

Just looked at FA web site as Manchester is now a regular place for us to shop now youngest has emigrated there, it may be a place for me to actually avoid as also big on model making for DH too until we become richer! I am desperate to make a profit this year!

Its just sheer heaven. Profit is for wimps who needs profits when you can have craft products :laughing::laughing::laughing:

[FussyElmo]

Ps I brought myself a beam loom. Didn't know till I went there that I needed one. Not sure if I can even use one lol

I also brought a rotary cutter and supplies to make more lampshades - wont be happy till I lampshade the world :laughing::laughing::laughing:

But im digressing again. Supplies for the children anything and everything I have in. I like scrapstores I like my recycling bins. We are very much into making paper flowers. I love poundland. home Bargains and hobbycraft

[mumofone]

Now with this question did you mean which suppliers or the type of materials we provide in arts and craft for LO's ? So far the interpretation is supplier, but I read it as supplying to the mindees? Just looked at FA web site as Manchester is now a regular place for us to shop now youngest has emigrated there, it may be a place for me to actually avoid as also big on model making for DH too until we become richer! I am desperate to make a profit this year!

The types of materials flora :-)

[mumofone]

Ie. Egg boxes, paper plates, toilet roll tubes etc! I'm thinking of providing stuff like this that I usually shove in the recycling each week but that we could make stuff out of, I could do with some ideas of what we could make though! I'm clueless!!

[FloraDora]

I had a flip top bin in our shed with junk stuff, with the idea that I would use them but...

When I have put them out it is purely the process that is the objective as I have never been a big fan of presenting parents with a load of junk cartons glued, taped, stapled into a shape, usually huge and certainly the interest in it rarely lasts longer than the initial presentation discussion to parents. The poor parents are then stuck with the monstrosity for an age!

So I don't provide this as a craft anymore...Ihave got a big box full of these cartons and the children use them to collect small things, for water or sand play or for landscapes in small settings which sometimes leads to adapting and adjusting in a craft like way.

My current dillema is storage of art and craft so that the children can access independently and in the absence of a playroom, set up in a portable way.

But my ' craft', not art - what difference? I interpret as ' making actual things, usually 3d out of a variety of materials i.e the difference between the high school D&T dept and art dept - Is: bits of wood to hammer and make, starting with pressing in Balsa. Creating with things around them, using everyday materials in a different way to create something to play in - a box as a car, or something to push the doll in, or with a piece of material on top a hiding place for favourite things etc.. I consider any den making to be craft/ construction, they both overlap I think. Tins or containers filled for shakers, wind socks from a curved piece of card...
Card making, hat making and cake making - all crafts, requiring skills to do.
I have a little sewing machine and my 4 year old just sews things together - then decides what to use it for.
I only have 4 and under really so all limited but if I have afterschoolers I would want Fussy's bead loom !! Bags would be my first thing to make!

[FussyElmo]

I had a flip top bin in our shed with junk stuff, with the idea that I would use them but...


I only have 4 and under really so all limited but if I have afterschoolers I would want Fussy's bead loom !! Bags would be my first thing to make!

My afterschoolies are sooooooooooooooooo not touching it yet :laughing::laughing::laughing:

[loocyloo]

Paper and card of all shapes, sizes and colours. I recycle paper, cards, envelopes etc.
Paint ( poster, powder, water ), pens, chalk, crayons, pencils etc
Multitude of bits to stick ...stickers, card shapes, tissue paper, glitter, pompoms, lolly sticks, sequins buttons and all random collected bits etc
Glue, glue sticks, masking tape, sellotape etc
Scissors
And probably more I have forgotten!

I have some craft kits that we do. The older children love looking through the craft catalogues and sometimes we buy what they see, but usually we try to create it ourselves.

Oh and playdough, clay etc

[miffy]

Paper and card of all shapes, sizes and colours. I recycle paper, cards, envelopes etc.
Paint ( poster, powder, water ), pens, chalk, crayons, pencils etc
Multitude of bits to stick ...stickers, card shapes, tissue paper, glitter, pompoms, lolly sticks, sequins buttons and all random collected bits etc
Glue, glue sticks, masking tape, sellotape etc
Scissors
And probably more I have forgotten!

I have some craft kits that we do. The older children love looking through the craft catalogues and sometimes we buy what they see, but usually we try to create it ourselves.

Oh and playdough, clay etc

All above plus ribbon, lace, material scraps, bubble wrap, boxes, cartons, tubes (kitchen roll, wrapping paper etc), sweet wrappers, cellophane, pipe cleaners, egg boxes, inserts from chocolate boxes, milk bottle tops, lids from various containers, stampers and inks.....
Just about anything really!
Miffy xx

[mumofone]

What do you guys actually make out of the stuff though?

[FloraDora]

What do you guys actually make out of the stuff though?

Pinterest !

[FussyElmo]

What do you guys actually make out of the stuff though?

Sometimes what I plan the children to make and what the children themselves want to make are 2 entirely different things :thumbsup:

[lollipop kid]

Sometimes what I plan the children to make and what the children themselves want to make are 2 entirely different things :thumbsup:

I love giving the children bits of stuff just to see what they do with them. The other day, I presented my 3 x 2 year olds with some clean yoghurt pots and some clean "Actimel" bottles.

First of all, the children discovered that the bottles fitted into the yoghurt pots. Then one discovered that another yoghurt pot could work on top as a lid. Then another discovered that he could talk into his "Actimel" bottle, so they all started using them as mini microphones/amplifiers. It was great fun. I didn't have a bit of tape in sight. Then they discovered that you could see light through each of these if you held them to the window.

Lovely to watch. These are now in my 'treasure' basket, along with a myriad of coloured "Quality Street" celophane wrappers, some chocolate box inserts and a cardboard holder for 'apples' that we picked up one day from a local fruit stall.

(I'm rubbish at making things anyway, so it's easy for me to take a step back and just watch the children's enjoyment of these resources. :D)

I'm planning on doing some water play this week - I think I'll dig out the same resources and just let them see what they can use them for. (I too was inspired by the Cosy catalogue, but my dh is pants at DIY, so my water wall will have to wait. We'll just improvise for now.)

:thumbsup:

L

[Simona]

Ie. Egg boxes, paper plates, toilet roll tubes etc! I'm thinking of providing stuff like this that I usually shove in the recycling each week but that we could make stuff out of, I could do with some ideas of what we could make though! I'm clueless!!

...but the children won't be clueless!
Let them free to make whatever their imagination tells them the end product is :thumbsup:

[k1rstie]

8660


This is what we made with yoghurt pots for Mother's Day. I did have to make a hole in the end. Each flower is a flower shaped petal, yoghurt pot, a bead on ed of half a pipe cleaner.

. Actimel bottles are great for making fireworks. Remove wrapper, stick flame colour tissue paper in the end, add some string and a stick, and you have a rocket, or a firework.

[FloraDora]

The bin where this stuff still lingers in the shed is often just emptied...over the lawn, used for stones collections, leaf/petals/slate etc... Containers. like lollipop says, they explore the properties and how they interact with each other....that's the delight of under 3's , they get enthusiastic about most things in their discovery.

Like most threads so far have said, I think the most important aspect of use of junk cartons is independent exploration.....but about once a month I might show them something I have made and see if they want to make one, like the wind sock...because I wanted to run on the field and feel the wind and we have exhausted the wind ribbons for a while! I had two takers, but the third wasn't interested at all and just sat with the tissue paper and played with the strips, but enjoyed in a different way. Also good for following instructions...but I never say the children have made it, I emphasise the ' following' aspect and highlight the independent aspect ...one drew all over their wind sock, the other found stickers in the craft bin and covered theirs with these.

[tess1981]

I love pound world home bargins and pound stretcher and tesco sometimes sells.their stuff out at reduced price

[Maza]

My two three year old mindees were intrigued by my collection of egg boxes last week (such pretty colours these days) and both found the colour box that represents their football team and spent ages painting their own eggbox. They both decided to different colours in each pouch and then a different one on the lid and were both as pleased as punch with their results! I asked them if they also wanted to glue any collage bits to their egg boxes but neither of them did - they were quite specific on their own design. I often get similar enthusiasm with the cardboard tubes. My 6 year old would probably turn it into some creature with googly eyes but the younger ones were happy with their abstract creations. I like to provide junk materials as a blank canvas, the same way in which we might provide a sheet of paper.

Sometimes I show them a couple of things that could be made with the available resources but I don't expect them to copy it, just to spark their imagination. Last week I showed the same three year old boys a chick that my DD had made out of a yellow paper cup. We have been watching chicks hatch at playgroup so a current interest. They loved the paper cup chick but one wanted 'Manchester City blue' feathers and the other wanted 'Manchester United red'. They were gorgeous!

I actually love it when they attach loads of junk modelling together as I always see so much problem solving and refining of ideas in the process.

You can build up your art and craft resources over time. To start with, you really only need the primary colours for paint, and maybe black and white because then you can make any colour/shade you want. This last week we have also been using tin foil as a canvas instead of paper. We used paint and permanent markers.

If you get any slabs of polystyrene in packaging save it. All ages love making sculptures with this - they can stick feathers in it, pipe cleaners and then thread beads or pasta shapes onto it and mine all usually end up sticking golf tees in it for candles and then using my cake decorations to make birthday cakes.

[lollipop kid]

My two three year old mindees were intrigued by my collection of egg boxes last week (such pretty colours these days) and both found the colour box that represents their football team and spent ages painting their own eggbox. They both decided to different colours in each pouch and then a different one on the lid and were both as pleased as punch with their results! I asked them if they also wanted to glue any collage bits to their egg boxes but neither of them did - they were quite specific on their own design. I often get similar enthusiasm with the cardboard tubes. My 6 year old would probably turn it into some creature with googly eyes but the younger ones were happy with their abstract creations. I like to provide junk materials as a blank canvas, the same way in which we might provide a sheet of paper.

Sometimes I show them a couple of things that could be made with the available resources but I don't expect them to copy it, just to spark their imagination. Last week I showed the same three year old boys a chick that my DD had made out of a yellow paper cup. We have been watching chicks hatch at playgroup so a current interest. They loved the paper cup chick but one wanted 'Manchester City blue' feathers and the other wanted 'Manchester United red'. They were gorgeous!

I actually love it when they attach loads of junk modelling together as I always see so much problem solving and refining of ideas in the process.

You can build up your art and craft resources over time. To start with, you really only need the primary colours for paint, and maybe black and white because then you can make any colour/shade you want. This last week we have also been using tin foil as a canvas instead of paper. We used paint and permanent markers.

If you get any slabs of polystyrene in packaging save it. All ages love making sculptures with this - they can stick feathers in it, pipe cleaners and then thread beads or pasta shapes onto it and mine all usually end up sticking golf tees in it for candles and then using my cake decorations to make birthday cakes.

Great work, Maza!

We love polystyrene here - the children and I used it recently when we were learning about textures outside. I showed the two year olds how to make it 'snow' on rough textures and they had a go at finding things to scrape their bits of polystyrene on to see if they could make snow. It was a real voyage of discovery for them - and they loved the fact I was letting them test the different textures that are on the street just outside my setting (such as a Silver Birch tree, stone walls, brick walls, the pavement, my garden fence, etc.).

:thumbsup:

L

[Maza]

Great work, Maza!

We love polystyrene here - the children and I used it recently when we were learning about textures outside. I showed the two year olds how to make it 'snow' on rough textures and they had a go at finding things to scrape their bits of polystyrene on to see if they could make snow. It was a real voyage of discovery for them - and they loved the fact I was letting them test the different textures that are on the street just outside my setting (such as a Silver Birch tree, stone walls, brick walls, the pavement, my garden fence, etc.).

:thumbsup:

L

What a fabulous idea! I love it!

[loocyloo]

You can also 'stick' polystyrene together with shaving foam!

[Maza]

You can also 'stick' polystyrene together with shaving foam!

Really? Wow! Must try that one!x

[lollipop kid]

Really? Wow! Must try that one!x

Me too! Thanks, Loocyloo!

:thumbsup:

L

[loocyloo]

Me too! Thanks, Loocyloo!

:thumbsup:

L

It falls apart after a while but it's great for children to build with :-)

[mama2three]

Please lease be careful with polystyrene. I used to use it a lot until hearing of a little girl who suffocated on it. I researched it to find that its one of the hardest things to dislodge if they do put it in their mouths as once its in the wind pipe it expands with the moisture. Im not saying never use it , but just be aware !