Christmas Crafts With Children

Now that my own two children are older they have lost interest in Christmas crafting with me.  But, luckily, I am teacher and I have my thirty grade six students.  This year we had lots of fun in my class getting ready for Christmas.  After being inspired by Color 'n Cream's blog I decided I would do the same craft with my class this year.  I was surprised to hear how few had ever sewn on a button or even held a needle before.  I knew I had to do something about it.  I started by working with a small group of students who told me they had a bit of experience.  I can't tell you how many times I had to thread their needles for them...my students told me I had a lot of patience!  We started with the trees so that I could teach them all the fundamentals.   Here's how they turned out:

The next day the rest of the class had their turn to make the trees, assisted by the group that had worked with me.  They were so proud that they were able to help their classmates.

Then this second one was very easy for them:

    

By this point most of them were able to sew independently.  The best part for me was when I laid out some assorted felt (purchased at Michaels Craft Store last year) and they made their own designs. Here are just a few:

I can't tell you how proud they were that they had learned how to sew. Many of them told me they went home and showed their parents their new skills.  So thank you to Color 'n Cream for the inspiration!

We also had fun making these trees...I wish I had a group picture of them all.  Just using construction paper, marker and glitter glue...you can't go wrong!