KIDS CRAFTS - ANIMALS

Animals provide a great art and craft theme for children's activities and there are endless possibilities. You can easily substitute your own favourite animal for those shown here, and the kids can really be creative and will be kept busy for ages.

• Thin card or paper
• Pencil, scissors and ruler
• Felt-tip pens or coloured pencils

1. Cut a strip of paper or thin card approximately 24cm x 7cm.
2. Fold into four sections so that you have a concertina of four 6cm x 7cm rectangles.
3. On the top section, draw an elephant or lion as shown, or any animal of your choice.
   Make sure that the animal's body touches the left and right-hand edges of the rectangle.



 

4. Cut around your animal design, making sure you leave a piece uncut at each side, so that your animals stay joined together.
5. Open out and colour or decorate the four animals however you wish.

 





 

6. Repeat to make a frieze of any length by joining the blocks together, and display on a wall.

Variations:

1. Use longer strips of paper and make more folds to make more animals at a time.
2. Use larger paper to make larger rectangles and, therefore, larger animals!

Foam Animal Pictures

• Backing board
• Assorted geometric foam shapes
• Pencil, scissors and PVA glue

Owl

1. Draw a basic outline of an owl onto the backing board.
2. Before you start sticking on any shapes, select the shapes you will need to decorate your owl and lay them out onto the outline on the board.
3. Use foam triangles for the owl's feathers and 5 pairs of circles of decreasing sizes for the eyes. Cut out ears and a beak from scraps of foam.
4. Once you have decided on the shapes to use, start sticking the shapes onto the backing board, beginning at the bottom of the picture.
5. Layer up the triangles to form the overlapping feathers as shown.
6. Make the eyes using circles of foam. Then add a beak and ears.
7. Put to one side to allow the glue to dry.

Fish

1. Draw and cut a basic outline of a fish's body from a sheet of foam and stick onto the backing board.
2. Add a tail by cutting a foam circle into two semicircles as shown.
3. Cut a number of smaller foam circles into semicircles for the fish's scales and, starting at the tail, begin to stick them in place, layering as you go to give a 3-D effect.
4. Add the fish's eye and mouth and complete the picture with some bubbles.
5. Put to one side to allow the glue to dry.

Variations:

Instead of foam shapes, use felt or fabric pieces or coloured card. You will create the best effect with foam pieces but you will need to allow plenty of time for the glue to dry and the shapes to set in place.

Pompom Creatures

You will need:

• Pompoms in assorted colours and sizes
• Scraps of thin coloured card or foam
• PVA glue
• Wiggle eyes, if available
• Scissors and felt-tip pens

You can make a variety of little creatures by sticking different sized pompoms together with PVA glue to form a basic body shape and then adding details and decorating with smaller pompoms, scraps of foam or card and wiggle eyes.

Follow the examples in the photograph to begin, then create your own designs with whatever crafty bits and pieces you have to hand.