Archive for the ‘Workshops’ Category

‘Spacecraft’ at the Loftus Community Centre

School holiday workshops at the Loftus Community Centre have started again. This term the theme was “Spring into Space”, covering all things cosmic.

Today we made 4 crafts:

UFO with an alien driver

Click here for ‘UFO’ instructions.

Lunar Launch Pad for the alien to land on.

Click here for ‘Lunar Launch Pad’ instructions

Spacey Tealight. Made using a glass, cellophane and stars.

Spacey Tealight. Made using a glass, cellophane and stars.

Click here for ‘Tealights’ instructions

Cosmic Backdrop. A4 Paper, chalk, circle stencils and stars.

More from the Loftus Centre

Here are some more samples of the children’s work from my craft workshops at the Loftus Community Centre.

Mini Jungles made with cardboard, twigs, blue cellophane, pebbles, green tissue paper and lots and lots of paper mache glue.

Paper Plate Handbags. We decorated these with sticky back craft foam I found at my local $2 shop.

The bags are made by snipping the top of one paper plate and stapling it, facing inwards, to another plate. Fold the top over and stick a little Velcro on the inside to keep it closed. Then add some string or ribbon for a strap.

Notebooks to fit inside the handbags. Using the same sticky back foam I had the children decorate the front of the books and then slip a mini pencil into the side. The pencils were originally full sized. I cut them in half with pruning shears and sharpened the blunt end. That way they fit into the bags.

Inside the notebook we stapled a small pad of white paper. The cardboard backing is made of recycled cereal boxes.

Loftus Community Centre

I recently ran 2 childrens craft workshops for the Loftus Community Centre School Holiday Program. This term they went wild with a Jungle Theme. The first class was for the younger kids. There are many words I could use to describe running a class of 3-5 year olds, “Simple” and “Relaxing” would not be among them. Never-the-less, we all had fun and I emerged from the 2.5 hours with my sanity intact…more or less… The little ones tackled each project with enthusiasm and gusto. The most popular would have to be the jungle necklaces.

Jungle Necklace

To make a jungle necklace you will need some green card cut into leaf shapes and hole punched at the bottom of each leaf.

Some string - plastic string is the easiest for little fingers to thread - and some coloured tube pasta.

Use food colouring to make the pasta. Simply pour the pasta into a non-staining bowl. Add about a teaspoon of colouring and mix until it covers the pasta. Pour out onto a tray covered with plastic food wrap and allow to dry.

Then simply thread the pasta and the leaves onto the string, alternating one piece of pasta and then one leaf, until your necklace is long enough to fit over your head. Tie the ends and that's it!