5 Easy and Fun Animal Crafts For Kids
To keep children away from digital screens, the best thing to do is to offer them something that’ll entertain them for quite some time, such as making easy and fun animal crafts.
Whether at home or at school, this activity provides little ones with a space to expand their knowledge, improve their motor skills, learn new techniques, and share the experience with their family or classmates. The benefits are multiple!
Five easy and fun animal crafts
Here’s a list of five animal crafts that are very easy to make with items that you probably already have at home.
1. Chick stamps
Materials:
- Cork
- Yellow paint
- Paintbrush
- Highlighter
- Orange cardboard
- White cardboard
Step by step guide:
- Paint one end of the cork with yellow paint.
- Press it on the cardboard like a stamp so you get a yellow circle. Repeat several times.
- Add a pair of yellow-painted wings to the sides of each one and let them dry.
- Meanwhile, cut out small triangles from orange cards and fold them in the middle. These will be the chicks’ beaks.
- Once the paint is dry, draw the legs and eyes with the highlighter and glue the beak. And that’s it, you have your chick stamp painting to hang on the wall!
2. A snake made from colorful beads
Materials:
- Different colored beads with large holes
- Pipe cleaners
- A pair of movable eyes
- A piece of pink or orange ribbon
- Silicone glue
Step by step instructions:
- Coil one end of the pipe cleaner, which will be the head of the snake.
- On the other side, string the beads leaving two centimeters at the end.
- Fold the end and close by twisting the pipe cleaner.
- Shape it into an “S” shape.
- Glue on the head the moving eyes and the tongue (that you’ll make with the ribbon, making a V cut). You now have a finished multicolored snake!
3. A lion: one of the animal crafts that kids will love the most
Materials:
- Cardboard roll
- Brown and yellow paint
- Highlighter
- A small piece of pink plush
- Brown, orange, and yellow-colored yarn
- Two brown pipe cleaners
- Movable eyes
- Silicone glue
Step by step:
- Paint the cardboard roll 2/3 brown (body) and 1/3 yellow (head) and let dry.
- Cut out an oval of plush about 4 x 2 centimeters and two triangles for the ears.
- Cut the colored wool into strips about four centimeters long.
- Once the paint’s dry, draw the lion’s mouth and nose. Also, glue the moving eyes and mark the eyebrows and whiskers.
- Use a pipe cleaner as a base for the hair and glue the cut wool. Give it a rounded shape and glue it on the head part. Add the ears.
- Glue some wool to the other pipe cleaner at one end, that’ll be the lion’s tail.
- Glue the plush belly with the silicone and it’s ready!
4. Animal masks made of EVA rubber
Materials:
- EVA rubber sheets of different colors
- Colored rubber thread
- Highlighters
- Glue
- Scissors
Step by step instructions:
This model is adaptable to make different animals: cats, foxes, dogs, bears, raccoons…whatever you like!
- Draw on the EVA rubber the shape of a mask; this is the pattern for all the models.
- Cut out the part of the eyes.
- On this base make a hole at each end and thread the rubber thread through it.
- Assemble the masks with the colors of your choice, cutting out and gluing whiskers, ears, and noses.
- Glue all the parts on the base.
- Add glitter or sparkles if you want to make them more festive!
5. Felt frog puppets
Materials:
- Green, white, black, black, pink, and red felt
- Silicone glue
Step by step:
- Fold the felt so that you have a double shape, place your hand on top and mark the outline with your little finger and thumb open.
- Cut this mold leaving one centimeter at the edges and glue it there with silicone, except the base, which is where you’ll pass the hand.
- When it dries, turn it over. You’ll have the shape of a body with two little arms.
- With the other colored felts, make the frog’s eyes, mouth, and hands.
- Glue all the pieces together.
- Pass your hand through and you’ll be ready for a puppet show!
Animal crafts to play and learn
Working with your hands is very beneficial for children, especially if they do it with a theme that they love, such as animals. This task is great to do at home or at school and then use the figures as decoration or as toys.
Even recycling and awareness of the importance of biodiversity can be great themes to combine with crafts. Let’s get to work!
