Make Crafts for Traditional Children's Stories

Make story time special for your class; a time to discover new ideas and explore new worlds through books. Good books extend a child's horizon, building good reading skills and clarifying concepts. Consider well-chosen stories as "stepping stones to learning and fun." Weave art into children's books by crafts with the instructions below. The children will love these projects!

 This classic story is about a little girl's love for Wilbur, the pig. The barnyard animals also loved Wilbur, especially Charlotte, the spider who uses her web to send wonderful messages about Wilbur at the County Fair, saving him from slaughter.

Make a Sparkling Spider Web

1. Cut black construction paper circles to fit into a cake pan.
2. Pour white tempera paint into a container.
3. To make a spider web, drop a paint-coated marble into the pan and roll it around. Supervise children at all times when using marbles.
4. While the paint is still wet, sprinkle the web with salt to make it look sparkling.
5. While the web is drying, invite the children to draw and color a spider on paper. Cut this figure out.
6. Glue the spider in the center of the web.
7. Display these pictures around the room or onto a bulletin board.

Create a Precious Pig

1. Cut a pig shape from pink construction paper.
2. Use a coordinating color and allow the children to fingerpaint to cover the entire shape.
3. When the paint is dry, use a black marker to draw eyes.
4. Curl a pink pipe cleaner around a pencil and attach it to the back as the pig's tail with glue or tape.
5. Mount these cute pigs on your literature-based bulletin board.

 The Gingerbread boy is a cookie who escapes from everyone who tries to grab him. He later comes upon a fox who is much more clever than he.

Giant Gingerbread Boy

1. To make a giant gingerbread person, trace around the body of the child when lying on brown butcher paper.
2. Help the child cut out this life-size cookie.
3. Provide all kinds of collage materials (pom-poms, buttons, styrofoam pieces, fabric scraps, sequins, etc.) and crayons to decorate this gingerbread cookie. Supervise children when using small pieces during art.
4. Let the child glue the materials to decorate the gingerbread person as they wish.
5. If possible, take a photograph of the child next to her lifesize gingerbread person.

 A little bunny wanted to run away from home. His mother loved him so much that she would try to find him no matter where he decided to go. It's a loving story.

Make a Beautiful Bunny

1. Each child will need two lunch size paper plates.
2. Cut one plate in half. Tape or staple each half to the top rim of the first plate for the bunny ears. Cut inner ears from pink construction paper and glue them inside each outer paper plate ear.
3. With crayons or markers encourage the chldren to create a face with eyes and a nose. Whiskers can be made with strips of construction paper or pipe cleaners that can be glued on.
4. It's important to let each child create the face of the bunny as they wish. No two should look alike; that's what creativity is all about.

Enhancing the stories you read with art is a good habit to adopt. Children will truly enjoy making preschool story time crafts as part of their literature curriculum. For a special treat, why not enhance The Gingerbread Boy by making gingerbread cookies as a cooking lesson?

Safety Disclaimer

Source: personal experience