Nurture your child’s imagination and let their creativity flow with Craft Victoria’s hands-on activities each week at Crafternoon Kid’s Hub.
From paper jewellery to shadow puppets and tin can drums, each Kid’s Crafternoon activity has been created to use common materials families have at home. Designed to foster important creative skills and beat boredom, the activities are easy for kids to tackle themselves or to make together with the whole family.
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Create your own colourful flashing lights matching necklace and medallion set. This activity has been created in partnership with artist Louise Meuwissen.
This is an inexpensive and simple way to make colourful beads which can be used to create pieces of jewellery.
Create rainbow salt whilst encouraging children to learn and experiment with colour and pattern creation.
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Create a free-standing three-dimensional animal sculpture. You can build up a collection for a zoo, farm or aquarium whilst learning about different animals.
Shadow puppets are easy to make and are a lot of fun to play with. Make all the characters and backdrops in your favourite story and recreate sequels using your imagination.
Make some super soft dough and let it air dry into a lasting piece of art.
Use recycled tin cans to create a drum kit, then decorate the drums with stickers and paint.
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Create traditional Guatemalan dolls and creatures that are used as a vessel to hold your worries and ease your mind.
With some very simple materials, you can make your whole family as cute little finger puppets.
• Matchbox Guitar
• Butterfly Kite
• Galaxy Drawings
• Bag Parachute
Show your children what it’s like to work as a professional maker by taking a tour with some of Australia’s most exciting craft artists inside their creative working spaces. Visit the Studio Stories page on Craft’s website and meet ceramicists, furniture makers, jewellers and other inspiring makers.
Keep up to date with what’s on at Craft on Instagram at @craftvictoria and share your own creations using the hashtags #craftvictoria and #kidscrafternoons.
All activities have been created by Craft’s Public Programs Manager Madeleine Griffith, except in the instance of the flashing lights necklace activity and video tutorial – which was created in partnership with artist Louise Meuwissen.
Do you need ideas on how to keep the kids engaged while spending time at home? Be sure to check out our other blogs:
• Google Arts and Culture – virtual tours for kids
• NGV Kids – free kids activities for home
• Free ACMI online School Holiday Activities for kids
• Melbourne Zoo and Werribee Open Range Zoo streaming live videos
• Kids Storytime goes online
• Kids can enjoy Melbourne Museums at Home
• Tate Kids free at-home activities
• Sydney Opera House online hub – ‘For the Kids’
• Australian National Maritime Museum online activities and games
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