Firecracker Flags for Flag Day and the Fourth {Kids Craft}

We have some patriotic holidays ahead! My daughter and I worked on a cute patriotic craft this weekend and managed to incorporate some learning into it. We crafted some adorable firecrackers with historical American flags popping out! We assembled an assortment of seven different flags to add to our display and learned a little about each flag.

Here is what you need to make this project:

7 toilet paper rolls
red, white and blue construction paper
glue
scissors
ribbon
wooden skewers
tape
computer, printer & paper


The fun:

We began by cutting our construction paper to fit around the toilet paper rolls. One toilet paper roll will be in the middle of the creation, so it can be any color. Otherwise, you should have two of each color. Glue the construction paper around the rolls.

While letting our "firecrackers" dry, we headed over to USHistory.org to learn about different American flags. USHistory.org is hosted by the Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia and has a comprehensive timeline of American flags. Excellent resource! We read about various flags and chose some special ones to add to our patriotic display. Of course, my daughter had to choose the Betsy Ross flag! We chose 6 unique flags in all. We used today's flag for the center of our display. We printed out our flags and cut them out. To assemble our flags, we cut some wooden skewers to size and taped the flags on. Very easy!

To finish, just tie your "firecrackers" together (6 tubes around one central tube). We used a castoff ribbon from a gift. (I save all of our random ribbons for use in projects.) Then, put your flags in. Adorable, festive and educational! Bang, bang and bang!

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Adorable Thanksgiving Craft: Turkey Napkin Holders {Gobble, Gobble}

Since we have mounds and mounds of scrap paper, I am always looking for ways to use it up. With it being turkey-time, I came up with an adorable turkey napkin holder craft that may be a good way to use up some of your scrap paper. Here is what I came up with:

 

To make my creations, I needed a toilet paper roll, different colors of construction paper (brown, yellow, orange, and red are needed but the rest are negotiable), googly eyes, glue, scissors, pencil, ruler, stapler, and a hot glue gun.

First, I assembled the fan of feathers. To do this, I measured out scraps of paper of different colors. For the best effect, they should be vibrant. For each color, I measured out a rectangle that was 2.5 in x 4.5 in.

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Easy Microphone Craft for Little Rock Stars

For this Halloween, my daughter is going as a rock star. The good news about that--I did not have to purchase much for her costume. We had a lot of things that we could use around our house. However, we did not have a microphone. A microphone craft seemed easy enough, so I thought that I would give it a try. Fortunately, it really was pretty easy and came out adorbs.

What we needed:

toilet paper roll
black construction paper
scissors
glue
tissue paper
aluminum foil
paint pen
adornments
glue gun





How we made our creation:

First, I had my daughter cut the construction paper so that it would fit around the toilet paper roll. Once she did that, she glued it to the roll. Next, we scrunched our tissue paper into a ball. Then, I wrapped the tissue paper ball with aluminum foil. I left enough aluminum foil at the end of the ball that it would fill in the toilet paper roll enough to not pop out. I placed the ball on top and ended up gluing some of the aluminum foil on the inside of the toilet paper roll to further anchor the ball.

The last part was my daughter's favorite. She used some ghost erasers, crystal dots, and a silver paint pen to decorate her microphone. Easy and fun!

***Note: The ghost erasers were bought really cheap at an after Halloween sale. Be sure to keep your eyes out for these adornments after Halloween. You can get them pretty cheap and stock pile some for future crafts or Halloween favors. Also, I did need to break out the glue gun for the erasers. I tried to use the craft glue so that my daughter could do it herself. However, the erasers were a little too heavy.

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