Tag: crafts

Thrifty Craft Supplies & Storage Solutions

March 7, 2024

Nothing beats the back to school sales for stocking up on basic craft supplies like glue sticks, crayons, markers, scissors, construction paper, etc. For items such as yarn, ribbon, pom poms, felt, wiggle eyes, craft foam, pretty craft paper, feathers and the like – check for sales at Hobby Lobby and Joann throughout the year.

Otherwise, I’ve found Wal-Mart and Dollar Tree to be the best places to buy general craft supplies everyday.

Dollar Tree is usually my first stop. I’ve picked up small caddies in the school supply section to hold scissors, glue sticks and crayons. The book section is a great resource for simple workbooks, puzzles and stickers. The crafts aisle generally has a little bit of everything in smaller packs so it’s perfect for small scale crafting or just trying out a project without spending a lot of money. If you need to scale a craft project for a large number of kids, I suggest shopping for supplies at Wal-Mart or Amazon.

My find this week was SureFresh round containers to store our bagged/random Perler beads by color. You’ll find them in the kitchen section near the zipper bags and plastic wrap. Each container holds at least 1,000 beads and you get 5 containers in each pack. This works out to 25c per container. Much less expensive than some of the other options I’ve found available. BTW, these also work great to corral wiggle eyes, pony beads and buttons.

For storage solutions, I like the bins that latch with a carry handle. I picked this one up at Michaels, but you can find some variation of it at most craft and big box retailers. All 20 bead boxes, beads to be sorted, tweezers and small Perler templates are in the box. Ironing papers and design charts fit on top before adding the cover. Once the beads are sorted, there should be enough room to add the larger Perler templates. This means I’ll be down to one carry bin and one large jug of assorted melty beads. Perfect!

Storybook Arts & Crafts with a side of Sadie {Update}

January 7, 2024

Monday enrichment begins anew on January 22nd. I’ll have 3 classes this semester lasting about an hour each. My students are K-5. I told my boss I was flexible and could arrange activities to suit any of the K-5 groupings I might be assigned. This semester, I challenged myself to not spend any money on picture books and to use existing supplies for craft projects as much as possible.

Class rosters came out yesterday. This semester, I have 31 students spread over 3 classes – many more than anticipated. This called for revamping the activities I’d planned to do with the kids. I had to pick-up more scissors, crayons and construction paper to start the semester. When I started to overthink activities and go down the maker rabbit hole, hubs yanked me back to reality. He wisely reminded me to keep things simple. Use what I have, but go buy what I need. [Made use of the giftcard my aunt gave me for Christmas!] Make activities enjoyable, keep weekly preps easy on me. The kids will have fun regardless of what we do. Good advice, but so hard when you find all sorts of cool projects you want to make…

Here’s the plan through Winter Break:

1/22 & 1/29: How to Catch a Snowman by Adam Wallace & Andy Elkerton – snowman activity from A Simple Mom plus whatever snowman/snowflake book I can get from the public library – cut paper snowflakes using templates from Superstar Worksheets and by hand following art teacher video on YouTube. Update: 4th & 5th snowman activity: download assorted snowglobe templates and have students design trap to keep snowman from escaping snowglobe. 

2/5: Grumpy New Year by Katrina Moore  - Dragon paper roll activity for the littles and fabric fortune cookies for the big kids (hand sewing).

2/12: Whatever Valentine book arrives first from public library – Paper plate Valentine suncatchers.

2/19: Sadie visits – dog themed stories from Sadie’s library - simple craft activities - littles: paper plate puppy activity. older students : origami dog bookmarks.

And this gets us through Winter Break the last week of February!

Note: I post these ideas to share with librarians, teachers, former colleagues, homeschool moms or anyone really who is looking for great read-alouds and low cost craft activities to share with their kids. I may be retired, but I still get texts from former colleagues needing ideas for books and teaching research skills.

Photo by Yan Krukau on Pexels.com