Kids home for winter break? Keep them busy by creating a winter wonderland scene made from recyclable materials. This green craft is a great way to spark kids curiosity, planning, and problem solving skills. It also teaches them how to reuse materials in a new and fun way. Here are some fun penguin crafts for kids to help spark your child’s imagination.
About Penguin Facts
First, we did research about penguins. Then we talked about the environment in which they live and what that would look like.
Here are few facts about penguins (from the WWF) that children may find interesting:
- Penguins are a family of 17 to 19 species of birds.
- They live primarily in the Southern Hemisphere.
- The Galápagos penguin is the only penguin to be found north of the equator.
- Penguins have flippers instead of wings.
- In the water they are expert swimmers and divers
- They cannot fly.
- Penguins waddle walking upright on land.
- Penguins eat small shrimp, fish, crabs and squid.
- The penguin’s black body with white belly provides camouflage when in the water.
- The smallest penguins are 15 inches (tiny blue penguins of Australia and New Zealand).
- The largest penguins are 3 and a half feet (emperor penguins of Antarctica).
Penguin Craft Ideas For Kids Using Recyclable Materials
After talking penguin facts we talked out penguin crafts project ideas. I have two kids. I challenged each child to come up with their own creative penguin crafts in a winter wonderland. The rules were they could use anything in our recycling bin and anything from our craft closet to create their penguin winter wonderland.
Collect potential craft supplies and let you child explore how they can manipulate them to create a new winter scene craft. We used several different materials for these two examples . In the top penguin craft photo we used a box that oranges came in, a large plastic egg, acrylic paints, cotton balls, and an empty toilet paper roll. In the lower penguin craft photo we used cardboard, tissue box, gatorade bottle, paint, egg carton and stir straws.
Painting Tip: I suggest using acrylic paint when painting plastic. Be sure your child is using a paint shirt and you have covered the work space. A garbage bag taped to your table or a plastic tablecloth works great and provides easy clean up.
Assembling Tip: I suggest painting the pieces separately and then attaching once the paint has dried.
Conclusion
Let your child lead the penguin crafts project. It may take them a few attempts at figuring out how to use their materials in a new way. Through trial and error they will learn new ways to create their vision. This will help kids to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills.
Once everything is dry, enjoy a cool winter wonderland craft scene from the warmth of your house! With these fun penguin crafts for kids, you will be teaching your child how to reuse materials and create from their imagination.
This tutorial idea was from Jamie Hand, online art instructor and busy mom of two.
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