Toddler crafts can be a lot of fun.  Make sure that your projects are age-appropriate and adult supervision is provided.

The crafts that you select should be kept simple yet entertaining to keep the children’s attention.  Craft selections should be something that they are able to do with the assistance of an adult.  The following are great toddler crafts that are perfect for this age group.

Foam Play Food

Craft foam is the ideal material for making pretend play food due to it being flexible but sturdy.  You can use construction paper or craft foam to cover boxes to create “cakes”.  A trip to the craft store for thicker craft foam will give you “bread” materials.  Below are easy craft foam pizza directions.

          Supplies:

• Yellow, green, red, and brown craft foam
• White paper plate
• Scissors (adults should probably help with this part)
• Glue

The pizza crust will be the paper plate.  The sauce will be from a cut red circle from the craft foam that’s just a little smaller than the plate and glue it down to the plate.

Cut a variety of different shapes from the craft foam and let your toddler help with the scissors if they are able to.  Some ideas would be small rectangles of cheese, green pepper strips, pepperoni, and any other toppings you can create.  Many toddlers enjoy creating their pizzas over and over, but you can also glue the toppings down for a permanent pizza.  Store foam toppings in an envelope for later use.

Edible Sand Art

Edible sand eliminates parent’s worry about their toddler eating sand as they would with regular sand art.  You can easily make edible sand by separating out the colors of fruit-flavored cereal and crush each color in a zip-top bag.  Have your toddler make designs with glue on stiff paper or card stock.  Help them sprinkle their colorful “sand” on the glue design they made.  Allow it to dry.

Another idea for “sand” art is using clear containers and pouring “sand” in layers or using it in a diorama.  For more edible sensory play ideas see the post by Hands on as We Grow.

Tissue Paper Butterflies

Tissue paper can make simple beautiful butterflies.  This is an ideal toddler craft because it can be made fairly quickly, and it shouldn’t be too messy.  Below are the instructions.

Supplies:

• Pipe cleaners
• Colorful tissue paper in a variety of colors

Cut various colors of rectangles out of tissue paper.  Next, layer several colors of the tissue paper and then double a pipe cleaner and twist around the tissue rectangles (the tissue will be resting in a long “U” shaped pipe cleaner).  Now twist the pipe cleaners at the top until the pipe cleaner holds the tissue while bunching it up slightly in the center.  The pipe cleaner forms the body and antennae.

Whatever craft you choose to do with your toddler will be time well spent together.  Keep your toddler crafts balanced with steps that they can do without assistance and those that need your help.