Finding simple crafts that you can do with a classroom of one to three-year-olds is tough, especially with a limited budget and supplies. Here are some of the crafts I’ve created recently for that age group. They are being used in a children’s church program so most of them have a Bible theme but can be adapted for other childcare programs or for home use.
Animals (includes Creation and Noah)
Plants (includes Zacchaeus and Moses and the Burning Bush)
I Grow Like Jesus Grew
Family
Mother’s Day/Father’s Day
Bible Stories
Jesus Loves Me
God Is with Me
Church
Tips:
- Keep the crafts simple with a maximum of three steps. This is not a magic number and if you’re one-on-one with a child, more steps is fine but remember their attention span is short so simple is better.
- Use a variety of textures such as cotton balls, fabric, yarn, pom-poms, craft sticks, stickers, ink stamps, and tissue paper.
- Be careful and provide good supervision when using pieces that are small enough for kids to swallow. Seeds and pasta noodles are great for crafts but there always seems to be one child who thinks they belong up his or her nose!
- Don’t do the crafts for the kids! Children learn by doing. Let them have fun and it’s OK if what they make isn’t perfect. Just the other day, my husband mentioned that when he was a child, he colored the most perfect picture of gorillas. He was SO proud of it. Later on, he came across the picture and it wasn’t the perfect picture he remembered, but it was his picture. He did it and it was a source of pride for him for a long time.
Teaching Nook 