One common question that I hear a lot is, “How do you get your child to do ____?”
Art projects, crafts, sensory bins, learning activities… you name it.
The answer is really simple.
I focus on what they are interested in (OBSESSED WITH) and then pretty much anything we do is a hit… because it stems from their interests and passions. I rarely just create an activity for my kids because I want to do it.
The activities we put together are mainly child focused and child led.
Since I have taught kids and toddlers for many years, I often know topics and themes that I know they will love, so sometimes I will create activities related to those as well.
This past week, my daughter decided that she wanted to do a lion project. She went to see the new live action Lion King movie a few weeks ago and since then has been obsessed with lions and roaring and all of the music from the soundtrack (old and new).
Today I’m sharing the simple lion cutting craftivity (craft + activity) that we put together. We combined her two current favorite things - cutting with scissors and lions - to make these awesome Lion puppet crafts.
Materials to make a Lion Puppet
- Colored cardstock (orange and yellow)
- Craft sticks
- Marker
- Painters tape
- Scissors
Directions to make a Lion Puppet
Prep ahead-
- Start by cutting out a large orange circle
- Next, cut a small yellow circle (add two ears to the top)
- Stick the yellow circle (face) in the middle of the orange circle
- Draw a lion face on the yellow circle
Now have your child make snips from the outside of the orange paper circle inward. You can even draw lines for them to cut on top of if that is helpful.
Once the lion has snips all around the mane, stick the orange circle onto a craft stick and secure in place with painters tape.
Your lion is now ready to turn into a puppet.
You can roar and crawl around with it!
The purpose of this activity is to give kids an opportunity to snip with scissors AND help them use their imaginations as they pretend play as lions! Both are such important skills!
If your child is more advanced in his cutting or glueing skills, he may have fun with this more complicated paper plate lion mask craft.
Does your child love using scissors? Do you want them to develop their fine motor skills so that they are more ready to use scissors or write or even zip up their coats?
Check out these 10 Incredibly Easy Fine Motor Sensory Bin ideas. They are bound to get kids excited while also working on building simple fine motor skills.
Here are a few of our other favorite fine motor skills crafts & activities to try.
Do you have any others that your kids love? Please share!
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