Each month I take part in a children's outreach program with my church, that aims to provide a few basic things for kids who attend: dinner, games, crafts, a bible themed lesson, and a safe place to spend time with attentive adults.
The church is in inner city Pittsburgh and is in the midst of a lower to lower-middle class neighborhood, so it is the perfect place to look out our front door and see how we can positively impact the community in ways other than just church attendance. The monthly program accommodates kids from preschool through 6th grade, which can be a challenging spread when it comes to a 20 minute (or less sometimes!) craft session.
For this particular activity, I was working with the younger group of kids. Additionally, the event is completely made up of walk-in attendants--meaning that every time we have the program we have no idea who is coming, the state of their abilities, the age ranges, the maturities, the amount of nurturing they get at home--which is why we keep crafts simple. After trying a variety of more complex crafts with them--Swedish hearts, pasta shell crabs, paper towel tube Native Americans, foam picture frames--what they obviously enjoy and get happiness from is decorating and drawing instead of doing a craft with a lot of steps. That happiness with a sense of self-esteem and self-worth are high on the list of what we are trying to accomplish with the program. As simple as this craft is, the kids were laughing, giggling, excited, and proud when their projects were complete. There is something to be said for knowing your audience.
Actual, completed examples
materials:
heavy white paper
yellow construction paper
glue sticks
markers and crayons
decorative items: feathers, colored tissue paper, glitter, glitter glue, etc.
brass round head fasteners (optional)
orange construction paper (optional)
get to work:
1. Cut egg-shaped ovals from the white paper and cut zig-zags across the middle. If time permits, allow your kids to do this and you can prepare by drawing the shape if needed.
2. Cut the chick shape from yellow construction paper. I used the shape of a circle on top of rounded shoulders shape. Again, let the kids do the cutting if time permits.
Optionally, you can cut orange triangles for the chick's beak.
3. Customize! Color, draw, write, and glue to your kiddo's heart's desire!
4. With the egg bottom and the chick facing up, run glue stick along the bottom of the chick body. Place the completed egg on top.
5. Optional step of using the brass fastener to put a top on the egg. Line up an egg top and bottom allowing the left or right side of the egg pieces to overlap by about 1/2 inch. Poke a hole through both egg pieces and flatten out the fastener on the back.
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