The first week back at school can be the most daunting of the year for many students – they’ve got to settle back into a new classroom with new teachers and a mashup of classmates old and new, so helping them to all get to know each other and really relax into the year can help them to feel more comfortable a little bit easier. Craft lessons are a great way to get the children talking and chilled out, so kicking off the year with some arty lessons can be a great way to get to know the class a little bit better, whilst also letting them express their creative side! Here are our top picks for classroom crafts this term:
Basket Making
This one doubles up as a practical desk storage device for the coming year as well as a fun crafts activity for your class, so it’s a real all-rounder that everyone gets something out of. Basket making can be fun, interactive, and entertaining for the children, but also gives them a place to store their stationery on their desks through the year, so there’s less clutter and your classroom feels a little bit more organised. Springboard Supplies has a simple basket making set to help you get stuck into this classroom craft session with ease, so check those out if you’re looking to get your students involved in making baskets this coming term.
DIY Bookmarks
Another practical craft lesson that your class can take part in is a bookmark making session – with all of the textbooks and reading materials that the children use throughout the year, it’s nice to have a personalised bookmark to help them remember where they’re up to so that they can pick up where they left off in their last lesson. Bookmarks can be made by weaving and decorating simple pieces of card or fabric in a way that’s eye-catching and engaging to them; there’s no right or wrong way and your class can be as expressive as they’d like! Top Tip: Turn your crafts lessons into competitions to get the class more excited and putting maximum effort into there arty activities- the best design wins a prize!
Frames
These are perfect as a fun way to develop a seating chart or give an extra exciting twist to your merit and achievement system; self-decorated picture frames, perhaps featuring a picture of each child within them, can be used in a variety of different ways throughout the year. The initial decorating and creating process is a fantastic crafts lesson in itself, but with these frames you’ll get more than just that – place them on chairs before lessons when you want to refresh your seating plan throughout the year and let your class find their faces around the room, or use the pictures on a merit chart and move each child’s frame according to how far they’ve moved up the chart over the course of the year. If you aren’t looking to involve a merit system or seating plan in your classroom this year, don’t worry – these frames work just as well as a take-home gift for parents to stick on the fridge!
Crafts can be a very handy way to get your class more involved in the overall structure of a lesson, whilst also enjoying themselves and getting to know their new classmates – it’s the perfect way to kick off the new academic year and get things started on the right foot!
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