Contributed by Jennifer Andrews, Catalogs.com Top 10 Guru

Kindergarten may arguably be one of the best years of grade school for kids everywhere.

This prerequisite year to grade 1 is a time where kids learn basic skills, such as reading and writing, and learn to communicate and get along with other kids, teachers and staff. Furthermore, kids get a snack time, story time and even a nap time to accompany their busy days!

Kindergarten also allows for creative projects and endeavors such as drawing, painting, arts and crafts. Whether you are a teacher looking for crafting ideas or a parent teaching your child at home, try a few of these best kindergarten craft ideas for your next crafting project.

Seasonal crafts

Nature and science lessons

Tailor your kindergarten craft ideas to the season and time of the year you are currently experiencing. Making different crafts that suit the season can be more fun and informative for kids. Stock up on craft supplies and you will always have a go-to box for creative learning. For instance, during the winter have kids make a snowman out of paper plates that are taped together vertically. Glue buttons on his belly and for his eyes while drawing a mouth and nose in bright, colored markers. Use a cut-up napkin to tape around his neck as a scarf. As the spring and summer months approach, decorate a paper plate as a giant sun with a funny face and glue strips of colored paper to its edges as the sun’s rays.

Holiday crafts

Celebrate the holidays

The Holidays are a perfect time to get creative with crafting ideas, and you can find great project ideas. Kindergarteners’ can build their own mail-box on Valentine’s Day with a small cardboard box and simple tools such as a pipe cleaner to indicate mail is present. Keeping one flap of the box open at the end ensures fellow friends and students can deposit their cards.

Animal crafts

Learning about nature

Most kids love animals so engaging in animal crafting is a great kindergarten crafts idea. Introduce kids to dinosaurs by having them draw a picture of a dinosaur’s skeleton on a piece of sketch paper or Bristol board. Then, make the dinosaur more pronounced by gluing cut up pieces of Popsicle sticks or pasta such as penne or broken bits of fettuccine over the drawn “bones”.

Outdoors crafts

Learning about the environment

The outdoors consists of numerous kid friendly crafting tools for a suitable kindergarten crafts idea. Make a wreath by tying pine cones together or tie them vertically and add a bell for a fun door decoration any time of the year. Add bright colors of red, yellow, green or blue by using yarn that you have purchased in closeout sales from WEBS to twist around the cones.

Foodie crafts

Work with shapes

Using food for crafts is one of the simplest and best kindergarten craft ideas to partake in. Glue cheerios onto a drawing of a person or figure to serve as the eyes and nose. Cereal shapes can also serve as rain-drops falling from the sky or to spell out words. Dried pasta, dried fruits and candy also serve as good tools to use for various crafting projects, and you can buy in bulk from BulkFoods.com to always have on hand.

When it comes to kindergarten crafts ideas, the sky is the limit! Provide kids with a variety of fun, easy-to-use and safe tools and let them have fun and experiment. Often, the best ideas come from kids who are left to use their own imaginations and come up with creative crafts.