Have you noticed that even the most inept image of the sun makes you smile and evokes pleasant emotions? So, on a gloomy day, why not make a simple craft with your children that imitates the sun?
While working, kids, in addition to developing fine motor skills, will gain an understanding of the world around them and become familiar with geometric shapes, while older children will be interested in experimenting with various materials and will be able to realize their own creative ideas.
Moreover, a variety of materials are suitable for realizing fantasies: paper, sushi sticks, laces, balls, candies. In general, the sun is a craft that can be made from what is “at hand”.
Tools and materials for work
The choice of tools depends on the source material. To make paper crafts you will need a pencil, office glue, paper clips, markers, scissors and a compass.
If you don’t have a compass, then it doesn’t matter - any round object, for example, a disk, a plate, or a lid, will serve as a template.
If you want to create a decoration for your personal plot, you will hardly need office supplies; you will have to look for tools and fasteners in a container with accessories for construction and repair.
Original ideas
Look carefully at familiar objects: they themselves will tell you how to use them for other purposes.
The yellow foam sponges are just begging to be reshaped.
Why not cut out the sun? Even if all the sponges in the set are of a different color, they can be easily repainted with gouache, watercolors or acrylic paints.
From cardboard and clothespins
It is not at all necessary to turn new things into crafts. Do you have a few old wooden clothespins lying around your house? Let the child turn them into bright sunrays, and at the same time repeat the numbers and counting.
Adults need to cut out a cardboard circle and apply numerical marks along the edge at the same distance, for example, from 1 to 10. Write the same numbers on clothespins.
And the baby will be happy to combine the same numbers and will be surprised to discover that magic has happened: now he has the sun in his hands! Clothespins can be replaced with ice cream or sushi sticks.
From paper and threads with braids
Children associate the sun's rays with different objects, for example, hair. Since this is hair, then different hairstyles must be made from it. The sun with pigtails, ribbons and hairpins looks very perky, and if it also winks with its eyes, it will definitely make you smile.
For this craft you will need a hole punch, cardboard, knitting or floss threads, scissors, accessories for decorating hairstyles, paper for cutting out eyes, nose and mouth:
- First, a circle of arbitrary diameter is cut out of cardboard, and holes are made along the edge using a hole punch.
- The yarn is cut into pieces, the length of which is twice the length of the finished rays.
- One or more threads are folded in half, a loop is inserted into a hole on the cardboard, then a free tail is threaded into this loop. You should get a fringe.
- All that remains is to turn the fringe into braids and enliven the middle - attach or draw eyes, make lips.
Made from tires and plastic bottles
Giving a second life to unnecessary things is very simple: old car tires and empty plastic bottles are used to create an elegant park composition. True, children themselves will not be able to do it, since dangerous objects are used during assembly: screws, screwdrivers, knives.
You will also need paints that are not afraid of weather conditions:
- So, you need to cut out the future “face” of the craft from plywood, plastic panel or linoleum.
- Its radius should be greater than the radius of the inner part of the tire, so that it is convenient to glue or screw it with self-tapping screws.
- Bottles do not have to be selected according to size and shape: they can be different, but they must have caps.
- Screw the caps to the rubber, and then screw the bottles into them.
- If you plan to hang the sun, then the rays should be all over the circle; if you want to place it on the ground or a stump, then there is no need to place bottles along one of the segments of the circle.
- All that remains is to paint and decorate the resulting base as you wish.
Applique of autumn leaves
It’s not for nothing that autumn is called “golden”. The leaves on the trees actually turn gold.
Not only yellow leaves are useful for crafts; red, brown, and ocher leaves are also suitable.
Even three-year-old children can handle a simple applique made from natural materials:
- You need to glue a circle onto the cardboard, and glue leaves around the perimeter.
- Leaves can only be collected or dry.
- Older children are able to implement more complex ideas: making rays multi-layered, or “planting” a craft on a barbecue skewer.
From disposable spoons
An exciting activity is making something unusual from non-standard materials. Non-standard materials for crafts include plastic cutlery.
If you lay out plastic spoons in a circle and attach the orange center on top with hot glue, you will get an unusual sun. For this option you will need two packs of identical spoons of 12 pieces.
Much more spoons will go into the sun, the rays of which will resemble pineapple scales. In this case, the spoons can be of different sizes. For example, the inner circle will be formed from teaspoons, and the outer circle from dessert spoons:
- First you need to separate the handle from the head of the spoon.
- On the prepared circle, the diameter of which is one centimeter less than the diameter of the finished product, draw a few more circles.
- The heads of the spoons will be placed along these circles.
- Glue each head using a glue gun; Moment glue is also suitable.
- When only the center remains empty, you can begin to design the face.
- It is important that the diameter of the face is slightly larger than the diameter of the empty circle in order to hide the uneven edges left by the removed plastic handles.
- The face can be made from cardboard, disposable plate, foamiran, foam rubber.
From palms and disposable plates
A disposable plate is the ideal middle ground for a future craft. Firstly, it is dense, and secondly, it is round. Paint the plate with suitable shades, revive it and start forming rays.
Children like to trace their own palms, and these palms will act as rays. Several palms must be attached to the edge of the plate either using PVA glue or a stapler. The more palms, the brighter and more unusual the product will be.
Any creativity is a way to develop imagination, and what is especially important these days is that it successfully competes with gadgets. Crafts in the shape of suns are a good way to spend time with your child and unobtrusively master basic mathematical and spatial concepts.
Bright sunshine is an excellent gift for a person who wants to cheer up; it can be used to decorate a child’s room, a group in a kindergarten, or a school classroom.
Paper sun
A paper sun can be your child's first craft in life. Even a 1.5-2 year old toddler can create a simple applique or craft. More complex options can be designed in the form of a postcard, for example, for Maslenitsa or any summer holiday: Solstice or Ivan Kupala.
From paper accordions
This version of the paper Sun is suitable for the little ones. They will be interested in folding paper like an accordion, and if it is difficult to glue or cut something, then adults can always help.
The master class is designed by teachers to maximize the use of fine motor skills of the fingers. This has a positive effect not only on the development of tactile sensations, but also on the development of the child’s brain.
To make it you will need: yellow sheets of paper of different textures and colors, glue or stapler, wooden sticks, pencils, scissors, thread and needle.
Step-by-step instruction:
- Make accordions from sheets of paper. For one craft you will need 2 or 4 accordions. To make it easier for children to fold accordions, they can be processed in advance along a ruler with the blunt end of scissors, forming folds.
- Cut two circles from thick sheets. The radius of the circle should be half the length of the accordion.
- Glue the accordions together into a circle.
- Draw a face on one of the circles. The center of the face will be a nose made of threads.
- Connect two circles with threads, inserting an accordion wheel between them.
- A wooden stick can be secured with nails, then the accordion rays will spin or with threads. There should be a hole in the stick for threads.
The paper sun is ready. A child can use the craft as a fan or pinwheel in the summer.
From strips of paper
You can also make a paper sun using strips. Such a craft can become either an independent souvenir or part of an applique or postcard.
Materials you will need: double-sided paper of different colors and textures, glue, colored pencils, stapler, wooden stick or CD.
The procedure for making the sun step by step:
- Make two circles out of thick paper. You can also use a CD as a base. Draw a face on one of the circles.
- Cut strips of colored paper of different textures 1 cm wide and 15 to 20 cm long. These will be rays.
- Glue the strips together with loops. Glue the loops to a cardboard base or CD.
- Glue the face to the base. Add a wooden stick if necessary. The sun is ready.
Spinner sun
This craft will amuse many children, and it is very easy to do. You will need materials: colored and shiny paper, a wooden slate, nails, colored pencils.
The procedure for creating an original toy:
- Make slits on a square piece of paper. Bend the corners to make a pinwheel.
- Cut a circle out of colored paper and draw a face on it.
- On one side of the slats, secure the face with a nail or glue, and on the other, attach the pinwheel with a nail. It is important that the nail on the back side is free so that the pinwheel can rotate.
It is better to make the rays of the pinwheel from shiny paper - then they will sparkle in the sun.
