Giving people beautiful things is a great way to demonstrate kindness to people that we appreciate in our community.
Let’s make a simple vase out of a recycled glass jar to send children home with some lovely flower arrangements. They can either give it to someone they love (a parent or grandparent), a neighbor, or a friendly person in their community who they see a lot. This might be a particularly nice gift for an elderly neighbor! There is lots of research that demonstrates that child care centers hosted within or near elder care facilities is proven to demonstrate benefits for both children and older adults. So you can brighten up someone’s day with this low cost gift!
Another option is that you can leave it in a public place with a nice note to brighten up a stranger’s day!
This activity requires the use of recycled glass jars, so plan ahead and gather those pickle jars, spice jars, jam jars, and more!
Set up Time: 5 minutes
Directions
- Cut tissue paper into one inch squares. Children can also help with this! The shapes do not have to be perfect and it is a great, low stakes way to practice cutting.
- Fill a cup or plate with glue and invite children to use a paintbrush to cover part or all of their jar in glue (hint: for younger children, we recommend using a smaller jar, as they might just add a few squares, which is okay!).
- Invite children to add the squares to their jar in a mosaic pattern.
Cover the jar with another layer of glue to seal it. Let it dry, fill it with flowers, and give it to the person who would love to receive this lovely gift.
Materials
- Elmer’s glue
- Paint brushes
- Colored tissue paper
- Glass jar
- Scissors
Learning Through Play
Cognitive: Planning – Any time you do a craft with children, you can use this as an opportunity to reflect with children about their method of creation. What else could they make using this art method? What would they do differently a second time? How is their craft different from others?
Social-Emotional: Patience– It might be possible that some children will be overwhelmed by the sticky nature of the glue. That’s okay! See where you can modify to invite them to still be able to participate. Perhaps the adult could hold the jar steady while the child chooses the squares, or they could use tweezers to apply the paper to the jar. Adults can demonstrate empathy for children’s needs by offering other solutions.
School Readiness: Shapes – Here we are making the vase with squares, but you can really do any type of shape with this material, which is the benefit of homemade crafts with open-ended materials. You can cut out squares, triangles, stripes, or circle, or you can use interestingly shaped hole punches to make your own little confetti (stars, heart, teddy bear) to add to the vase.
See this activity in the Rayz Kidz app along with the other fun art activities. Rayz Kidz is your trusted source for play-based activities featuring over 100 themes and 500+ hands-on activities and clear descriptions of the beautiful learning that is happening through play.
