Craft Ideas for Special Needs Children All Ages

Try going online to look at Oriental Trading. They have a lot of easy craft ideas that are relatively inexpensive.

Good Luck!
D. H.

Paint is always a winner! Empty primary colors (red, blue and yellow) on a tray or paper plate and let student either use their fingers, sponges, q-tips, etc. Fun things such as old toy cars can create different patterns and the best thing is that when the paints mix, they create new colors.

Another idea is to cut construction paper into strips. Have children glue one end of a strip onto another paper. Then, they glue the other end down, but do it in a manner in which the strip creates a 3-dimensional project. In other words, don't let the strip lay flat on the paper.

Give the children glue and have them create free form designs on paper. Sprinkly the whole thing with glitter, shake off and see the wonderful creations! Some of the children can write letters, numbers or their names.

Cut food pictures from magazines and have the children glue their favorite meal onto paper plates. This is fun because it encourages conversation as they speak about the foods they eat or those they can't stand.

Paper chains are fun and you can use different textured paper to stimulate all the senses. Check out the picture at http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/doubleneck/93/chains.html

Cut a lot of paper into different shapes and have children create a picture by gluing them onto paper. For example, you can make a car out of a rectangle, circles and squares.

Take Care,
F.
www.discoverytoyslink.com/fatimac

R.,

I don't have any specific crafts but I do have some resources you might find helpful.

http://www.amazon.com/Totline-Theme-Saurus-Teaching-Theme...

The Theme-a-Saurus books are fabulous and packed full of all sorts of activities. There are actually many, many different versions of this book. The one I linked it one of the two I have.

I haven't got this one yet but it is on my list

http://www.amazon.com/Out-Sync-Child-Has-Revised/dp/03995...

The Out of Sync Child has fun. My son is autistic so I'm always looking for creative things to do with him. But I would think that a lot of special needs kids have sensory issues so you might get a lot out of the Out Of Sync Child books...

Good luck!

T.

A pretty easy one that can be done with kids preschool through high school (if there willing) is the clay hand print. We just did them with the Crayola Wonder Dough (I think that's what it's called) in the church nursery. We had said it might be cute to paint the kids hand and have them put it back down in the hand print to make it bi-color, but we haven't tested the paint on it, so definitely do a sample first if you want to try the paint.

Also, when I worked with school aged kids, they all liked pony beads and fuse beads. They also liked Mad Libs, which I think you can print on line now. I also have some school aged and preschool games if you're intrested. Send me a message and I'll try to give you as mech as I can remember.

Hope you have fun, ~J

Hi R.,
I have 3 kids, each with their own needs. ADD, PDD-NOS, and Deaf. My kids loved this one. The Cyclone! It's more like a science experiment.(I have very science experiment type kids, ya gotta love em.) We used 2 2 liter soda bottles.(You can use smaller ones.) You fill one up half way(I think). Then you take the empty one and put the 2 open ends together and duck tape them really good.(so that it doesn't leak.) Then you tip it upside down so that the water flows into the empty one and it makes a tornadoe. TA DA!! This is a great one because it's easy enough that special needs kids can make it. It's educational and fun. It's also recycling. We did this one after my oldest learned about recycling in school. And had to do a science experiment on weather.(In the first grade.
I hope this helps.
K. F

Sand Art is great. Get elmers glue specifically the glue sticks and have them draw with the stick glue. Then they shake the sand over the glue. It is messy, but who cares right? You can get it in all colors. Just make sure you get special containers and control the flow. Usually salt and pepper shakers are good, but in your case I think the flow might be too much. For my younger kids I found some small plastic containers at the 99 cent store and make smaller holes and more of them. You just have to make sure it does come out because it could become quite frustrating with your special needs child. Good luck.

empty film containers dipped in paint then apply to paper. Pick up free containers at longs. playdoh is a great activity.

My kids just went to a craft event at our clubhouse where they made caterpillars. The kids there ranged in age from 3-7. They took 3 paper plates, colored one as a head, and two as the body. Then they stapled them together and stapled on the felt piping as legs and antenae. This was very easy and they had fun doing it. The staff served "bugs in dirt" (chocolate pudding, crushed oreo cookies and gummy worms) as a treat which went over great.

There are also a ton of websites that you can go to for "kid crafts". Enchantedlearning.com has some great ideas. craftsforkids.com is another one that has a lot of ideas.

Hope this helps. Good luck and have fun.

Have them make paper hats. you can get white or brown paper bags (one inside another to make it sturdy) have them color, paint, or glue light objects to out side like feather,sequins,glitter,etc...) after done turn up the open end to make them sturdy and that will be the brim of the hat.
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