The formation of the intelligence of your baby directly depends on the development of his creative abilities. Another famous teacher of the twentieth century Vasily Alexandrovich Sukhomlinsky said that "the mind of the child is at the tips of his fingers." Creative studies give children the opportunity to learn about the world around them, become aware of themselves in it, and develop their imagination and artistic abilities.
One of the varieties of such creativity are crafts from cones, the most accessible natural material. Fortunately, pine is growing everywhere in Russia. An important plus of this development is the fact that for the manufacture of crafts from cones with your own hands, you need to collect suitable material, which you first need to get with your own feet. So, a fascinating walk into the forest, the nearest square or park is already provided to you.
And what could be more pleasant than walking with the whole family? Take something to eat with you, have a picnic. Take a camera and do not waste money on expensive photo shoots: after all, now a real, not fictitious family story will settle in your home photo album or on your page in social networks.
Materials for children's crafts from cones
Before you go hunting for the main treasure, we will deal with additional, but no less important materials. To make crafts from cones, you may need:
- Plasticine.
- Paints.
- Paper.
- The cloth.
- Instruments.
Plasticine for crafts
Plasticine should be given special attention. The main property that interests us is its softness. A child aged 4-5 years old is quite suitable for ordinary dense plasticine. Before work, it is necessary to stretch it with an effort and warm it in your hands, which is an additional training in large motor skills. But for kids making crafts from cones for kindergarten, it will be difficult to deal with. But manufacturers have already thought about us and released a special soft plasticine. Usually it is called - “Soft” - and is often presented on shelves with goods for creativity in ordinary supermarkets.
What paint to take
To make colors in your craft, you will have to think about choosing a paint. Here are two of the most common options. This is gouache and acrylic. Gouache is easy to use and unpretentious in work. If the toy will stand on a shelf and remind you of a lot of fun, feel free to choose it. If the creation is supposed to be used for games, choose acrylic. It is waterproof, but rinses well until it dries. Also, acrylic paint has a very weak smell and almost does not cause allergies.
Paper or cardboard
Paper is best replaced with thick color cardboard. And to become the owner of the most beautiful crafts from cones, it is better to take cardboard on both sides or tint the unsightly gray side.
Also, do not forget about the huge selection of types of cardboard: this is corrugated bulk cardboard, metallized, and even beautiful velvet cardboard, which will easily convey the special texture of the craft or replace the use of fabric.
Fabric for creativity
It is better to take a fabric which does not crumble. Fleece, flannel, some types of drape are perfect. This also includes various beads, eyes, feathers, which can be found at home or in mother's caskets.
Tools You May Need
The younger the child, the less tools should be used in the manufacture of crafts from cones. Optimal - only hands. Older children may also need scissors with rounded or hidden in plastic ends, glue or a glue gun. We must not forget about safety.
Craft "Chickens" for young children
To make such cute chickens, you will need:
- Pine cone.
- Yellow and orange plasticine.
- Eyes (they can also be made of plasticine).
- Yellow paint.
First, pour our paint into a wide-necked jar. We’ll throw our cone there and ride it well there. With all these manipulations, any kid will perfectly and with great pleasure cope with.
Now remove our bump with tweezers or directly with your hands and send it to dry in a warm place. And let's go wash our hands and rest. Such a break in work will be very handy for kids from one to two years, because they hold attention for about 5-7 minutes maximum, and with a longer lesson they begin to get tired.
We get plasticine and cooked eyes. We pluck off a piece of yellow plasticine and roll up the ball. Recall that for babies it should be soft plasticine. Show your child the possible techniques for creating the ball: rolling with one hand on the table or between the palms.
We fix the head in the form of a ball to the dried body and go to the orange plasticine. Now let the child learn to pinch off the pieces. Their size is just right for the beak and legs that the mother will make.
Putting together the whole chicken. So our first craft of cone and plasticine is ready.
Ghosts from fir cones
If the baby’s handles still can’t cope with plasticine, then you can offer to make such crafts - cute home ghosts from fir cones. For this you will need:
- Fir cones.
- White and black paint.
- Brush
We paint our craft in white with a brush and send it to dry. Black paint the eyes and mouth. You can thread a thread through a ghost and hang it in a room.
Speaking of fir cones. If pine is widely represented both in parks and in the forest, then we still need to look for a spruce. We advise you to look at the administrative buildings and the palaces of culture, often Christmas trees are planted there.
"Herringbone" - a craft for children from three years and older
Children from three years old can be offered such a craft designed for finer motor skills of the fingers.
Materials:
- Pine cone.
- Multi-colored plasticine.
- Yellow cardboard.
- Scissors.
First, cut out a yellow star from the cardboard for the crown and set it aside.
Now let's start creating Christmas balls. Let the child nibble and roll multi-colored balls from plasticine. Show him a new technique: rolling the thumb with the thumb and forefinger. If it doesn’t work, try rolling the ball with your finger in the palm of your hand or on the plane of the table.
Now proceed to the assembly. We put multi-colored balls into the cone scales, slightly pressing down. We insert a star into the split crown or fasten it to glue using a gun. Set the assembled Christmas tree on the base of plasticine.
So one more crafts made of pine cones is ready.
Cone animals
Children aged 4-5 years will be happy to create animals from cones and plasticine. It is enough to teach them a simple body selection algorithm. This can be done with leading questions:
- What animal do you want to make?
- What is his body: fluffy, round, elongated?
And then the desired head, paws and tail are molded to the cone selected in this way. Look at these crafts from the cones in the photo, all animals are made by simple guys.
The shape of the cone is very similar to the curls of a lamb or poodle, the plumage of a bird (cockerel, owl). You can ask a topic, for example: we sculpt animals on a farm (in a village), we populate a new zoo, create inhabitants of the forest or invent fairy-tale heroes.
To make a funny hedgehog, it’s enough to stick a sharp-nosed muzzle and four paws to the cone, or simply fix it on a plasticine stand. The legs are small, they may not be visible from under the needles.
If a neat head on a snow-white long neck is attached to a cone painted with white paint, no one will doubt that there is a swan in front of him.
And what wonderful and graceful deer are obtained from fir cones and acorns! We are sure you will like them. By the way, a wonderful idea to use moss when creating crafts from natural material. Heroes immediately come to life on such green grass.
Green undisclosed cones are surprisingly similar to crocodiles, and if the crocodile has three heads, then Snake Gorynych is not far away.
Cones after making crafts can still be slightly deformed as a result of natural drying. To avoid this, you can dry them at the very beginning of the work, even when preparing materials. Warm up in the oven for 5-7 minutes at a temperature of two hundred degrees or dry for a day on a battery or a sunny windowsill.
And if the idea requires unsolved bumps, you can fix them with thirty-second aging in wood glue. If there is no unbroken cone, you can "close" it by lowering it in water and letting it lie down for several hours. Then repeat fixing with glue.
"Penguins" - story composition
Children of a senior preparatory group or elementary school can be offered to make more complex story crafts from bumps with their own hands. They can already create compositions with a large number of small details, as well as with a certain plot.
Carefully consider the crafts from the cones in the photo. To create such a composition you will need:
- Pine and spruce cones.
- White paint.
- Brush.
- Black, white, orange plasticine.
- Black and color felt.
- Thick threads for knitting.
- Fluffy wire and two pompons or cotton wool (for headphones).
- Bead.
- Glue gun.
- Scissors.
To start with a brush, slightly paint the cones with white paint. Right on top of the scales. Send them to dry. In the meantime, let's take care of the penguin heads. It must be remembered that the creation of crafts is always creativity, and if you don’t have any materials at hand, you can safely use others. Our penguins have heads made of painted wooden beads, but colored plasticine is perfect for them. Do not forget to make small orange beaks.
Now you can cut parts from black felt. We have four wings and two pairs of paws. If there is no felt, you can use plasticine or thick colored cardboard. Also, the cap of a little penguin is cut out and glued with a cone, a colorful curly lapel is attached to it in a circle and a bead is attached from above with a glue gun.
Headphones of a high penguin are made of fluffy wire and pompons glued to it, which can be rolled up from ordinary cotton wool.
We pass to assembly. We fasten the heads to the body, glue the wings and paws. We put their hats on the penguins and finally tie the neck with scarves of thick knitting threads.
New Year wreath of cones
Natural materials have increasingly been used in interior decoration. In particular, cones can often be found in various compositions. These can be various topiaries, as their varieties are Christmas trees made of cones. In the West, Christmas wreaths, which are also made of this material, are very popular. Whole garlands and separate decorations are made of cones.
To make a wreath you will need:
- Bumps.
- Ready base.
- Gold paint.
- Glue gun.
Preparing your home for the holiday begins at the door. A Christmas wreath will make an ordinary door an entrance to a winter fairy tale, a country of good and magic. Moreover, making it yourself is not at all difficult.
To begin with, you should do the basics. What can she be? The easiest, but not the cheapest way out may be to buy a finished base in the store. You can cut the same light base from foam inserts into large boxes. Cardboard rings may also serve as the basis, or there may even be twisted newspapers drawn in a thick thread. If the cones are not supposed to be attached tightly to each other, then it makes sense to wrap the frame with a beautiful satin or organza.
Now let's prepare the cones themselves. They need to be cleaned of dirt with a brush and dried. How to do this, we already wrote above. When the material is ready, you can think about decorating it. Cones are varnished, painted with acrylic and various metallized paints, covered with dry snow. Here, for imagination, the widest scope opens.
At this stage, it is worth thinking about additional decorations that you are going to use: nuts, acorns, decorative flowers or plastic fruits.
When everything is prepared, you can proceed to the assembly of the wreath. Preheat the glue gun and start gluing the bumps according to your idea from the inner diameter to the outer, giving the glue time to dry.
When the wreath is collected and dried, it's time to decorate it with a lush bow and attach a satin ribbon for hanging. A wreath can also be used as an interesting frame for a composition of candles.
An elegant addition to such a wreath will be beautiful snowflakes made of cones made in the same style. It is best to make this craft out of fir cones.
Take six or eight cones and glue them together on the base. The center can be decorated with a snowflake cut out of paper, or with beautiful lace. Attach a loop of tape or twine to the finished product.
And do not make your crafts gather dust on the shelf, attach them with braces and boldly decorate the Christmas tree on New Year and Christmas. Or even take one of them into the car. By the way, between the scales you can drip a few drops of essential oil, and you have already prepared an original and environmentally friendly freshener for the car interior. To all these ideas of DIY do-it-yourself crafts, photos are very easy to find in specialist literature.
From crafts to art
Children's enthusiasm for making crafts can often develop into a sustainable hobby or even into professional creativity. In fact, this is the origin of the very aesthetic principle in the child, and they should never be neglected.
Just look at the work of professional masters who use other materials, use complex colors and textures. These works of art are truly admired! But even in them you can notice this spark of creativity, attention to natural material, which were laid down in childhood by talented teachers and parents. Therefore, ceaselessly create, invent, develop and be happy.