My kids often ask to do craft or art projects, and while some things are pretty manageable I do get rather overwhelmed with large messy projects in our tiny space. One solution I came up with was to cut out a variety of shapes freehand from those pesky bits and pieces of construction paper that sit around the craft bin with little purpose, and let my younger ones paste them onto a sheet of paper.
This is a great craft for toddlers who can handle a glue stick, but even my 6-year-old daughter wants in on the action when I bust out the baggie of paper shapes. All you need for your own paper shape art is a sheet of any type of paper, colored construction paper, scissors (to cut out shapes), and a glue stick! I put any unused shapes into a zip-top bag for next time.
I encourage my older daughter to try and make pictures using the shapes. While my younger daughter sometimes makes pictures, mostly she just has a ball using the glue stick and covering her page with pretty shapes to her heart's content.
This project can easily be used as a learning exercise for children to learn about different shapes and their names; or if your child needs practice with cutting along lines, go ahead and trace the shapes for them to cut out themselves.
