This program was for kids in K-3rd, which was a little young for the craft I had planned – they suggest that it’s an “easy” craft for kids ages 6 and up, but that’s a stretch. I had some games and a story ready, but the craft took us 45 minutes, and my teen volunteers and I were kept busy assisting with the craft.
Here are the instructions for the paper cup reindeer. We had all of these supplies lurking around in our basement, so I figured it’d be an easy one to prep. Not so much. It turns out that tempera paint doesn’t play nice with styrofoam cups. I painted one to use as a sample, and as soon as it dried, the paint started flaking off in chunks. AWESOME. With no other paint available to me, and not enough time (or material) to just cover the cups in brown felt, I decided the kids would color their cups brown…with markers. Classy. (They didn’t look as bad as all that, really. The kids were very happy to show them off to their parents and siblings, which is always a good sign.)
We also had to use glue dots for the eyes and – wait for it! – the jingle bell. You may not see a jingle bell on the original craft – we had a ton left over from Christmas last year, so we made our reindeer EXTRA FESTIVE by adding a felt collar and jingle bell to the bottom of the cup. There is nothing I love more than sending kids home with a noisy toy…
Especially when the kids are also on a sugar high! After we finished our reindeer, we waited for the glue to dry by eating snowmen. We stacked some jumbo and regular-sized marshmallows using pretzel sticks, then attached mini-M&M eyes and buttons using frosting. The kids ate their crafts (and mine – I don’t eat marshmallows), and then asked for more frosting and M&Ms. Since they were about to go home with their parents, I figured they could have as much sugar as they wanted.
And they did. The end.