A little while ago, the Head at my little ones’ school asked if mums would like to start any lunchtime clubs, such as a craft club. I already help out once a week as a Parent Helper in a KS1 class and love it, so an extra 30 minutes at lunch time once a week crafting with kids would be a bonus. Another crafty mum also volunteered, so eventually we got together, made a few plans, and waited to see who would turn up.
Week one, we had 40 children from year one to four! That was a bit of a shock to the system, especially as we were making pin badges. The children all decorated a paper circle which I put through a badge machine. This serves as a name badge so we can identify the kids, and also as they leave it behind after craft club, we can use it as a register to see who turns up. With 40 children crammed into a spare classroom, we’ve had to close the club to new members, but if some don’t come back for a few weeks, we can open up new places to kids who have wanted to join since. If you don’t have a badge, you ain’t coming in!
Somehow, while I was punching badges, the other mum managed to get ideas from the children about what activities they wanted to do in future. I think some expect a host of sewing machines to appear so they can make cushion covers, or multiple tools for jewellery making, but some were doable.
Week two was a bit easier due to a school trip taking half the children away. One of the ideas was to make a diary of all the things they’d made, so a simple piece of coloured paper, decorated as they wanted, and folded with a couple of pieces of A4 made a notebook.
Week three was back to a full strength class of around 30 children. We collected together some magazines and the children made collages. Some were random pictures, others were fashion collections, bedroom designs or composite pictures. The mess at the end was amazing, but they had great fun with scissors and glue.
Hopefully as I get more organised, I’ll take some pictures and blog about the activities in a bit more detail.
Does anyone else craft with lots of kids or run a school club?
I help out at cross stitch club at school. I am supposed to be starting a machine sewing club (they had some old machines donated) but life has taken over!