This time of year elementary teachers scramble to find crafts the students can make in the classroom to give as gifts. It needs to be not too expensive, but not too cheesy. If you are lucky enough to work in a school district where the parents will pitch in and send you the materials you need, great! If you’re not one of those fortunate teachers, here are a few inexpensive arts and crafts ideas.
One nice gift is a mirrored candle holder is made from a blank compact disc, a votive candle holder, some beads, and hot glue. You can see a picture of it with the link.
Students can create a mancala game , also call Owara, out of an egg carton, for Kwanzaa or just for fun .
We always decorate a tree in our school cafeteria. My classroom tradition is to make jingle bell ornaments out of egg cartons, bells, ribbon, paint, and glitter. The students love to make these.
Another idea for ornaments or for refrigerator magnets is to make them out of salt dough. 
The basic recipe is 2 parts flour, 1 part salt, and just enough water to wet it into dough. When I make salt dough, I add two tablespoons of white glue, and about ¼ cup of cinnamon. The glue gives it more plasticity and holding power, and the cinnamon makes it smell delicious. Cut the ornaments out with cookie cutters and use a pencil to poke a hole for the ribbon. Once the salt dough is dry, the ornaments can be painted or left plain. In the picture of the apples, I baked them in the microwave for 1 minute to get them to dry faster.
One last inexpensive craft is a winter scene painted on paper plates. We’re doing this one Friday. I don’t have a picture of it today, but once we do it in class, I’ll take a picture and post it. I use Chinet plates, the heavy ones with a lip on them. Give the students cool colors of paint, white, with a few drops of red, blue, and green to mix into the white. Have them paint a snow scene. Paste an oval of tin foil onto the center of the plate. (This is a skating pond.) Paint a few pine trees in the snow scene. Next, have them drizzle glue around the edges of the tin foil. Then, while the paint and glue are wet, sprinkle salt all over the plate. Shake off the excess. The salt looks like snow glittering in the sunlight. I also check my cabinet for extra art supplies for the students to glue onto their snow scenes. Things like tiny pine cones, wooden beads, or any other miscellaneous items that might enhance the picture are fine. This is one of my students’ favorite projects.
This is only a start. Teachers are creative, and they like to share. If you have other great ideas for elementary crafts, feel free to post a comment. If there is a picture link, that’s even better.
Have fun crafting with your class!
