Educational crafts for kids

Anyone who says crafts are just for fun is lying. To prove our point, here are more than 20 educational crafts and printables that inject creative fun into learning.

You might also like these Nature crafts for kids

There’s a wide misconception that crafting is a leisurely hobby for the creatively inclined. That it has no real purpose other than to entertain people.

I beg to differ. Making things is fun, sure, but that’s not ALL it’s good for. Crafting alone aids fine motor development, creative thinking, problem-solving, and the development of other skills (holding a pencil for younger kids, sewing, painting, scissor skills etc.). So all crafts are already useful in this way — you’re learning and/or practicing skills.

When it comes to kid’s crafts, you can also base creative projects around whatever you’re teaching them to make learning more fun. And we all know that when you’re enjoying something and have an interest in it, you’re far more likely to retain that information. Educational crafts also teach kids to think outside the box and cater to those who learn in more visual ways.

Some examples are: making realistic-looking animal crafts based on real species, using recyclables to create DIY games involving numbers and words, and using simple materials to make your own construction sets.

Here are over 20 of our favourite educational crafts and printables to get you started.

20 Educational crafts for kids

Help kids learn to tie their laces with these DIY recycled shoe lacing cards
Make your own GIANT dice from a recycled cardboard box — perfect for indoor floor games.
Learning about overwhelming big emotions is fun with these paper roll empathy dolls. The printable face template is free.

Make a set of weather rocks in a drawstring bag. This is fun for preschoolers, and older kids can incorporate the rocks into imaginary play
This kid-made dino-themed board game was made from a recyled cereal box
Practicing sight words is way less boring when you have a monster much sight word eater to feed who’s very, very hungry
You can’t beat paper cup telephones for learning about sound

We’ve created some printable activites to make times table practice more fun!

There are soothing multiplication mandalas to colour
Times table bookmarks for kids who love reading
A printable multiplication madness boardgame
These times table spinners are fun to put together and practice with
(not pictured) we also have times table bingo-for-one and Q & A memory match cards

OR get the whole set of printables for 40% off as a bundle in our printables store

This paper roll grasshopper was made by observing a real grasshopper we captured inside our house and put in a critter keeper (we let him go afterward).

Make a realistic 3D paper dragonfly with labeled parts using our printable template
This doodle bug art project incorporates a realistic-looking beetle and patterning
Learn about 3D cube shapes with this super cute set of cube bugs
(not pictured) We also have a 3D paper monarch butterfly with labels and a 3D paper bee with labels

Make 14 different marine animals with our Paper plate ocean animal ebook. It includes printable templates for each creature plus fascinating facts so kids can learn about them while they craft.

Did you know coral looks way better by night? This is because the colour pigment changes in the coral and some species have bioluminescent properties. Our egg carton reef craft has tissue paper coral that lights up in the dark too — you can even use it as a night light. The printable tropical fish are free.

We also have a tissue paper jellyfish craft that lights up (inspired by the fact that some jellyfish have bioluminescent properties)

Summer heatwave on the horizon? Don’t waste that solar energy! Get baking with your own DIY solar oven made from a cardboard box.

Move over plastic lego bricks! This DIY nature craft construction set is made from natural gathered materials plus blu-tack and googly eyes.

How many musical instruments can you make from a paper cup? Take the challenge and find out.

Design, draw, write, and build with our free set of printable creative challenge cards. Perfect to keep the kids busy and get both the right and left side of the brain working.

Print and create paper chain snakes based on the Green Tree Python and Yellow Carpet Python from Queensland’s Daintree Rainforest

Learn anout Australian animals while you craft them with our Paper Plate Australian Animal collection. There are 12 different animals to make with printable facts and instructions for each one.