It always breaks my heart when I hear teachers say that they aren’t allowed to use crafts in the primary classroom because they’ve been told that crafts aren’t a good use of instructional time. However, crafts have so many academic and developmental benefits, especially in the primary grades! Below, I’m giving you 5 reasons why you should be using crafts in the primary classroom!
1. Crafts Are a Great Way to Practice Listening And Speaking Skills
Learning to follow directions is a very important skill in the primary classroom and in life! Crafts provide us with a great opportunity to give our students step-by-step instructions that they need to follow in order to complete a project.
When giving instructions on how to do a craft use sequential words, like first, next, and last to help students understand the order of events. Model the steps for them and then have them repeat each step before doing it. Also give students an opportunity to ask questions for clarification if needed.
Crafts can be a great learning opportunity to practice important listening and speaking skills!
2. Crafts Help Develop Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills are another important skill that our primary learners are still developing! Having good fine motor skills allow students to do important tasks such as writing, tying shoes, and buttoning and zipping their own clothes.
Fine motor skill practice involves using and strengthening the small muscles found in the hands, thumbs, and fingers. Sadly with more screen time and less play time, many students are coming to school lacking in their development of fine motor skills. I sometimes would have students that would come to first grade saying that they had never used a pair of scissors before! The tracing, cutting, gluing, and assembling of crafts give our students the ability to practice and continue growing their fine motor skills in a fun way!
Strong fine motor skills lead to more independent learners and crafts are one way that we can help students practice and develop their fine motor skills.
3. Crafts Are EASY To Integrate Into Other Subjects
I LOVE integrating other subjects into lessons! In fact, I highly recommend that you don’t do a craft in your classroom without tying into a lesson’s learning objective! Crafts are so easy to integrate into your reading, writing, math, science, and social studies lessons!
Another thing I love about crafts is that it’s easy to incorporate a good read aloud book into the lesson for the craft!
Did you know that Common Core Standard CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.5 actually states that students should “add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.” This makes crafts perfect for adding into some of your writing lessons! For example, this Pumpkin Craft is perfect for some fun descriptive writing!
4. Crafts Promote Creativity And The Arts In The Classroom
We want students to become critical thinkers and creative problem solvers. One of the ways that we help them grow these skills is by giving them opportunities to be creative in the classroom!
With the push of S.T.E.A.M. in recent years, we’ve been reminded of the need for more opportunities for students to have experience with subjects and activities that allow them to explore and create! Crafts are a fun and easy way to promote creativity and the arts in the classroom!
One of the things I love about doing crafts in the classroom is how each craft turns out unique even when the kids are using templates and following step-by-step directions! We get to see our students’ creativity and personality shine in different ways through crafts in the classroom. For example, one year I had a student that decided to name her Groundhog Craft Phyllis instead of Phil and even gave her groundhog eyelashes! How fun is that?!
5. Crafts Are Engaging And Fun!
Engaging students in learning is so important! I also believe that learning, especially in the primary grades, should be hands-on and fun!
One of the reasons I love using crafts around holidays and with seasonal themes is because it gets students excited and engaged in learning! As teachers we know how hard it can be to teach during the month of December! How can you compete with the excitement of Christmas, right? That’s the perfect time to pull out a Reindeer Shapes review craft! Your students’ engagement will immediately go up with this fun activity!
I’ve found too that I sometimes get the best writing from my most reluctant writers when it’s tied to a craft because they are SO excited to get to make a fun, hands-on craft!
You Should Be Using Crafts In The Primary Classroom!
Crafts, when integrated into your lessons, are absolutely not a waste of instructional time! From practicing listening and speaking skills, to developing fine motor skills, to integrating into other subjects, to promoting creativity, and engaging students in learning, there are so many beneficial academic and developmental reasons to use crafts with kindergarten, first grade, and second grade students!
Engage Students & Save Time With These Fun Crafts!
If you teach in the primary grades, and are looking for some engaging crafts to use throughout the school year then you’re going to love this Crafts Bundle!
The ready-to-go templates, blackline masters, and writing/recording options for each of these holiday and seasonal crafts will save you so much time! Your students will love doing these fun, themed writing and math crafts!
Plus, crafts are always my favorite go-to hallway display! They make easy, yet super cute bulletin boards!
Leave a Reply