My daughter loves paper crafts. Playing with colorful construction paper, scissors, and glue sticks can keep her entertained for hours. Recently she cut a lot of long strips of paper and it reminded me of this fun craft that I did when I was young.
Paper Weaving
Weaving paper is a wonderful craft project for young children. It can be used to teach colors, opposites, patterns as well as improve cutting skills, hand-eye coordination, and fine motor skills. In addition, it is a great beginner project for understanding the basics of sewing.
Materials needed for paper weaving
- construction paper (at least two different colors)
- scissors
- pencil (optional)
- ruler (optional)
My daughter loves pink and purple so her color choice was obvious. We started with the pink paper and I showed her how to line up the ruler and draw straight lines across the page. This was a new skill for her and she was very excited about doing this for the entire page. For the purple paper, we folded it in half and again used the ruler to help draw straight lines from the fold to about half an inch or so from the edge.
Related: Easy & Fun Paper Weaving Craft for Kids and How to Make a Macramé Plant Hanger – Easy!
Next, she cut all of the lines she had drawn making sure not to cut all the way through to the outer edge of the purple paper. Your child might choose to skip drawing the lines and just make freehand cuts on their own.
Then she opened up the purple paper. She loved discovering the neat slits she had made on the paper. I showed her how to weave the pink strips of paper through the purple paper by alternating them over and under. Repeat by using the opposite over and under pattern with the next pink strip of paper to get a true weave effect.
Colors
Your child can get creative with their color choices:
- favorite colors
- rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet)
- patriotic (red, white, and blue)
- holiday (red and green for Christmas, etc)
- hues ranging from dark to light of the same color
- favorite sport team colors
- use patterned scrapbook paper for endless color options
My kids have been very proud of their paper weaving projects. I got them laminated so we can use them as placemats at dinner.
The Quirky Mommas have other ideas for keeping little hands busy with paper crafts:
I love weaving. I have fond memories of doing it as a child.
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Cathie