Star Ornament Craft

My kids and I are part of a homeschool field trip co-op which meets once a month. The moms take turns planning the trips and activities and it’s always so much fun! Each year my friend Kelli is brave enough to host a Christmas party for our big group in her home which includes some fun activities followed by a pizza lunch. The kids are divided into groups of 5-6 kids and rotate through 4 different activity stations: story, craft, cookie decorating, and games. I was in charge of crafts again this year and since making an ornament proved successful last year, I decided to do it again (plus, I know the mamas love a keepsake ornament from that year!).

The challenge with this is finding a craft suitable for preschool through preteen which can be completed in our 15-minutes time slot before it’s time to rotate stations again. I had a really cute wooden nativity set I wanted to do with the kids but there just wasn’t going to be enough time for the wood glue to dry so I opted for an ornament that could be decorated with permanent markers.

I found these white ceramic (plaster?) stars at Hobby Lobby for 60% off! That made them $.80 a pack and there were 2 in a pack, so $.40 each! I wrote some special Christmasy words in a sort of Rae Dunn style. I got a pack of wired greenery sticks and some rolls of ribbon on sale. The stars came with a ribbon loop, but it was pretty flimsy, so I clipped those off and used the wired greenery through the whole instead.

Then I added the ribbon(s) in a variety of ways to have different ideas for the kids to choose from–tied in a bow, a knot, etc. And last, I twisted the wired greenery into a loop so they could be hung on a tree.

I like to pack all my supplies in a basket for easy access at the party. Stars, markers, cut ribbon, greenery sticks, scissors, and a sheet of fun word ideas.

Kelli is the best at accommodating a crowd in her house. Story time was in her den, cookie decorating in her kitchen, games on the lawn (a gorgeous day!) and crafts in the dining room. Isn’t her dining room lovely! I could do a whole post on her beautiful home.

When the kids came to my table, I started by asking about their favorite parts of Christmas and then went around the table for them to say one word that reminds them of the season. I was so impressed! These kiddos came up with some very thoughtful words. Those who couldn’t think of a word could look at the ideas on my list.

This word idea started some really fun conversations about Christmas as the kids worked on their ornaments. And as always, I love to see how unique each child’s artwork is in the end! Didn’t they do a great job!

These kiddos are so sweet and respectful. I can’t tell you how many “pleases” and “thank-yous” I heard that day. And since the activities were geared more towards the younger ones in our group, our teens were awesome enough to help out at the activity stations, so then the next day we had a special Christmas field trip planned just for the teens. I’ll tell you about it in my next post!

If you’d like to see last year’s ornament craft, you can check it out here.