Preschool Basic Cone Hat
🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop
- 👁️ Hand-Eye Coordination — Guiding scissors along a line, placing stickers exactly, and painting within a space all require the visual-motor integration that handwriting, sports, and detailed work depend on.
- 📋 Planning & Sequencing — Multi-step craft projects require children to think about what comes first, next, and last — building the procedural sequencing skills that underlie reading comprehension, mathematics, and everyday problem solving.
- 💪 Persistence & Resilience — Working through a craft that doesn't go as planned, fixing mistakes, and persisting to completion teaches children that effort — not talent — produces results, a mindset that predicts lifelong learning.
- 🌿 Sensory Exploration — Handling varied craft materials — soft fabric, rough sandpaper, smooth clay, scratchy burlap — builds sensory discrimination and supports the processing skills that some children need additional practice with.
The cone-shaped hat is the base for many other hats you can make. A tall cone can be a hat for a medieval princess, a wizard, or a witch. It can be the pointed end of a crayon. A shorter cone can be a hat for a clown or a party hat. They are all made the same basic way.
Materials You Will Need
Poster board or construction paper
Something to trace a circle around
Pencil
Scissors
Stapler
Tape
Glue
How to Make It
Step 1:
Decide how tall you want the hat to be. The radius of the circle will be the approximate height of the hat. The bigger the circle, the taller the hat will be.
Step 2:
Place the circular object on the paper or poster board and trace around it with the pencil.
Step 3:
Measure the diameter of the circle and mark the center.
Step 4:
Cut out the circle.
Step 5:
Cut a slit from the edge of the circle to the center of the circle.
Step 6:
Wrap the circle into a cone.
Step 7:
Adjust the mouth of the cone to fit the preschooler’s head. Staple it in place at the edge of the bottom of the cone.
Step 8:
Glue the rest of the edge from bottom to top. Trim off anything that hangs over too much. Tape it down to hold it in place while the glue dries.
Step 9:
When the glue is completely dry, paint and/or decorate your hat any way you like.
Tips for Parents
Tip 1:
If the hat does not fit on your preschooler's head tightly enough to stay on, you can add an elastic chin strap by hot gluing a piece of elastic from side to side.
Tip 2:
Be sure that the height of the hat is proportionate to your preschooler's height. If it is too tall or too heavy, it will fall off or just be too awkward to wear.
Tip 3:
Once you and your preschooler know how to make the basic cone shape, you will be able to make cones for many crafts besides hats.
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Helpful Tips for Parents
- Process over product: the developmental value is in the making, not the thing made. Resist the urge to fix, redo, or "help" make it look better.
- Stock a craft supplies box that children can access independently: paper, tape, glue sticks, scissors, crayons. Open-ended materials produce the most creative work.
- Accept "failure" as part of craft learning. A collapsed structure, a ripped paper, or paint that ran off the page are all engineering and material science lessons.
- For groups, set out individual supplies trays so children aren't waiting for materials — transitions and waits are the enemy of preschool craft engagement.
Frequently Asked Questions
What craft supplies should every preschooler household have?
The essential preschool craft supply kit: washable crayons and markers, child-safe scissors, a glue stick (plus liquid glue for older preschoolers), white and colored construction paper, tape (painter's tape and clear tape), watercolor paints and brushes, playdough (homemade or store-bought), and a smock or dedicated art shirt. With just these supplies, hundreds of craft projects are possible. Secondary additions: natural materials (leaves, sticks, pinecones), recycled materials (toilet rolls, egg cartons, cardboard boxes), and foam sheets.
Are commercial craft kits worth buying?
Commercial craft kits produce reliable results efficiently — useful for a particular occasion or as a gift. However, they develop less creativity and problem-solving than open-ended materials, because the outcome is predetermined. Use them occasionally for a confidence-building experience; don't replace open-ended materials with kits. The child who completes a kit has made something; the child who invents a craft from scratch has created something. Both have value, but at different developmental levels.
Related reading: See also our sorting and color activities and our painting ideas for more ideas on this topic.
