🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop
- 📐 Spatial Reasoning — Three-dimensional crafts — paper folding, cardboard construction, clay sculpting — develop the spatial intelligence children need for geometry, engineering, and understanding how physical objects relate in space.
- 💬 Vocabulary Expansion — Craft activities introduce rich domain-specific vocabulary: fold, crease, overlap, layer, press, symmetrical, transparent. Children who acquire craft vocabulary develop stronger descriptive language across all contexts.
- 🧠 Pre-Writing Skills — Drawing, tracing, and mark-making with a variety of tools develops the grip strength, pencil control, and visual-motor precision that handwriting requires — making craft time genuine writing preparation.
- 🖐️ Fine Motor Skills — Cutting, gluing, folding, and manipulating craft materials directly exercises the small hand muscles and finger precision required for handwriting and other fine-detail tasks.
When Princess Katie and Racer Steve perform
Songs for the Coolest Kids with their band, Princess Katie has a special tambourine she calls her
Ribbonrine. Now your preschooler can make his/her very own Princess Katie Ribbonrine to shake as s/he listens to the
Songs for the Coolest Kids CD.
Read the review of
Songs for the Coolest Kids. Then make Princess Katie's Ribbonrine so you can shake, shake, shake your sillies out while listening to their
Songs for the Coolest Kids CD.
Materials you will Need
Rice
Stapler
Glue
5 or more 18-inch long ¼ -inch ribbon in several colors
Jingle bells, ½-inch to 1-inch in size
How to Make It
Step 1:
Lay one paper plate on the table, face up. Choose where the lower edge will be.
Step 2:
Thread one end of 5 ribbons through the end of one jingle bell each and tie it off. (Adult assistance may be needed here.)
Step 3:
Fold the ribbon about six inches from the jingle bell. Staple it to the lower half of the plate by the fold so that both ends of the ribbon, one long and one short, will dangle outside the two plates when the tambourine is held up.
Step 4:
Continue to do this across the bottom of the plate until you feel you have enough to make it look good and make a good sound.
Step 5:
Put about ¼ cup of rice in the plate.
Step 6:
Glue the second plate; face down on the first one, making sure to include only the fold of the ribbon. Seal the edge with glue all around and let it dry.
Step 7:
Put on your Songs for the Coolest Kids CD and rock out.
Make it More Challenging
Paint or color the plates before gluing them together. Your preschooler can add designs, stickers, or even glitter and jewels as desired.
Alternative Way to Make a Princess Katie Ribbonrine
Simply buy a ready-made tambourine and tie on bright 1/2-inch ribbons in the little spaces that hold the metal disks that make the noise.
Helpful Tips for Parents
Tip 1:
Adjust the length of ribbon according to the height of your preschooler.
Tip 2:
Be sure to make a tambourine for yourself so you can play along. Preschoolers love adult participation!
My name is
Shannon McMath and I am the Crafts writer at PreschoolRock.com. I live in California with my husband, Steve, and my daughter, Emily. Crafting is a passion of mine and I love to pass on the joy to preschoolers. Sharing quality time with your preschooler creating crafts will not only help him/her develop fine motor skills and creativity, it will create memories that will last a life time! If you have any ideas, suggestions or comments feel free to
contact me. Thanks!
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.
The five most important preschool craft skills, in developmental order: 1) Tearing and manipulating paper (develops hand strength and bilateral coordination), 2) Scissor use (bilateral coordination and precision), 3) Gluing (spatial planning and fine motor), 4) Drawing and painting with intention (fine motor and visual-motor integration), 5) Three-dimensional construction (spatial reasoning). These skills directly support handwriting readiness and support every other craft skill the child will develop.
