Wrap Scraps
🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop
- 🎯 Attention to Detail — Projects that require precise measurements, careful steps, or quality execution teach children to slow down, pay attention to detail, and care about doing something well — not just doing it.
- 📋 Planning & Sequencing — Planning a project — identifying what's needed, sequencing steps, and working through to completion — develops the executive planning skills that academic projects, writing, and complex problem solving all require.
- 🧩 Problem Solving — When a project step doesn't go as planned, children must generate alternatives, test solutions, and adapt — developing genuine problem-solving confidence that passive activities cannot produce.
- 📏 Math & Measurement — Building, sewing, cooking, and constructing projects require practical measurement — estimating lengths, counting pieces, measuring ingredients — making project work one of the most authentic early math experiences available.
Put your wrapping paper scraps to use! Recycle your wrapping paper by making Holiday cards or Holiday thank you notes with your preschooler. Preschoolers are encouraged to manipulate shapes and discover which shapes are used to make certain objects in this project!
What You Will Need 
Wrapping paper - cut into different shapes
Construction paper or card stock
Decorative ribbon (optional)
Glue
How To Make It
Take wrapping paper scraps and arrange them into designs on construction paper or card stock
Preschoolers can create their interpretations of Christmas trees, or other Holiday favorite objects on their cards
Use the ribbon to tie around your card, resembling a gift
Make It More Challenging
Encourage preschoolers to develop critical thinking skills during this project. Ask them what shapes are in a Christmas tree, what shapes make an angel's wings, what shapes make Holiday gifts? Preschoolers can use creativity and learn beginning geometry at the same time during this project!
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Helpful Tips for Parents
- Document the project with photos and notes. The documentation becomes a record of thinking and process that the child is proud of — sometimes more than the finished project itself.
- Allow projects to take longer than planned. Rushed projects miss the depth that makes them educational. The process is the point; the deadline is secondary.
- Science projects that span weeks — growing plants, tracking weather, observing a chrysalis — teach longitudinal observation and the patience that underlies scientific temperament.
- Teach the value of revision: show the child how making something better is part of the work. Re-doing a section to improve it is a skill that transfers to writing, coding, and design.
- Celebrate finished projects with an audience — a small presentation to family, a display at preschool, a photograph sent to grandparents. Public celebration of completed work builds the completion habit.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I store in-progress projects safely?
Designate a specific project storage area: a high shelf where small children can see but not access (prevents accidental destruction), a dedicated project tray or box labeled with the child's name, or a separate table where the project lives during its completion period. Nothing is more deflating for a child's project motivation than returning to find the work accidentally disturbed or destroyed. Photograph in-progress states regularly so that if disaster strikes, the progress can be at least documented and the child can see how far they'd come.
What kinds of projects are appropriate for preschoolers?
Appropriate preschool projects share several characteristics: they have a clear, achievable goal the child can understand and care about; they involve multiple sessions of engaged work (not just one sitting); they produce something the child is proud to display or use; and they involve the child's active participation rather than adult execution with child watching. Great preschool project categories: construction (building something functional or decorative), growing (plants, crystals), cooking (multi-step recipes ending in something edible), and creative-arts (a book, a collection, a mural).
Related reading: See also our painting projects and our garden science guide for more ideas on this topic.
Questions to Ask Your Child
Use these open-ended prompts to extend the learning during or after the activity:
- "What was your favorite part, and what made it special?"
- "What would you do differently next time?"
- "Can you teach me how to do the part you liked best?"
- "What did you notice while we were doing this?"
- "What does this remind you of from somewhere else in your life?"
- "If you could change one thing about this, what would it be?"
There are no right or wrong answers to any of these questions. The goal is to keep the conversation going, model curious thinking, and give your child practice putting their experience into words.
