9 Top Tips for Children's Workshops

1. Supervision

Unless you have staff members that have had a DBS check or you want to get them checked then ensure that the parents stay with the children to supervise all sessions. This also means that you can get the parents involved. Get the parents to refill supplies and keep the area tidy as well as helping their little ones achieve great results.

2. Paper plate puppets

This has to be one of my favourite workshops to run with children and be quite basic with minimal supplies through to making masterpieces. Take two paper plates, fold one in half and staple or glue the edge of the folded plate to the non-folded plate. Tada! It’s that easy and you have a paper plate puppet ready to be decorated. You can then let your newest crafters go to town with the decorations. Put the supplies out and let the creativity flow. Pens, paints, googly eyes, felt, pre-cut shapes and if you’re feeling brave let them loose with the glitter!

3. Fingerpainting

Most of us remember this from school and it doesn’t sound that exciting but it is creative and there’s plenty of inspiration on the internet and in books to turn finger-painting into mini art works. One of my favourites is to make a tree trunk by drawing round the child’s hand then cutting it out (get the supervising parent to do this) and sticking it to a large sheet of paper, then get the child to decorate the tree using finger prints to make the leaves. You can also make a bunch of flowers in the same way.

4. Decoupage

This is a great craft and easily accessible for children. Get the kids to choose a shape, animal or their initial and their decoupage papers. Put the glue out in small pots, show the children how to tear the paper and then let them show you what they can achieve with papier-mâché and pretty tissue paper.

5. Card-making

There’s some speciality kits about that are perfect to use in a children’s workshop. These are a great idea as it means your preparation time is greatly reduced. Any card kit that makes a specific card is a great choice and gives wonderful results.

6. Scrapbooking

Running a scrapbooking or memory keeper workshop for kids is wonderful fun and a great way of using up lots of end of line products or scraps from your classroom. You’ll find that they all want to do their own thing, so not having a set kit will work fine. When I’ve done these, I’ve been happily surprised at the amazing array of completed projects.

7. A million moe ideas

There’s far too many ideas for crafts with kids to note here but have a quick look on Pinterest and your mind will be filled with ideas. A few easy ones include glass painting, mosaics, air dry clay or paper birds.

8. What else is happening in town?

If there’s a theme for the town carnival or an exhibition on at your local museum or art gallery then run a workshop that ties in with this. Offer to run the workshops at the museum, gallery or festival. It’ll show the local community what you do and it’s a great advert for your business.

9. Show and tell

Kids love showing off their art work and a gallery with the work they’ve made over the summer, along with a gallery viewing, would make a great event and another reason to get people to come and visit your store.