State of Alaska Crafts and Activities for Kids

Crafts

Inuit (Eskimo) Coloring and Activity Sheet

Snow Bear

Some Inuits still dress in fur parkas that hang down to their knees and sealskin boots called kamiks or mukluks. Children can color a picture of an Inuit wearing a parka and mukluks, and glue fake fur around the hood of the parka, arms holes, and the bottom of the parka. They can also add yarn and pompoms to make the tie that keeps the hood tight. This pattern for this activity is available to members only.

A great book to go along with this craft is Jean Craighead George's book "Snow Bear" in which a little girl plays with a polar bear cub. This illustrations are so adorable your children will wish they can play with the little bear too.

 

Build Your Own Inuksuk

Inuksuk means "a thing that can act in the place of a human being". They where used by Inuits to communicate many things such as the best way to travel, best fishing areas, warn of dangerous places, to show where food is stored, to remember people or events, and to help hunt caribou. "The Inuksuk Book" by Mary Wallace explains how the Inuit used these inuksuit (plural) to help them in their every day lives. At the end of the book it explains how to make your own inuksuk and has examples of the Inuktitut alphabet and pronunciations of the Inuit words used in the book.

What you will need: Stones that are flat on at least two sides about fist-sized or a little larger and a good location.

What to do:

1. First read the book "The Inuksuk Book". This book explains what inukuit are and how they are used by the Inuit. You can also find information about inuksuk on the web. Wikipedia

2. Decide what type of inuksuk you would like to build and collect rocks that you think might work in your structure.

3. Start with the largest rocks and balance the smaller ones on top. You can use tiny rocks as wedges to help balance the rocks.

Inuksuk on Paper

This Inuksuk is much easier to make than the one above. Children just glue small stones onto a piece of paper.

What you will need: Cardstock, small stones no bigger than thumb size, and glue.

What to do:

Have your children collect small flat stones no bigger than their thumbs. Then have them experiment with different placements of the stones to see what designs they can come up with. When they have come up with a design they like, have them glue it to a piece of cardstock with tacky glue.

Pop Bottle Ring Snowflakes - These are very easy to make once you get the hang of it and they are quit big. You can use them to decorate your room or as a craft. All you need is six-pack pop bottle rings and a stapler. Go to the Winter's Craft Page for directions.

Paper Bag Moose - Go to the Moose Crafts Page for directions.

Moose Crafts - You will find lots of moose crafts on the Moose Crafts Page.

Arctic Animal Crafts - You will find polar bear crafts and puffin crafts on the Arctic Animal Craft Page.

Paper Plate Puffin

Polar Bear Dessert Dish Craft Walrus

Folded Paper Polar Bear Craft for Kids

Flyswatter Craft - Place a clean flyswatter under a piece of paper and rub the paper with the side of a crayon that has had the paper removed. An image of the flyswatter will appear. Draw a squashed mosquito on the flyswatter

Mosquito Craft

What you will need: Black poster board, card stock paper, pipe cleaner, milky pens, paper clasps, hole punch

What to do:

1. Print out the free pattern onto card stock. Cut out the body and head from black poster board. Glue the head onto the body. Cut the wings out and punch a hole where indicated.  Punch holes in the body where the x’s are.
2. Feed one pipe cleaner through the top left hole from front to back and then into the top right hole from the back to front.  Pull the pipe cleaner half way through so that the legs are even. Fold the legs as shown in the picture.  Do the same thing with the next to set of holes.  Attach the wings where indicted with two paper clasps so that the wings will move.
3. Draw the eyes.
4. Fold half a pipe cleaner in half to form the antennae and tape them to the back of the head. Punch a hole for the proboscis and feed a pipe cleaner through the hole wind it around itself and cut it to the length you would like.

Copyright Notice - While many of the crafts on this site are free, they are still copyrighted. They are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, except for local church, school, or home use only. The copyright notice must be included on all copies. To request permission to copy this material for any other use contact me by email.

Activities

Sky Tossing (Blanket Toss) - One person sits in the middle of a large animal skin (blanket) the rest of the people stand around the edge of the blanket holding onto the edge. On the word "pull" everyone holding the blanket pulls back on the blanket lifting the blanket so that the person in the middle pops up. You can find a video of a blanket toss on this page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjhyFFG3_9Y and here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10bRW7Pigm0

Children will enjoy playing this game using their stuffed animals and a blanket.