Dutch Crafts to Make
We often think of tulips when it comes to making Dutch crafts. Other things that come to mind are wooden shoes, windmills and the traditional hats. You can incorporate all of these items and more when making Dutch crafts. Have children in your classroom make the windmill as an art project when studying Holland and the Dutch culture to help them realize and remember how important the windmill is to the Dutch. Adults can make the wooden shoes for a variation on the traditional stocking for Christmas.
Wooden Shoes
Dutch children would put out shoes at Christmas time instead of stockings. Carve a shoe for each of the people in your household. Fill the shoe with candies and other small items as Christmas gifts. Since there is the use of sharp wood chisels, this is not necessarily a project for young children to make with you. (Remember to wear protective eye gear to avoid getting splinters in the eye.)
Get a pine block of wood since pine is soft and easy to carve. Use a pencil to draw an outline of a wooden shoe on the block. Look at some pictures of traditional Dutch wooden shoes if you need something to go by when drawing the outline.
Use wood chisels to carve out the shoe pattern. Make sure to carve a hole where a foot would go, although a foot does not need to fit in the hole. The hole is where you will put all the Christmas treats.
Sand the entire surface of the shoe until it is completely smooth. Rub some mineral oil into all the surfaces of the wood using a rag to help protect the shoe and give it a nice finish.
Finish the Shoe
Sand the entire surface of the shoe until it is completely smooth. Rub some mineral oil into all the surfaces of the wood using a rag to help protect the shoe and give it a nice finish.
Windmills
Start saving paper towel tubes well in advance. This makes it easy to collect all your materials when preparing to make the Dutch windmill craft with the students in your class.
Give each child their own paper towel tube and allow them to paint the tube with any design they like. They could also use markers for this craft, which will eliminate the paint drying time.
Cut two strips of cardboard to measure 1 inch wide by 6 inches long. You can have the children do this using their own scissors or you may want to use a razor and a straightedge before class begins depending on the age and ability of your students.
Punch a small hole in the middle of both of these pieces. Use an awl or sharp pencil if you do not have a small hole punch. Do not make the hole too big. You want it just big enough to slip a brad through.
Layer the two pieces of cardboard together forming a plus (+) sign. Use a dab of glue between them to help hold them in place. You may want to let the glue dry a little bit before attaching the blades to the windmill. Regular glue works best for this project instead of glue sticks. Insert the brad into the punched hole.
Punch another hole in the paper towel tube 2 inches from the top. Insert the brad through the hole in the paper towel tube and spread out the holding strips to attach the blades to complete the windmill.
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