Smart and Crafty Activities for 5-Year-Olds

Great fun, but also a little educational, these two crafty ideas using empty Cushelle toilet roll tubes and tissue boxes are the perfect pastime for any 5-year-old on a rainy day. Follow our tutorials below for these two activities for 5-year-olds and they’ll soon be using their new binoculars and telling the time on their new watch with pride.

With an adult’s help you’ll find that slightly younger children can get involved with these arts and crafts for 5-year-olds too. If you’re looking for activities for 3-5-year-olds (so that little siblings can join in as well), you’re in the right place.

Crafts for 5-year-olds: bird-watching binoculars

Grab a couple of empty Cushelle toilet rolls tubes, some paint and some yarn and in no time at all you can magic up a pair of make-believe binoculars for bird watching in the garden with the kids. These kinds of crafts for 5-year-olds are perfect for nature lovers!

Takes about 1.5 hours

1. Take the toilet roll tubes and paint each with blue paint. Leave them to dry, and then apply a second coat if needed.
2. Meanwhile, take a sheet of kitchen paper and put the kids in charge of colouring in sections with pens. 
3. Tear up the colourful kitchen paper into small squares and glue them all over the painted tubes.
4. Place the tubes side by side. Cut some lengths of colourful yarn and wind them round the middle of the tubes, so that they are held tightly together. Knot the loose ends of the yarn and trim with scissors.  
5. Make a hole on the outer side of one end of each tube with a single hole punch or a bradawl. Thread a length of yarn through the holes and tie the ends around the tubes.

How to make a toilet roll wristwatch

Looking for fun activities to do with 5-year-olds that are educational too? Help your kids learn to tell the time with this fun rainy-day craft using an empty Cushelle toilet roll tube and cardboard from a used Cushelle tissue box. 

Takes about 2 hours

1. First make the wristband for the watch. Carefully cut down the length of the toilet roll tube with scissors and open out slightly. Then measure and cut the tube into 3-cm-wide sections. Keep one of the sections, and set the others aside to make more watches later.
2. Paint the band and leave it to dry. You can add an extra layer of paint if need be.  
3. Meanwhile, take a sheet of kitchen paper and put the kids in charge of colouring in sections with different coloured pens.
4. When dry, cut the coloured kitchen paper into little spots. Stick the colourful kitchen paper spots all over the wristband with glue.
5. Now make the watch face. First, cut open and flatten the empty tissue box. Take a round object measuring about 4 cm in diameter – we used a cotton reel – draw around it on the card, and cut out. To make the hands, cut out 2 small pieces of cardboard, one slightly shorter than the other, with pointed ends. 
6. Paint the face white, and the hands yellow, and leave to dry. Then write the numbers 1 to 12 around the face with a black pen.
7. Carefully make small holes in the ends of the hands and in the middle of the watch face with a bradawl, and then fix them together with a brass fastener. This job is for a responsible adult only, and the bradawl should be kept out of the hands of kids, as it can be dangerous. Place a piece of sticky tape over back side of the brass fastener, so it doesn’t rub on your child’s wrist.  
8. Finally glue the watch face to the wristband and leave them to dry. 

Now that you’ve got a couple of crafty activities for 5-year-olds up your sleeve, you’ll know exactly how to pass a fun afternoon next time it rains. Clean up together after creating these homemade educational toys, and then get busy putting them to good use.