10 African Craft Ideas have been collected and presented by Artsy Craftsy Mum. There are some lovely projects here to explore.
Firstly, she introduces making a painted African house, this is shared on a website called Krokotak. If all the children make one you could have a fantastic African village very quickly! It looks like it is mostly cardboard (cereal box sides maybe), bits of string, straws of paper and lots of colour. Much of the colouring is done whilst it is still a flat piece of card. See the picture at the top right of this post.
Next we have toilet roll inner masks – they do look pretty impressive, all lined up with headdresses and Plasticine noses!
I love the African thumb piano or Mbira idea, see the image below. I can see many slightly older children loving making this one. It is something a bit different but looks much easier than I first imagined.
The African Djembe Drum , or peace drum, is sure to be a success. These can be made all different sizes and colours and again would make a great display.
The fifth idea is another mask collage idea, this one is from Eco Kids Art. It’s not nearly as threatening as the last one, it is much kinder looking altogether. See the example below.
Pasta is used to great effect in this paper plate collar necklace, it really gives it substance! Each African tribe has a different necklace design. In some places, the style and length of the necklace indicates whether a woman is married or not. There are all sorts of hidden messages in the necklaces.
The seventh project is back to the Kente cloth idea mentioned in our previous post. The project here includes weaving richly coloured and patterned paper to give the effect.
The eighth project is African dolls from recycled materials. These look very impressive.
Project number nine is the African Achi Game – this is something a bit like tic-tac-toe.
The final project is an egg carton Mancala game. Thank goodness the instructions on how to play it are there too!
These 10 African craft ideas are inspiring, colourful projects that will be enjoyed by many children across the whole primary age range.
African Thumb Piano
African Mask Collage