Monkey was born in 2012 which means he was born in the Chinese Year of the Dragon. At the time my Hubby was travelling to China a fair amount and having a Dragon baby was highly desirable. This year Chinese New Year falls on the 8th February. So when we were contacted by Springboard Supplies about reviewing some Chinese New Year crafts we chose the Dragon options! If you have not come across Springboard Supplies before they are a family run business who specialise in supplying educational resources to schools and other organisations. Their products are curriculum based and their intention is that they will act as a ‘Springboard’ for children to enhance their education.
They sent us three kits, Monkey chose to try out the Tactile Dragon Kit first, I am not surprised the coloured strips of fabric looked very appealing. Like me he loves anything which has multiple textures. As they are designed for classroom use they come in packs of 30, the set includes pre-cut dragons, fabric strips, jumbo craft sticks and a instructions and ideas leaflet. We added glitter, sequins and some goggly eyes.
Monkey chose the blue Dragons to start with and got started on decorating them straight away, we added the corresponding faces before we started decorating. Purely because I knew the glitter was going to go everywhere. I have a feeling this might of been his favourite part. He loved pouring the glitter on and then shaking it off.
We then needed to wait for the heads to try before threading through the ribbons in the pre cut holes. Monkey threaded the ribbons well although he needed help with tying the knots to secure them. Once secured you cut the ribbons to make them look like tassels. In the end he gave up with the cutting and asked me to do it for him. But at only 3.5 years old cutting silky ribbons can be quite tricky.
We then added the jumbo craft sticks (blue again – theres a surprise) with tape.
He enjoyed playing with them and going RARRAAA every time you came near him. I can imagine this would make a great take home activity for a group or class. The craft kit helped Monkey to
- Develop his basic construction techniques
- Fine motor threading and knotting, as well as using scissors and cutting
- Decorating techniques
The kit retails at £11.95 plus VAT.
The lovely people at Springboard Supplied also sent us two further kits the Concertina Drgaons and the Dragon Spirals. Both of the dragon activities in these kits took less time to complete so maybe more suitable when time is tight.
Next Monkey chose the concertina kit, in it you get long strips of coloured paper, pre printed and cut dragon heads and tails ready for your imagination to decorate them, as well as jumbo craft sticks and clear instructions and ideas leaflet. Monkey set to work decorating the concertina ‘body’ while I coloured in the head and tail for him. No surprise he chose the blue option again. Once the ink was dry I showed Monkey how to fold the paper into a concertina. He had never tried this before and actually didn’t do a bad job once he got his head round not trying to roll it.
I think we will practice folding paper as he really enjoyed it. Watching him think about it logically made me very proud and I think it also helped his coordination as he folded it one way and then the next. We then attached the head and tail with glue and the jumbo craft sticks with sellotape.
The kit retails at £7.95 +VAT and includes enough material to make 30.
The final kit we were sent was the Dragon Spirals and was probably the simplest of the three. It comes with pre cut spirals and printed dragon heads and tails to decorate. Monkey opted to decorate his with felt pens, although the paper is thick enough to take paint, glue, sequins and glitter.
Once Monkey had finished decorating the pieces we attached them with glue and hung the swirly dragon in his bedroom. He really likes having his craft projects on show. Although he’s is no where near colouring within the lines yet he really enjoyed all three projects. More recently I have struggled to find things to hold his attention but all three of these kits did just that. It was lovely seeing him enthusiastic about completing them
The Dragon Spiral kit retails at £7.95 + VAT again for a packet of 30.
Things we love:
- The quality of the materials used in the kits is very good, the paper and card is thick and colourful, and I like that there is a wide colour range to choose from
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The jumbo craft sticks are also thick do not bend or snap easily
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The instructions and ideas leaflets are very easy to follow even for the less crafty and would easily support a lesson plan or group craft activity. It would be very easy to demonstrate these kits step by step to a large group
Thank you Springboard Supplies for sending us these great kits.
45 Responses
Love the look of concentration! Those materials certainly look high quality
A really fun idea and all the pieces look easy to put together too #ToddlerApprovedTuesday
Ah such fantastic idea Clare. This looks so fun and something i’ve love to make with Sylvia. I love all the bright colours! 🙂 Angela
They look great and that’s my kind of craft. When you just need a bit of colouring and sticking!
These look like fantastic kits….Everything is so bright and colourful x
OOh so colourful and vibrant! I like that you teaching him about global cultural traditions and it looked like a lot of fun to make.
These look gorgeous!
Thanks for sharing your review on #TriedTested this week x
Lovely idea – my daughter and I are both dragons (which might explain a lot!). Really nice to have a kit that preschoolers can properly attempt themselves too.
They look awesome! What a great kit. His little face is so cute! x
Aw they look fab! 🙂 I must do something with my girls.
This looks like fun! I love your crafty projects, definitely looks like you’re having fun. x
Oh Pickle was born in 2012 too – a great year! These look fantastic, he would love them, he loves dragons. Kaz x
Oh I love the long blue one, and he looks very happy making these! #bloggerclubUK
I love that it’s an easy task to complete with younger children, it keeps their attention whilst making them feel successful in creating a lovely piece of art. I also like that it’s showing cultural differences around the world, so they are learning a lot 🙂 #BloggerClubUK
Ohhh I have a 2012 boy too. I didn’t know he was a dragon! These actually look quite fun and reasonable. My boy really struggles with motor skills and concentration due to asd, so I really feel like I should try more things like this with him to get him used to things before school starts. We may give them a go! #BloggersClubUk
Oh we adore a great craft kit and this looks wonderful. My little man would love to make these too. Looks like great family fun.
Such a beautifully written notes..I tried origami with my five year olds but there is something in the glitter and glue that keeps them more engaged in these sort of projects, will surely try it out with my kid. #BloggerClubUK
they are so cool – I think they even outrank dinosaurs (must be the glitter) what a great idea!
Wow they look fantastic. What a great idea. Youngest is into dragons at the moment so I think she would love this #bloggersclub
Ah I always loved doing Chinese new year with my class. I forget about the different events of the year when at home now! x
The kits look fab and would definately be something my son would be interested in. Your Monkey looks like he’s really enjoying himself. This has inspired me to go out and buy some glitter and glue, something we don’t really do in our house because I hate arts and crafts and my son doesn’t have great concentration when it comes to crafty activities. He might like dragons, glitter and glue though 🙂
Visiting from #BloggersClubUK
I love a good craft kit, this looks fab and he looks so happy! Can’t beat a bit of glitter and glue fun #BloggerClubUK
I love a good craft kit and this one looks fab. Can’t beat a bit of glitter and glue play! #BloggerClubUK
These look so fab! I still love playing with glitter, even now 🙂 #bloggerclubuk
That’s so cool that you have a dragon baby! I love dragons! I find it very interesting that in Eastern culture, dragons were considered creatures on the side of good while the western dragon is considered evil. Such contrast to how we humans view dragons. Anyway, enough with the history lesson, you son looks like he had a great time making his dragon! #bloggerclubuk
I love these! Especially the glitter! My niece would love this x #bloggerclubuk
What a fab arts and crafts idea. My bubs is yet to understand the concept of arts and crafts nut I can’t wait till he’s old enough to do this type of thing 🙂
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These are brilliant… I have not heard of Springboard before but sounds like great crafts for developing lots of different skills – will have to check them out. I hadn’t thought about practising folding paper – good idea! Thanks for hosting #bloggerclubuk
What a great idea. I haven’t heard of springboard before but will definitely check them out. I’m rubbish at crafts so kits like this are perfect for me. Thanks for sharing.
How cute! I love Chinese dragons, we often have a street procession go through to celebrate Chinese new year. The dragons are amazing and they have very loud drums too!
Sally @ Life Loving
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So cute! I can’t wait until my son is older and we can do crafts like this, followed by chinese food of course 🙂 #BloggerClubUK
What a great craft activity! Perfect for Chinese New Year on the 8th. We’ll have to do some monkeys as it year of the monkey next xx #TriedTested #BloggerClubUK x
These look like brilliant craft kits and love all three of the different types of dragons that Monkey made. I think my girls would love trying to make a concertina dragon – we might just have to give that one a go ourselves! 🙂 #BloggerClubUK
Oh what beautiful bright photos – so nice to see such colour. His little face and concentration is just adorable – makes me want mine to be toddlers again – such a gorgeous age. #BloggersClubUK
Lovely looking kit great for the less crafty among us (yes, we exist, lol). It did remind me of dread of glitter…the stuff really does get everywhere. Great activity for the young’uns, it’s wonderful that it ticks so many boxes in terms of developing the various skills. ##BloggerClubUK
What an awesome idea! I’ve never seen dragon crafts before. Love the bright colours and all the different techniques used. Thanks for sharing 🙂 #bloggerclubuk
Brilliant, looks like lots of fun 🙂
What a fun activity. My kids love dragons and pretty much anything that’s fantasy. I love that he chose sparkles. My 6 year old boy likes sparkles too …my 4 year old girl won’t wear anything with a single sparkle on it. Thanks for hostessing lovely!
I keep meaning to do some crafts with the girls around the Chinese new year. These look fantastic and like you I have a Dragon!
These look fab Clare! I have to admit I am so rubbish with crafting with the boys. I am such a perfectionist I find it so stressful! I really should make more effort. Maybe I will start off in the garden when the weather gets warmer 🙂 #bloggerclubUK xx
Looks like so much 🙂
Thank you for linking up to #justanotherlinky
These look really fab. They turned out lovely & it’s great to hear that the quality of the materials in the kit is so good. That’s really cool that Monkey was born in the year of the Dragon. #BloggerClubUK x
How cute! It looks like he is having so much fun with this project!! And it turned out beautifully!!
Thank you for sharing with Everything Kids! We can’t wait to see what you have to share with us next week!!
This looks great! Thanks for linking up to #justanotherlinky xx
I like the look of this activity!