4th of July Shining Stars Craft

Summer is in full swing and July 4th is just around the corner! This fine motor and folding activity is the perfect craft to help decorate your classroom or your house for celebrating America.

You will need:
Star print out for each child
Scissors
Tempera paint (red and blue), 
Glitter (gold, silver, red and/or blue)
Photograph of each child

The activity works best when done in small groups.

Option 1: 4th of July star for younger preschool children

Print out the star printable.

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Provide each child with a star printout and let them cut out the star.

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Fold the star along the dotted lines.

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Unfold the star. Ta da! You have a 3D star.

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Paint the star with the tempera paint and sprinkle on glitter to finish them.

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Option 2: For older preschool or kindergarten children

Please note that you should practice the folding part of the activity a few times on your own before trying the activity with children.  Things will run much more smoothly if you don’t have to reference the steps several times throughout the activity.  The activity all works best when done in small groups.

Step 1: Please your paper vertically in front of you and fold the bottom up to the top. Crease.

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Step 2:  Fold the bottom up to the top a second time. Crease and unfold. 

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Step 3: Make sure the folded edge is away from you.  Bring the top right corner down to meet the crease on the left side of the paper.

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Step 4: Fold the top left corner (triangle shaped) down. It will cover the other fold.

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Step 5: Fold the triangle over again along the dotted line shown below.

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Step 6: Flip the paper over and draw a line as shown below.  This line is what makes all the magic happen. The children will need to cut on this line through all the layers of paper. 

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This is when all the magic happens! Once the paper is cut unfold the triangle piece. Ta da! You have a star.

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Paint the star with the tempera paint and sprinkle on glitter to finish them.

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As a second activity, save the other piece that was cut off to make the star.  Unfold it into a star frame.  Glue the frame onto a red or blue piece of construction paper.  You can post the children’s pictures in the middle of the frames to display with the stars under the heading: “America’s Shining Stars”. 

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Submitted by KidsSoup member Beth Steward

View more preschool and kindergarten 4th of July activities and crafts

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