Easy Paper Projects Book Review

September 12, 2019/ Shelah Moss / Crafts, Gift Guide, Books, Art Projects / 1 comment

We recently recieved a copy of the book Easy Paper Projects by Maggy Woodley and we couldn't wait to try out the creative craft projects in the book! Maggy Woodley is the woman behind Red Ted Art so we knew that all of the crafts presented would be attractive and easy to do with the kids.

We use crafts with our students on the autism spectrum to help build a variety of skills. Most important for us is finding activities that the kids love to do. Connecting with children through shared interests helps build relationships and trust. We looked forward to checking out this craft book and spending time being creative with the kids.

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One boy that I work with has a difficult time communicating and can be difficult to engage with at school. To support his school goals we encourage him to come to the "work table" when called, to sit and attend for 30 minutes or more and to follow directions. As it turns out, this child is quite artistic and is very motivated by art and craft projects. I had been doing a google image search of construction paper crafts and letting him choose a project from the menu of images. This works pretty well but sometimes he would choose a craft that was above his skill level or he would get stuck on choosing the same craft over and over again - we have made a tribe of the same Minion. I was really happy to present him with the book Easy Paper Projects. He eagerly grabbed the book, started looking at the pictures and quickly chose a craft he wanted to do.

The crafts in Easy Paper Projects use materials that are readily available. Really if you have paper and glue you can do the crafts in this book. The best part for us is that it is a play based way for us to build skills. Sitting and attending, fine motor skills and following directions are critical for students with special needs. This book allows kids to make choices and have fun being creative. So far, this student has made six of the crafts in the book. Now his crafts don't look like the pictures in the book but we aren't really trying to that level of crafting. As his skill levels grow we will explore some of the crafts that take more precise fine motor skills. I think that there will be quite an art gallery in his home!

Tags Crafts Picture Books Kid-Made Book Review Fine Motor Creativity

One comment

How Scaffolding Learning Strategies Helps Your Child - Mosswood / August 10, 2020 5:19 pm / Reply

[…] Finally, once he masters communicating his desire and he demonstrates that he understands our response it’s time to modify his behavior. Now when he asks to open the cupboard so he can hide in comfort I say, “I understand you want to open door. I understand that you want to go inside. I want the doors to stay shut.” (I had a fun back in forth with him – “Open door”, “Door stays shut”, and on and on but no tantrums). Then I offer a high interest alternative activity to refocus his attention. In this case, it was doing an art project from Easy Paper Projects book. […]