Father's Day- Help!

[juliewilk]

Hi All,

 

Please help!

 

I'm looking for a craft/gift idea for Father's Day that wouldn't be obviously male. Sounds a bit odd I know but quite a few of my children don't know who their Dad is and have no 'father figure' so the gift would have to be appropriate to give to their mums if need be. I also want to steer clear of cards for that reason.

 

I could just ignore Father's Day completely but that would be unfair on the families who do have dads.

 

I know this seems early to be asking but I may have to get resources ordered and that takes ages at our place!

 

So, if you can think of any simple craft ideas I would be really grateful.

 

thanks

 

Julie

[HappyMaz]

We tend to stay clear of the mother's/father's day production line jobby, but particularly popular things we've done is for the children to decorate cheap Ikea picture frames in which to hold either a photograph of the child or a picture they've drawn, or we bought some canvases from the 99p shop and the children produced abstract artworks which were completely unique.

 

Sounds like you have a tricky situation to handle!

 

Maz

[Guest]

We have done a simple clay plaque. The children chose which play dough cutter they wanted to press into the clay. Then they painted them, then covered in a clay gloss to protect. Apparently pva glue has the same effect . I have put a poem on the back using the clay gloss to stick on and gloss over the paper.

 

Daddy I love you,

For all that you do,

I kiss you and hug you,

'Cause you love me too!

 

For those who I know don't have dads I have replaced the word dad with, Grandad or mummy or you could simply leave it as I love you and then it can be given to anyone.

 

Hoddy

[Guest]

Keyrings, filled with child's picture or artwork are a good standby.

[Panders]

Along the lines as HappyMaz has suggested - one year we had large pebbles (about the size of a baking potato or just smaller) and to that we stuck a photostat black and white picture of the child.

 

We found a picture from our many taken that we liked, photocopied it onto ordinary A4 paper. When we had all the children copied in this way, They chose a pebble, we then dipped the photocopy in a solution of tea (without the milk! which we had in a cat litter tray) and then with the photocopy nicely wet, just "tore" around the edges of the image (so that it wasn't an even edge) and then stuck it to the pebble with a solution of pva+water. Because the paper is wet it tears easily - need a little care here - but it just hugs the shape of the pebble nicely sitting into nooks and crannies.

 

I suppose today, rather than using the tea, we might think about printing off the computer with the sepia option onto the A4 paper - that might work, then you would only need to soak the image in water.

 

My son was about 8 I suppose when we did this, he is now nearly 18 and we still have his pebble on a window ledge at home, his was the prototype!!

 

You could even get the children to cut out some felt to stick to the bottom of the pebble to stop it scratching any surface it is put on.

[Guest Spiral]

What a lovely idea.

 

I heard of a setting recently steering away from the mum/dad thing, so they celebrated 'my day' when it was near to that time of year - children took home something made by them for their family. It's a great way around it.

 

Spiral.

[laura]

Last year we did the footsteps poem and painted the children's feet, so the had their little footprints either side of the poem. We do a very simple card - they choose a sponge shape, eg car, dinosaur, fish and they print this on the front.

This year while browsing through the yellow moon catalogue saw an idea for making finger prints in air drying clay. A quick look through and they also do cheap keyrings so I think we will be doing fingerprint keyrings this year.

 

"Walk a Little slower, Daddy." said a little child so small.

I'm following in your footsteps and I don't want to fall.

 

Sometimes your steps are very fast, sometimes they're hard to see;

So walk a little slower Daddy, for you are leading me.

 

Someday when I'm all grown up, You're what I want to be.

Then I will have a little child who'll want to follow me.

 

And I would want to lead just right, and know that I was true;

So, walk a little slower, Daddy, for I must follow you!!

[Guest]

We have al lot of the same problems, this year I have one boy who's dad passed away some time ago but he didn't want to write dad when we were doing our letter sounds!

 

We approach it from a 'special person' point, and that some of us have dads, some people have more than one, some people don't live with theirs etc, but that we all know someone who is special to us - our dad, grandad, uncle etc. We don't make a father's day gift or card, instead we make something for that special person. We do the same for mother's day and it works really well... I've got one child this year with 2 mums and no dad! So we try to be as inclusive as we can.

 

Hope that helps.

[Guest]

Last year we did the footsteps poem and painted the children's feet, so the had their little footprints either side of the poem. We do a very simple card - they choose a sponge shape, eg car, dinosaur, fish and they print this on the front.

This year while browsing through the yellow moon catalogue saw an idea for making finger prints in air drying clay. A quick look through and they also do cheap keyrings so I think we will be doing fingerprint keyrings this year.

 

"Walk a Little slower, Daddy." said a little child so small.

I'm following in your footsteps and I don't want to fall.

 

Sometimes your steps are very fast, sometimes they're hard to see;

So walk a little slower Daddy, for you are leading me.

 

Someday when I'm all grown up, You're what I want to be.

Then I will have a little child who'll want to follow me.

 

And I would want to lead just right, and know that I was true;

So, walk a little slower, Daddy, for I must follow you!!

 

Don't know whats wrong with me today but that as actually just made me cry!!!! It's really nice

[juliewilk]

Thanks everyone you're amazing as usual. You've given me loads to think about. Only problem now is choosing which thing to make.

 

thanks again

[HappyMaz]

Don't know whats wrong with me today but that as actually just made me cry!!!! It's really nice

It made a shiver go down my spine too rapunzel - and I know of at least one dad in my group who will cry when he reads this. I think we'll do some foot printing and make a picture to laminate.

 

Thanks for this laura - I'd heard the poem before but had completely forgotten about it!

 

Maz

[Guest]

Don't know whats wrong with me today but that as actually just made me cry!!!! It's really nice

 

I'm glad it was just me. It's such a lovely poem and one I hadn't heard before.

[Guest]

We've done the footprints thing before and for those children who are reluctant to use their feet we got the child to clench their fist, then using the side of their hand print a basic foot shape. They then finger paint the toes on! Does that make sense? We used to huff on the windows as children and make footprints all over it, much to my mum's annoyance!

[laura]

It certainly does bring a tear to the eye!

[Guest]

I'm glad it was just me. It's such a lovely poem and one I hadn't heard before.

 

Looking back at this post I've just realised I mistyped. I meant to say "I'm glad it wasn't just me!"