Quick & Easy Beanbags

A couple of weeks ago I taught the preschool class at our church's Vacation Bible School. Instead of doing the stations like the older kids did, we did all our activities in our classroom, including crafts. Coming up with crafts that held the kids' interest, were cheap and easy was something of a challenge. One of my co-workers, who works with infants and toddlers, suggested that we make the beanbags we needed for one of the activities as the craft. What a brilliant idea! This is one that my oldest son (who was in the class) made.



Materials:

Denim squares (mine were cut from an old pair of hubby's jeans), about 4 inches square
Self-stick foam shapes, for decoration
Dried beans
Hot glue gun and glue



Directions:

Each child gets two squares. Let them decorate them however they want. We used self-stick foam cut-outs, as that was easy and mess-free. If you have older kids, they could use markers or fabric paints, really anything you want to put on them.


When the child(ren) are done decorating, have them bring the squares to an adult manning the glue gun. Hot glue three sides and press together firmly. Important: Make sure you have a pretty even thread of hot glue all the way to the edges, and make sure the layers are pressed together very well. We were picking up stray beans for the rest of the week because we had gaps in the glue.


Put a handful of beans in the pouch, then hot glue the top and press together tightly. We discovered that they hold better if you let them sit for a while before tossing them around.

By the way, the black background in many of my craft pictures is another recycling project. It's a large box lid spray painted with matte black spray paint that I made especially so I could photograph items with no background glare.