The kids are back in school and homework is officially back in their lives. Soon they’ll be compiling science fair projects, doing book reports and practicing their musical instrument. Heading back to school is fun for kids and gets them back in touch with friends they didn’t see over the summer. Make the homework portion fun too by creating these pencil themed bookmarks to keep their place in all those school books!
These are easy to make for most age groups. For kids in Kindergarten and possibly first grade, you may want to round the pencil points, as parents you can be the judge of that. To round them, simply cut them more rounded and use a little sandpaper.
[Full printable instructions are below] First you’ll cut and sand. Then simply paint the craft sticks yellow, paint on an eraser and the silver metal portion. Then write the child’s name, a school subject or just “No. 2” to decorate the pencil.
I used CraftSmart paint on this project. It’s a great paint for kids and is inexpensive. You can find it at Michaels.
Variation: A fun variation for younger children would be to create crayon bookmarks instead of pencils!
You might also like these easy craft stick bookmarks for the younger kids, easier to make and they don’t involve any cutting or sanding. Though I could see combining these two and making colored pencils, one for each subject!
And for older kids, these Avengers Bookmarks are great too (maybe even the adults will like these, hehe).
- Jumbo craft stick
- Acrylic craft paint: yellow, pink, peach, silver, and black
- Paintbrush
- Scissors
- Fine point black permanent marker
- Acrylic sealer
- Paint each craft stick with yellow paint and allow them to dry.
- Paint about an inch or so of one end with pink paint.
- Leaving about ¾ of an inch of the pink paint visible, paint a stripe of silver over the bottom of the pink.
- In the same fashion as the pink, paint the other end of the craft stick with peach paint. When dry, use scissors to cut the end into a point. You can skip this step if you are concerned about the pointy tip with younger children, or you can round the tip with the scissors.
- Paint the end of the tip black for the pencil lead.
- Use a black marker to write whatever you like on the bookmarks. Some suggestions include the class subject (Science, Math, etc), the child’s name or for a more generic approach you can use “No. 2” and give them as back to school gifts!
- When everything is dry, apply a coat of acrylic sealer to your bookmarks.
Variation: A fun variation for younger children would be to create crayon bookmarks instead of pencils! Have fun!
Amanda Formaro
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