The Art of Coping: Crafts for The Little Coping Books
Updated: Nov 3
CREATE is a great healthy coping skill. Empower your child with a toolbox of healthy coping skills and a fun, easy craft to go along with the Little Coping Books. Books can be purchased off Amazon (search Angie Jowers), or they are available as Video Reads on the Cope2Hope YouTube Channel. www.YouTube.com/@cope2Hope
The Little Fish: Coping with Being Bored
Read the story and use the prompts at the end of the book to have your child share what emotions were talked about and when those emotions happened.Look at a Cope2Hope Healthy Coping Skills poster and have them find which healthy coping skills were talked about in the book. See if they can name any others not on the poster that were mentioned in the book.
Make a Paper Plate Fish
Supplies needed: Paper plate, pencil, scissors, glue stick, 1 inch round circles cut out of different colors of construction paper, 1 googly eye (1 inch but smaller will also work)
Put a dot in the middle of the paper plate. Have your child draw a triangle by drawing 2 lines from the dot in the center of the plate to the edge to make the fish's mouth.
Have them cut out the triangle or you can cut for younger children. They will glue this triangle piece onto the back of the rounded side of the plate to make the fish tail. Have them choose and fold a colored circle in half and put glue on only half of it and stick it to the plate. This will make the fish scales look 3D. You can review colors as they choose and glue the fish scales on. Have them circles on their fish to make the scales. Have them glue the googly eye on so their fish can see.
Praise your child for their creativity. Try to not make them do it a certain way. "Create" is a great coping skill because it gives the child a sense of control and creativity. If they are told exactly where to put things or specifically how to do it so it looks "perfect", children can feel big emotions of disappointment or sadness. Have them tell you why they chose to create it how they did and listen attentively.
The Little Crab: Coping with Anger
Read the story and use the prompts at the end of the book to have your child share what emotions were talked about and when those emotions happened.Look at a Cope2Hope Healthy Coping Skills poster and have them find which healthy coping skills were talked about in the book. See if they can name any others not on the poster that were mentioned in the book.
Make a Plastic Cup Crab
Supplies needed: Red plastic cup (16 oz), glue stick, scissors, red cardstock, red crayon if you do not have red cardstock, 2 small googly eyes, and the Crab template below
Print Crab Template on Red cardstock (you can also print it on white paper and have your child color the pieces. (Rainbow colored crabs and always fun)
Crab craft template
.pdf
Download PDF • 73KB
Have your child cut out the crab pieces or help them if they are younger. They will fold the feet and claws on the dotted line.
Have them glue the googly eyes onto the round part of the crab paper eyes
They can glue the pieces onto the cup standing upright or turning the cup upside-down.
The can glue 3 leg legs and a claw (putting glue on the folded tab) to each side of the cup
Have them glue the eyes (by the stem) onto the cup so the eyes are above the top of the cup. A sharpie can be used to draw a mouth under the eyes if wanted.
Praise your child for their creativity. Try to not make them do it a certain way. "Create" is a great coping skill because it gives the child a sense of control and creativity. If they are told exactly where to put things or specifically how to do it so it looks "perfect", children can feel big emotions of disappointment or sadness. Have them tell you why they chose to create it how they did and listen attentively.
The Little Clock: Coping with Death and Grief
Read the story and use the prompts at the end of the book to have your child share what emotions were talked about and when those emotions happened.Look at a Cope2Hope Healthy Coping Skills poster and have them find which healthy coping skills were talked about in the book. See if they can name any others not on the poster that were mentioned in the book.
Make a clock with hands that move
Supplies needed: White cardstock, Clock Template (below), white cardstock, 1 inch brad, Scissors, Handheld paper hole punch, Crayons
Print Clock Template on white cardstock.
Have them first cut off the bottom with the clock hands on the black line. For children too young for scissors, an adult should cut out the clock hands and clock.
Then have them cut out around the clock.
Then they need to cut out the clock hands.
Have them color the clock however they would like.
When done coloring their clock, have them come to you to punch the holes in the clock hands. They will place the brad through holes and poke through the center dot on the clock. And adult may need to help poke the hole. They will open the brad on the back of the clock.
For 1st graders and older, teach them how to read a clock by teaching them the little hand tells the hour and the big hand tells the minute. The little hand tells the hour and is said first. The big hand straight up is said o’ and straight down is 30. Play a game by giving them a time (only use o'clock and times using 30 for young children; challenge older children with any time) and see if they can find it.
clock template
.pdf
Download PDF • 72KB
The Little Snowflake: Coping Stress and Anxiety
Read the story and use the prompts at the end of the book to have your child share what emotions were talked about and when those emotions happened.Look at a Cope2Hope Healthy Coping Skills poster and have them find which healthy coping skills were talked about in the book. See if they can name any others not on the poster that were mentioned in the book.
Make a paper snowflake
Supplies needed: White copy paper, Scissors, Pencils, 8 Clothespins, Glue gun and glue sticks, White 1 inch felt or craft foam pieces (2 for each clothespin snowflake)
Plug in a glue gun to heat up.
Have your child place the paper tall ways in front of them.
Have them fold the top edge to meet the side edge to make a triangle. See example.
While it is folded, have them take a pair of scissors and cut off the rectangle piece at the bottom along the bottom edge of the triangle.
Have them put scissors down and fold the triangle piece in half matching the 2 opposite pointed corners.
Repeat and fold the smaller triangle in half one more time.
Have them start cutting small pieces out of either of the edges of their paper snowflake. They can cut off the pointed tip if they want a hole in the middle of their snowflake.
When finished cutting, have them open up their snowflakes. Have them make another one if they want and discuss differences and how each snowflake is unique.
Make a clothespin snowflake
Have your child take a clothespin and pop off the spring in the middle of the clothespins by twisting the 2 sticks. These metal springs will be discarded. Have them do that for all 8 clothespins.
Have them place the clothespin wood pieces back to back and glue them together.
Once they have all 8 clothespins glued together, they will need help from a grown up gluing them together with the glue gun.
Have them place 4 clothespins to make a plus sign on a 1 inch white felt or craft foam circle. Have them place the other 4 on another felt circle. The adult will glue the 4 of the wood pieces to each of the pieces of felt. Your child can choose if they want the pointy end in the middle or the rounded edge. The picture shows the rounded edge in the middle. Once the hot glue dries, your child will place one set of clothespins on top of the other so all 8 clothespins show to make the snowflake. The white felt circles should be on the outside on both sides. Apply hot glue to glue them together. The felt circles (not shown in picture below) are to help secure the clothespins better and keep the clothespins from getting glued to the table.
You can attach a piece of ribbon looped if you would to make it into an ornament.
