Inspire your kindergarten kids to engage in pretend play by making an elf puppet. Flatten lunch-sized paper bags and let the kindergartners decorate the flap on each one with an elf face. Glue on googly eyes, draw a pointy elf nose and make a toothy smile. Pre-cut felt triangles for the kids to glue on as elf hats, and have them decorate the body of the bag in Christmas-themed red and green elf garb. Another option is to make a simple stick puppet. The kindergarten kids can decorate a paper plate as the elf's face. Tape a thick craft stick to the back as a handle.
Use your kindergarten art project to support other goals of the early childhood classroom, such as literacy learning. Have students create a class story or have each child make his own book. Use cardboard rectangles to make a cover and back, and use construction paper for the pages. Punch two holes on the left side of each piece of cardboard and construction paper, stack the book together and bind by threading yarn through the holes. Ask the children to brainstorm an elf story, including a beginning, middle and end. If you are making a group craft, assign each student a job, such as drawing the elf on the cover or printing the title of the book. Kids who are creating their own individual crafts can do all of the drawing and writing themselves.
Convert an old cardboard tube from a roll of gift wrap or paper towels into a cute elf-themed craft. Cut the tube into 6-inch sections, giving one to each child. Help the kids to create mini elf sculptures by drawing an elf face and clothes onto the tube with markers or crayons. If you have the time to go more in-depth, ask the kids to cut pieces of felt or craft foam into elf hats, shirts, pants and shoes. They can glue these to the tube after drawing or painting on the elf's face.
Make a cute craft that the kids can give to mom and dad as a holiday ornament present. Give each child a craft foam circle and an array of smaller-sized pieces such as triangles, circles and semi-circles. The children can glue two circles on as eyes, a triangle as a nose, a semi-circle as a mouth and two more triangles as pointy elf ears. Each child can add hair with either yarn or cotton and glue, along with a felt hat. Punch a hole near the top of the elf craft and thread a ribbon through as a hanger. Instead of going with an elf face, your students can craft elf shoe ornaments. Have the kids stencil and cut out pointy shoe templates onto Christmas colored felt. Each child can make two shoes. Give the kindergartners red and green pom poms to glue on the shoes as mock bells. Add a splash of glitter and glue for a special sparkle. Glue the shoes together with a piece of yarn to complete the craft.