The international Winter Games are in full swing, and what better thing to do while you’re watching than to make some Olympics-inspired crafts?
You can make these Winter Games ring crafts with your kids, or they can do them themselves, depending on their ages. Either way, they’re a fun way to bring the spirit and fun of the Games into your house.
Paper Rings
Using paper strips to make the Olympic rings is probably the simplest craft out there, but it’s not possible to arrange them so they can all be flat at once.
I still like this craft for its illustration of how the rings are linked together, and it’s kind of fun to play with.
You’ll need pieces of blue, yellow, black, red and green construction paper, scissors and a glue stick.
Cut a strip of each color as wide as you like. Use glue to form the blue loop, then loop the yellow through the blue and secure with glue. Then add the black ring in the same manner, followed by green and red.
Painted Rings
Use a cup or another circular object to make your own Olympic flag from a piece of paper. Dip the edge of the cup in paint (or apply paint to the cup with a paintbrush) and press the cup on a piece of paper to make the rings.
This might also turn into a lesson in color mixing if you do it too quickly!
Paper Plate Rings
Take five paper plates and paint (or color with markers or crayons for younger kids) the flat part of each a different color for each of the rings. Allow to dry, then cut out the bottom of the plate.
Draw a circle in the center of the circle that remains (I used a jar lid), then cut down into the circle and cut out the inner circle.
The little cut in each ring allows you to connect them to each other.
Felt Rings
Felt Olympic rings would make a fun quiet time activity for a little kid, because they could make the pattern of the Olympic rings, arrange them in other ways, put objects in the circles of those colors and so on.
For little ones, you will want to do the cutting yourself. Older kids can draw the circles and cut them out with supervision.
Draw a large circle on a piece of felt for each of the ring colors (I used a bowl). Cut them out.
Then use a smaller circle (mine was a coaster) to make the inside part of the ring. Cut a slit in the circle and cut out the center.
Melty Bead Rings
This one could be a fun engineering challenge for the kids: give them a pile of melty beads and a pegboard to work on and see if they can make Olympic rings with the beads.
This is what I came up with, but I’m sure there are lots of variations that would work.
Of course, you’ll want to work the iron yourself if you have little kids and want to keep your creations.
Bonus Craft
If you have a knitter in the house, you can also knit Olympic rings, which I think make a really cool stacked bracelet. Check out my how-to at Craft Gossip here.
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Sarah E. White is a professional crafter, writer, editor and mom who lives in Fayetteville. She writes about knitting, cross stitch and educational activities for CraftGossip.com and about creativity for moms and other busy people at OurDailyCraft. She loves to make things with and for her 8-year-old daughter. You can find her website here.
