Try these fun popsicle stick crafts with your kids in class or at home!
While some of these activities might require a little more direction, most are simple and open-ended and don’t require children to follow a set of exact steps. Let kids interpret them and leave their creative mark.
Using your recycled popsicle sticks to make crafts is a great way to develop skills like fine motor control, planning, creativity and problem-solving.
You will need some basic craft supplies, such as:
- Popsicle sticks or store-bought craft sticks
- Adhesives
- Scissors
- Paper, cardboard
- Acrylic paint or washable paints, paintbrushes
- Crayons, markers,
- Decorative materials such as glitter, stickers, pom poms, pieces of fabric, pipe cleaners, etc.
There are different ways to join the sticks together—using white glue, wood glue, Mod Podge, double-sided tape, or a hot glue gun. Choose your preferred method for each activity.
Here are 38 super easy popsicle stick crafts that kids of all ages will enjoy:
1. Photo Frames
Print a photo of your child or a group photo of the class onto cardstock or construction paper. Make popsicle stick photo frames by gluing sticks together into a square/rectangular shape. Alternatively, glue them directly onto the cardstock to frame the photo.
Decorate the frames with glitter, stickers or other decorations, and attach them.
2. Shapes
A fun way to practise shapesis by challenging kids to use the sticks to form two-dimensional shapes with straight sides, such as triangles, squares, rectangles, diamonds, and parallelograms.
3. Popsicle Puppets
Puppets are one of the best popsicle stick crafts as the opportunities for creativity are endless. Create people, animals or any fun characters. Make features with paper, scraps of material, wool, googly eyes, buttons, etc.
4. Puppet Theater
Go one step further and create a popsicle stick puppet theatre. Glue the sticks into a large frame and make curtains out of fabric or paper. Take turns telling stories with the puppets.
5. Garden Markers
Craft sticks can be used for various gardening activities, such as creating labels or markers for growing plants. Paint them and write the names of the plants or draw pictures of the vegetables, herbs or plants on them. Older kids can write their names themselves.
6. Bird Feeders
Make a simple popsicle stick bird feeder by building a base and walls with the sticks, adding birdseed, and hanging it up. This awesome project needs some adult guidance and could be a group project.
7. Birdhouse
To take it a step further, make a popsicle stick birdhouse with a roof that will provide shelter and food for birds.
8. Collage
Making a collage is a simple craft that requires minimal adult guidance. Provide collage materials such as craft sticks, pom poms, cotton balls and buttons and invite kids to glue them onto paper, cardstock or a paper plate.
9. Fun Ideas Jar
Ask children to share ideas of fun things they could do, such as games, art ideas, music activities, etc. Write one idea on each craft stick and place them into a jar. On rainy days or when you need a fresh idea, one child pulls a random stick out and everyone follows the suggestion.
Some ideas of activities:
- Make a batch of playdough
- Build a Puzzle
- Play Simon Says
- Put on a puppet show
- Play Musical Chairs
10. Charades Game
Similar to the previous activity, why not use the craft sticks to write out different ideas for a game of Charades? Kids will have so much fun being involved in choosing the ideas.
Get the entire family or class involved. One child draws a stick from the jar and then acts out what’s on the stick, while the others try to guess the answer.
11. Book Marks
Decorate popsicle sticks with markers, paint, stickers or anything except glitter! Let them dry and use them as bookmarks.
12. Paper Popsicles
Turn your popsicle stick back into a popsicle with this paper craft. Cut out a large shape from cardstock, attach the stick to it and then paste strips of paper to create a rainbow ice-cream with lots of flavours.
13. Counting Sticks
This is a simple but great idea for sequencing numbers. Write a number on each stick in permanent marker (1 to 5, or 1 to 10) and challenge kids to put them in order.
14. Wind Chimes
Make popsicle stick wind chimes by decorating the sticks, gluing them to wires or strings and then hanging them from a stick or clothes hanger.
15. Name Craft
Make a name activity by writing one letter on each stick and having children “build” their name with the sticks.
16. Puzzles
Make your own popsicle stick puzzle. For this easy craft idea, print a fun picture or use a drawing and paste it onto the sticks. Cut them into pieces and get kids to build the puzzles.
17. Flowers
Challenge kids to create a flower out of popsicle sticks. Use the sticks to create the stem, leaves, and the petals of the flower. Glue the sticks together or build the flower directly onto cardstock.
18. Airplanes
Make a popsicle stick airplane by gluing the sticks together to create the body and wings. Paint them and add details with coloured markers.
19. Stick Fence
Make a fence that can be used during pretend play and small-world play. Challenge kids to build it on their own or in small groups, without your guidance.
This is a great opportunity for them to problem-solve and develop thinking skills as they try to balance and stabilize the fence, figuring out the best construction method—stacking the sticks side by side or positioning some vertically and others horizontally.
20. Measuring Stick
Use popsicle sticks in an early maths activity. Each child can decorate their stick and then use them to measure items in the room or class, such as their table, the length of the whiteboard or the height of their chair.
21. Popsicle Pictures
Let children create their own pictures using the sticks, such as houses, trees, vehicles or a farm with lots of animal enclosures. They can glue them together or just play with them, creating different images.
22. Construction
An alternative to creating two-dimensional images as in the previous activity, encourage kids to construct with the sticks as they would with blocks, Lego, etc.
They can build a three-dimensional tower, fairy castle, house, etc. They can play around with how they position and stack the sticks.
23. Memory Game
To create this popsicle stick game, make pairs of matching images on one side of the sticks. Use matching stickers, or draw or print matching images.
Play the matching game by shuffling all the sticks together, face down, and then taking turns to turn over two sticks at a time. Keep the sticks if they match, and turn them back over and wait for your next turn if they don’t match.
24. Butterflies
Add googly eyes and antennae, and create the wings by folding a piece of paper in half, drawing the outline of one side, and then cutting it out.
Open the wings and teach children about symmetry. They can then paint blobs on one side and fold the wings again to print a symmetrical picture on the other side. Attach the wings when dry.
25. Playdough Fun
Provide a blob of playdough and popsicle sticks and let children create freely.
26. Plant Holder
For a creative way to make a plant holder – or even a pencil holder – use an empty food can and glue colourful, painted sticks around it.
27. Dominoes
Make a game of Dominoes by drawing dots with a permanent marker on each end of the craft sticks. Each set of dots should represent the numbers 0 to 6 and there should be a few sets for each number.
Play a game by taking turns to add a stick to the chain by matching the number of dots on either end of a stick.
28. Popsicle Stick Coasters
This is a great project that can be gifted. Glue popsicle sticks together in a square shape to create coasters. Paint and decorate them.
29. Floating Raft
This is a fun problem-solving activity that also teaches the concept of floating and sinking. Challenge kids to build a raft that will float on water. They can work in pairs or groups.
Test the raft in a tub of water and see if it can hold objects on top without sinking.
30. Snowflakes
Paint popsicle sticks white or light blue and glue them together into snowflake shapes for a Winter or weather theme. Teach children the song Little Snowflake.
If you are making these as Christmas decorations, add glitter or paint them different colours.
31. Popsicle Stick Rainbow
Paint sticks in rainbow colours and glue them together or onto cardstock in an arch shape to create a beautiful rainbow.
32. Popsicle Pattern
Teach children about patterns by creating them with popsicle sticks. Model a pattern—such as blue stick, red stick, blue stick, red stick—and challenge kids to copy and continue it. Make the patterns more challenging for older preschoolers.
33. Hanging Sign
Create a welcome sign for the front door or a name sign for a bedroom door by gluing sticks side by side. Paint and decorate them.
34. Make a Tic Tac Toe Board
Build a Tic Tac Toe Board with craft sticks and then use it to play a game with kids. You could make a small frame or a large, sturdy one. Or, choose a backing board and stick the craft sticks onto it.
35. Train
As a group project, build a class train on a long sheet of paper. Ask each child to add their popsicle stick carriage to the train.
36. Doll Furniture
Make miniature furniture for dolls or figurines with popsicle sticks. Allow children to build these in pairs or groups. Use a box to create your own doll house.
37. Wall Art
Kids can glue the sticks together in various patterns to create wall art. Paint them and hang them up for display or create a class popsicle stick art wall.
38. Holiday Season Decorations and Ornaments
Create popsicle stick ornaments for your holiday theme, such as Christmas or Halloween. Decorate them with paint, glitter, stickers and the colours of each holiday.
A few ideas for popsicle stick Christmas crafts are:
- Stars
- Christmas trees
- Snowflakes
- Snowman puppets
Some Halloween popsicle stick crafts are:
- Pumpkins
- Scary puppets
- Witches
- Spider webs.
I hope you enjoy these popsicle stick craft ideas and fun activities!
