Make a Holiday Rebus Story
A Step-by-Step Craft Project for Kids to Learn Language Skills
Nov 13, 2009
There's no shortage of holiday craft ideas from October to December. Trying to find a craft project for kids? One they haven't done the last five years running? Try creating a holiday rebus story. It's a kids' craft that teaches language skills and can be displayed or given as a gift.
Holiday Craft Idea: Rebus Style
What is a rebus story? It's a story where nouns and some syllables have been replaced by pictures. Many grown-ups remember reading rebus stories in magazines as children, and their children probably read rebus stories all through early grade school.
An example of a rebus story sentence is: On Sunday, George rode in the car with his dog. In a rebus story, the word "Sunday" becomes a picture of a sun plus the word "day". The word "George" becomes a picture of a boy, "car" becomes a picture of a car, and a dog picture replaces the word "dog".
Creating a poster-sized holiday rebus story can be a fun holiday craft idea to commemorate the season. It's also a craft project for kids that requires very little planning on the part of mom and dad (depending on the age of the child).
Examples of holiday rebus stories kids can create:
- Nativity stories
- Favorite Christmas stories
- A family holiday memory
- Any story with a holiday theme
Since this is a holiday kids' craft project, the children should decide what kind of holiday story they'd like to tell. Encourage creativity. If stuck for ideas, try re-telling a classic Christmas story in a few sentences. Make a kids' craft rebus story out of a family memory and put it on display. Or give as a gift to grandparents.
Making a Holiday Craft Rebus Story
To make a holiday rebus story, parents will need:
- Poster board or display board
- Markers and/or paint
- All-purpose craft glue
- Glitter, cotton for clouds or any other craft supplies
- Scissors
- Felt or scrap material for cutting out picture shapes
- Pencil
Directions:
- Write a rebus story using words. Rebus stories generally have about 100 words, but for the size of this project less is more.
- Have children pick out any nouns and syllables that can be drawn as pictures. Older children can guide younger children in this process. If this is a preschool holiday craft, parents will be more involved in picking out the nouns.
- Make a list of all the pictures needed.
- Cut out shapes from felt or material. This will make pictures stand out on the poster board.
- Create pictures by drawing or gluing materials onto the felt cut-outs.
- Arrange the cut-outs on the poster board and write in pencil where the text of the story will go. Make adjustments as needed. Encourage kids to be creative with design.
- Glue cut-outs to the board and write text in permanent marker.
Like other holiday craft ideas, this rebus story would make a great gift for grandparents or parents. To scale the project down, use letter size paper and magazine clippings instead of felt cut-outs. Then frame the smaller size for a more subtle kids' craft holiday gift.
Writing a holiday rebus story with kids can be a fun holiday craft idea during the school break. It's also a kids' craft that teaches language skills, and older children can manage most of the project themselves. Young children are familiar with rebus stories from school, so this also makes a good preschool holiday craft to reinforce classroom learning.
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