Easy African Inspired Bead Craft

This is a great craft for a homeschool family with a wide range of ages.  The older kids can make the beads, and the younger ones can enjoy them!

You may remember that our family studied ancient and medieval African history last week.  Wanting to find a craft to tie in, I looked in our multicultural kids craft book, and saw a bead craft for Africa.  I decided washi tape would be a cool way to decorate our beads, and this is what we ended up with.

You will need:
straws (Can be new or recycled.  I used these)
white glue
washi tape
yarn
scissors

I used half a dozen straws, and made enough beads for 2 necklaces.

First, I wrapped washi tape around the straws, leaving a little space between to let the straw color show.  I tried to be frugal and just wrap a small piece of tape so the ends touched but did not overlap.  I found those didn't stick very well, so with the later colors, I overlapped a little bit, and those stayed better.

I used white glue to stiffen the ends of some yarn to make it easier for the girls to thread the beads.  If you get the yarn nice & gluey, then pull it into a straight line, once the glue dries, you can pull the yarn up and trim off any excess hardened glue, leaving a nice "needle" at the end.

I cut the straws between pieces of washi tape.  I put each color into a separate well of one of our paint trays, which you can almost see on the right side below.

Fine motor skills projects can be a challenge for my girls, since they were both born with hand differences, but they were both able to string the beads on their own.

This is a good craft for teaching color names, patterns, counting, etc.

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