This dancing reindeer craft has been inspired by one of my son’s drawings. He’s been working at school on drawing a reindeer and a fox for a few weeks. Sometimes he would come home and make some sketches but I haven’t quite anticipated how beautiful the final drawing would be. Then , one day he brought home his masterpiece: an adorable reindeer drawing. I just had to make a craft to go along with it.
We’ve added a few reindeer crafts to our Christmas collection this year. While the paper reindeer is by far the readers’ favorite, I think this dancing reindeer craft is special for two reasons. It’s not only a fun Christmas craft but kids get also to play with it and make it move. The second reason is that it’s our first full body reindeer.
Like the rest of our easy crafts for kids, we kept this craft super simple. We’re going to use paper and a template and assemble the reindeer together with glue and paper fasteners.
Dancing reindeer craft
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Supplies:
- Dancing reindeer template
- Colored paper: brown, light brown, dark brown and black
- Hole punch
- Paper fasteners
- Scissors
- Glue
How to make the dancing reindeer craft
The dancing reindeer template comes with two versions:
1. home template – print the template, cut out the patterns and trace them on appropriate colored paper.
2. classroom template – print the pattern directly on colored paper and cut them out.
This way you can easily craft with just one or two kids as well as with a classroom full of students.
Step by step instructions for home crafting
Print the home template. Cut out the patterns and trace them on construction paper.
To make the dancing reindeer, you will need: 1 light brown head, 1 brown face detail, 2 brown ears, 2 light brown ear details, 2 dark brown antlers, 1 black nose, 1 brown body, 1 light brown body detail, 4 brown legs and 4 black hooves.
Start by gluing the face detail in the middle of the light brown head.
Add the black nose at the bottom of the face detail.
Glue the dark brown antlers to the top of the head, one on each side.
Glue the ear details on top of the ears and glue the ears onto the head, one on each side.
Let’s put together the body, by gluing the body detail in the middle of the body.
Glue the head to the body.
Glue the hooves at one end of the legs.
Use a hole punch to make 4 holes on the reindeer body and one hole on each of the 4 legs.
Attach the legs to the body with paper fasteners.
Draw the eyes with a black marker.
Step by step instructions for home crafting
Print the classroom template on corresponding colored paper. Note: For the hooves and nose, you have the option to print them either on white or black paper.
To make the dancing reindeer, each student will need: 1 light brown head, 1 brown face detail, 2 brown ears, 2 light brown ear details, 2 dark brown antlers, 1 black nose, 1 brown body, 1 light brown body detail, 4 brown legs and 4 black hooves.
Start by gluing the face detail in the middle of the light brown head.
Add the black nose at the bottom of the face detail.
Glue the dark brown antlers to the top of the head, one on each side.
Glue the ear details on top of the ears and glue the ears onto the head, one on each side.
Let’s put together the body, by gluing the body detail in the middle of the body.
Glue the head to the body.
Glue the hooves at one end of the legs.
Use a hole punch to make 4 holes on the reindeer body and one hole on each of the 4 legs.
Attach the legs to the body with paper fasteners.
Draw the eyes with a black marker.