Want a fun and festive Canada Day craft that’s easy enough for kids to make? This Canada Day pipe cleaner headband is a simple activities that comes together in just a few minutes but makes a big impact. Kids will love twisting colorful pipe cleaners into maple leaves before proudly wearing their handmade headband for Canada Day celebrations, parades, backyard BBQs, or fireworks.
We love crafts like this because they encourage creativity while strengthening fine motor skills. Twisting and shaping pipe cleaners gives little hands a great workout, and there’s no wrong way to design their headband. Each one turns out completely unique!
Why You’ll Love This Craft
- Perfect for Canada Day parties and celebrations
- Easy enough for preschoolers with a little help
- Great fine motor practice
- Inexpensive supplies
- Kids get to wear their finished creation
Materials
- Red pipe cleaners
- White pipe cleaners
- Red and white tinsel pipe cleaners (optional for sparkle)
- Plain plastic or metal headband
- Scissors (optional)
- Maple leaf cookie cutters (in different sizes)
How to Make a Canada Day Pipe Cleaner Headband
- Choose a headband and wrap it tightly with red, white, or alternating red and white tinsel pipe cleaners. Twist the ends securely around the headband so they stay in place.
- Create your maple leaves by taking a maple leaf cookie cutter and bending red and white pipe cleaners around the maple leaf shape. Don’t worry about making them perfect—the handmade look adds to the charm! Make one large maple leaf for the center and several smaller ones for each side. Leave some pipe cleaner at the end of the maple leaf to attach to the headband.
- Arrange the maple leaves along the top of the headband until you’re happy with the design. We used a large center leaf with smaller maple leaves branching out on each side to create a fun crown effect.
- Have an adult attach each maple leaf using a hot glue gun or wrap the pipe cleaners tightly around the headband if you prefer not to use glue.
- Fluff and adjust each maple leaf until everything is standing upright. Your Canada Day headband is ready to wear!
Tips for Success
- Tinsel pipe cleaners hold their shape better and add extra sparkle.
- Younger children may need help forming the maple leaf points.
- Make each headband unique by using different sizes and combinations of red and white leaves.
- If you’re making these with a large group, create the maple leaves ahead of time so kids only need to assemble their crowns.
More Canada Day Fun
Pair this craft with a Canada Day sensory bin, patriotic painted rocks, or a backyard water game for an afternoon full of festive fun. Kids will love wearing their handmade maple leaf crowns while celebrating Canada’s birthday!
Play2Learn Toddler & Preschool Programs for Curious Toddlers
There is no limit to your toddler’s energy and curiosity. That energy and curiosity although a joy can be challenging at times. Their interest in just about everything around them is what makes them great learners. One and two year olds can soak up so much just from their senses!
But as a teacher or parent that thirst for learning can be exhausting. That is why I created this toddler and preschooler program. To help you get the most out of this time with your curious toddler without having to come up with creative ways to play and interact with them.
Play2Learn for Toddlers includes 20 Units for toddlers. Each 2-week toddler unit has 20 super easy to set up and engaging activities for toddlers 18 months to 3 years.
Play2Learn Preschool which includes 20 Units for preschoolers. Each 2-week preschoolers unit has 20 unique and easy to set up and engaging activities for preschoolers 3 years to 5 years. That’s over 800 learning activities for your toddler and preschooler at your fingertips! So many ideas you and your child will never be bored again!
These toddler and preschool lesson plans and activities will definitely keep you and your toddler and preschooler busy playing and learning!
Click here for more information: Play2Learn
Book: Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids
Did you know I wrote a book of sensory bins? Click here for more information Exciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids. Or grab your copy at Amazon.
Boring afternoons are made exciting with awesome animal-based bins, like Salty Shark Bay or Yarn Farm. Pretend play bins like Birthday Cake Sensory Play or Bubble Tea Party encourage creativity and imagination. And your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re getting smarter with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities like Sink or Float Soup, Magnetic Letter Hunt or Ice Cream Scoop and Count.
Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.
Book: Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids
Learning all about science, technology, engineering, art, and math sets kids up for scholastic success―and it can be so much fun! Watch kids enjoy building STEAM skills as they color friendly fish, help water find its way to tree roots, solve math problems with mazes, and more.
Find out more and grab your copy here.
Designed for preschoolers 3 years old and up.
Book: Big Book of Riddles for Kids
Riddle me this: What’s an exciting way to practice critical thinking while having a blast? The Big Riddle Book for Kids, of course! From hilarious puns to tough brain teasers, kids can build problem-solving skills with hundreds of riddles tha. t show them how to think outside the box.
- 350 riddles for kids—Have hours of fun with riddles, puns and jokes, and math and logic puzzles that’ll get their wheels turning!
- Level up their skills—Riddles get trickier as kids progress through the book, challenging them as they get better at solving puzzles!
- Double-check their work—Kids can check their answers in the back of the book with a handy answer key.
Help children expand their minds while having fun with this puzzle book for kids!
Designed for kids ages 6 years old and up.
TV Show: Curious Crafting
I’m so excited to share my crafting TV show Curious Crafting which launched in July 2022 on TVOkids and TVOkids YouTube! Season 2 aired in August 2023! My show was also nominated in 2023 for Best Live Action Preschool Series by the Youth Media Alliance Awards of Excellence.
Curious Crafting Season 1 is also now airing in Australia on ABC! Watch it here!
Set in the ultimate crafting space, Curious Crafting is a short form pre-school age series about the joy of making crafts. I lead a rotating cast of adorable little preschoolers (including my own) making magic out of common household objects.
In each episode we transform recycled items into magical crafts like a milk carton school bus, paper bag puppet or cotton pad turtle. The crafters learn and laugh their way through each activity while demonstrating what their young imaginations can create.
Curious Crafting shares the adventure and joy of making art with takeaway lessons for creating crafts at home.
This show designed for toddlers and preschoolers 2.5 years old and up.
