The Hamamatsu Kite Festival dates back all the way to the fifteen hundreds in Japan. The festival originally was to celebrate the birth of a son. The name was written on a kite to tell the villages he was born. Over the centuries, the tradition has continued in Japan during the first week of May.

Now renamed as Children’s Day, the Japanese still celebrate by flying kites on May 5th. These kites range from the traditional to very large, oversized ones.

Today we are showing you three fun Kite projects your little artist can design and make.

The first one is a reverse painting of a kite. Simply cut out the kite shape and sponge paint around it. Remove the kite shape to reveal the kite.

Reverse Kite Craft Project

Reverse Kite

Supplies:

1. Card stock
2. Sponges
3. Paint
4. Scissors
5. Paper 12″x18″

Directions:

1. Cut kite shape out of poster board.
2. Have the children hold the card stock kite down on 12″x 18″ paper.
3. Sponge paint around the kite.
4. Lift off the kite cutout.

Our second kite craft project is a beautiful koi fish kite. This is a more traditional design. The koi represents many things such as good luck, courage, and friendship, to name a few.

Koi Kite

Supplies:

1. Copy of kite
2. Card stock
3. Crayons or Markers
4. Safety scissors

Directions:

1. Print kite on card stock.
2. Color.
3. Cut out.

We saved the biggest for last! Your little artists can design this kite tail as long as they like. This project may be cut out, or left on the page and rolled into a windsock.

Fish Kite

Supplies:

1. Copy of fish
2. Blue Bingo dauber
3. Green Bingo dauber
4. Blue streamers
5. Green streamers
6. Glue stick
7. Scissors

Directions:

1. Print copy of fish.
2. Use bingo dauber to add scales to fish.
3. Cut streamers and glue onto tail.
4. Optional: Cut out fish.

We hope you had some fun learning about this Japanese Kite Festival by making one kite, or a few. We know no matter how you celebrate Children’s Day that these projects will have you saying, “You’re so creative!”