Western Crafts and Activities for Kids

Kids will love these western crafts and activities, yessiree! We’ve got crafts with horses, bandanas, panning for gold, making your own butter, and a whole heap more.

These western activities are perfect for pairing with our Cowboys and Cowgirls Math and Language Arts Pack (for 3rd – 5th grade).

Or if you’re planning a western summer camp, these ideas will make little buckaroos jump for joy! The supplies are simple, and the crafts are kid-tested and approved.

Be sure to check out our Clean Country Music Playlist to go with all these activities! It’s so fun to have some music playing that goes with the theme. The playlist is made up of modern country. Look up Gene Autry for what I call “American history” country music!

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WESTERN CRAFTS

Make your own Clothespin Horses! The post has a template to print for the horse. Then kids can color their horse and glue on googly eyes and yarn for the mane and tail. Clothespin legs make the horses stand up on their own!

If you want to make a critter from the west, a snake would fit the bill! This Salt Dough Snake Craft has been a favorite for us. Make rattlesnakes, or any type of snake you want.

Turn a tote bag from the craft store into a personalized Bandana Tote Bag. Head over to the post for full instructions.

Rope & Tin Can Utensil Holders – this simple craft is perfect for a backyard BBQ. Use them to hold silverware, sugar packets, mints, etc. They also make great pencil holders.

Design your Own Brand Coasters

We bought some inexpensive wood coasters from Hobby Lobby and decorated them with our own made-up brands! This was such a fun project!

A pack of 4 coasters was on sale for $3.50, making them only 88 cents per coaster.

The bottom right is Jonathan’s, and he’s calling it the Lazy J Ranch. The M could be the Rocking M. You can do a letter inside a circle and call it the Circle T Ranch or something like that. Or give your letter little wings and call it the Flying W, or something similar.

We looked at one of our western books, Cowboys and Cowgirls by Gail Gibbons, to get ideas. I had the kids sketch them out on paper first.

Here’s a fascinating article about How to Read Brands from the American Quarter Horse Association.

Then we drew the brands on the coasters with pencil, and then painted over them with brown acrylic paint. You’ll want to have some tiny paintbrushes for this!

WESTERN ACTIVITIES

Here are cowboy things for kids to do! Experience frontier life with these fun western activities.

Make Butter in a Jar – Kids will be absolutely amazed that they can make their own butter! You just need heavy whipping cream and a jar. Instead of churning the butter, you’ll be shaking it. Tip: Rinse your butter with cold water and it will keep longer. It tastes so good!

Another fun activity is to make Homemade Biscuits. Here’s a recipe for Perfect Homemade Biscuits from Mom on Timeout.

Grab some green play dough (or make your own) and try making some Play Dough Cactuses. (Or cacti, if you prefer! According to the internet, the plural of cactus has kind of morphed to cactuses.)

Panning for Gold – this is SO much fun and leads to all kinds of fun sensory play for kids!

Supplies Needed:

• Sand
• A tub for the sand – we used an under-the-bed storage tub
• Rocks
• Gold spray paint
• A sand sifter – we used this pack of sand sifter toys from Amazon

Spray paint your rocks gold and let them dry. Then bury some “gold” and some regular rocks in the sand. Kids will have a blast sifting out the sand to find the gold pieces!

If you need ideas for active cowboy and western games, here are some great ones! Head over to see Cowboy Games for Children from Love to Know. There are instructions for stick horse races, a western themed version of rock, paper, scissors, and so much more.

And don’t forget to go check out our Clean Country Music Playlist!