6 Simple Craft Projects Your Preschooler Will Love

If you have heard that the rules around mobile phones and electronic devices in early childhood settings have changed, you are right. If your child attends a childcare centre in NSW, these changes are already in effect.

Here is a plain-English breakdown of what changed, why it happened, and what it means for your family.

Why Did the Laws Change?

The changes were introduced as a child safety measure. In 2025, Australia’s Education Ministers agreed to amend the Education and Care Services National Law to address concerns about the potential for personal devices to be used to capture, store, or transmit images of children in care without authorisation.

The intent is straightforward: children in early learning settings deserve an environment where their privacy and safety are actively protected.

What Changed Nationally

From 27 February 2026, amendments to the national Education and Care Services National Law took effect across Australia. Under these changes, educators and staff who work directly with children are restricted from using personal electronic devices in care settings.

Before this, from 1 September 2025, all early childhood education and care services nationwide were required to have written policies in place addressing the use of digital devices.

What Changed in NSW

NSW moved ahead of the national timeline. The Education and Care Services (Supply, Authorisation and Use of Devices) Order 2025 took effect on 6 November 2025, applying across NSW’s 6,000 or more early learning services, including long day care centres, preschools, and family day care.

Under this order, educators and staff must use service-issued or service-authorised devices rather than their own personal devices when working directly with children.

What Counts as a Personal Device?

The definition is broad. A personal device is any device owned by an individual (not the approved provider) that is capable of capturing, storing, or transmitting an image. This includes:

Mobile phones
Smartwatches
Cameras and tablets
iPads and laptops
Hard drives, USB drives, and memory cards
Wearables such as camera glasses

Who Does the Ban Apply To?

The restrictions apply to anyone working directly with children at a service, including permanent and casual educators, students on placement, volunteers, contractors, and allied health professionals delivering programs on-site.

Parents, carers, and other visitors are not covered by the ban. In NSW, parents and carers remain free to use their personal devices during drop-off, pick-up, centre visits, and events involving their own children. There are also authorised exceptions for essential purposes, including emergencies and health or disability support needs.

What About Screen Time for Children?

These new laws specifically address staff device use, not children’s screen time. Screen time limits for young children are not mandated within childcare regulation at a national level.

The relevant guidance comes from the federal Department of Health and Aged Care’s 24-Hour Movement Guidelines, which recommend no screen time for children under 2 years, and no more than 1 hour per day for children aged 2 to 5 years. These are health guidelines, not regulatory requirements.

What This Means for Your Family

If your child attends a childcare centre in NSW, their service is already required to operate under these rules. Any educator or staff member working directly with your child should not be using a personal device to take photos or videos. Only service-authorised devices should be used for that purpose.

If you have questions about how your centre handles digital devices or image capture, you are well within your rights to ask. Most services will have a written policy in place that covers exactly this.

At Clovel, the safety and wellbeing of every child in our care is at the heart of everything we do. If you would like to know more about how we support your child across our centres, we would love to have that conversation with you.

For children, there’s something undeniably intriguing about crafting. Perhaps it’s the novelty of creating something new from every day, household items. It could be the satisfaction that comes from completing a task. Regardless, crafting is not only good for a child’s imagination, but it is also a valuable tool in improving their development.

Working on a craft project gives children the chance to improve their fine motor skills. Cutting paper with scissors, coloring, gluing, and drawing all work the finer muscles in the hands and wrists which, in turn, helps prepare children for writing.

Crafting also strengthens a child’s problem-solving skills and their vocabulary as they practice naming different animals, shapes, and colors.

Best of all, craft projects afford children the opportunity to be creative, to think outside the box, and to bring their imaginings to life. Given all the benefits that come from crafting, we thought we’d share some of our favorite craft projects that you can do with your little learner.

Craftikit

We can’t say enough good things about this ingenious crafting kit. Inside you’ll find everything you need to create 20 unique craft projects. Each comes packaged in its own envelope with easy-to-follow instructions. While you may enjoy crafting alongside your child, know that many of the projects are easy enough for older preschoolers to complete on their own, allowing parents and caregivers to make dinner, fold laundry, or just enjoy a few moments of rest while your child is occupied.

Letter of the Week Printable Activity

Learning letters has never been more fun! Parents can download 24 printable craft activities (one for every letter of the alphabet) for $10. Print them on colorful construction paper and let your little one go to town cutting, coloring, and gluing.

This activity is wonderful for developing fine motor skills and alphabet recognition.

Cardboard Tube Penguins

Did you know the smallest penguin in the world is only 30cm tall? You can share all kinds of interesting penguin facts with your child while making these sweet birds from items you likely have in your home at this very moment.

This activity will likely require some supervision as painting is involved, but it also provides plenty of opportunities for parents and caregivers to answer questions about these unique and amazing birds!

Sticker Name Game

This is one of those ridiculously easy and wildly entertaining activities that will have you thinking now why didn’t I think of that!

Children LOVE seeing their own names written on a larger-than-life piece of poster board or construction paper. Simply write your child’s name is big block letters, then give your child colorful sticker dots and have them trace their name in dots.

This activity is satisfying for children and helps them develop hand-eye coordination and letter recognition. They can also let their creative juices flow as they decide which color dots to use.

Colorful Macaroni Necklace

This creative craft will appeal to junior scientists everywhere as children dye dried macaroni noodles before stringing them together to make fun and funky wearable jewelry!

The concept used when dying eggs is used here, but it’s pasta taking a dyed vinegar bath instead of eggs. Once the pasta is dry, children can slide the pasta onto a string and create necklaces and bracelets.

This activity teaches the concept of cause and effect, problem solving, and predicting as well as hand/eye coordination.

DIY Moon Sand

Moon sand is a magical material with the moldable properties of wet sand, yet it easily brushes off hands with little to no cleanup required after play. It is a preschool teacher’s dream come true! While moon sand can be purchased at educational stores or online, why pay for something you can easily make for free?

Believe it or not, only two ingredients are required to make moon sand—regular baking flour and baby oil (consider food coloring a third ingredient if you’d like to dye your moon sand vibrant colors…and who wouldn’t want to do that?).

Use Moon sand outdoors or in a sand/water table to contain the mess. Moon sand can be scooped into cups and turned over to build a moon sandcastle. Children can bring action figures to the table and create landscapes perfect for imaginative play. While this is one of the messier crafts on our lists, we just know you and your children are going to love playing with this magical sand.

The benefits of crafting cannot be understated. Providing children with plenty of crafting opportunities allows them to develop the skills and problem-solving strategies that will serve them well throughout their grade school careers. We hope this list has provided you with inspiration to create a crafting corner in your home. You provide the supplies, children supply the imagination, and magic is the result.

Thanks for reading,
Clovel Childcare
1300 863 986

Lyn Connolly

Founder and Company Director

Lyn Connolly is the Founder and Company Director of Clovel Childcare & Early Learning Centres, a family‑owned group of eight centres across Western Sydney established from her first service at Merrylands. Active in early childhood education since 1977, she also serves as President of the Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) NSW, representing providers in state and federal consultations, media, and public hearings.

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