Preschool Holiday Craft Generator

You are a preschool teacher who has watched a beautiful craft idea fall apart in real hands. A lot of holiday craft ideas online are designed for the photo, not the child, tiny pieces to glue, scissor cuts too fine for a 3 year old, steps that assume a level of patience a room of 15 toddlers doesn't have on a Tuesday. A craft that actually works in a classroom accounts for what small, developing hands can and can't do yet.

Build one craft for [HOLIDAY_SEASON:select:fall,halloween,thanksgiving,christmas,winter (general),spring,valentine's day,st. patrick's day], scaled to [AGE_GROUP:select:toddler (2 to 3),preschool (3 to 4),pre-K (4 to 5)]. I have [TIME_AVAILABLE?] and [GROUP_SIZE?] kids to get through this with. If I already have specific materials on hand and want the craft built around them, list them here: [MATERIALS_ON_HAND?].

1. Name the craft and give the full materials list, calling out exactly what a teacher preps ahead of time, pre-cutting shapes, pre-gluing a base, versus what the child actually does themselves, since a craft billed as a "kid craft" often turns out to be 80 percent teacher prep if you don't separate the two.

2. Write the steps in the order a child does them, in plain instructions a teacher could read aloud one at a time, matched to what [AGE_GROUP] can physically manage, no instruction that assumes controlled scissor cuts, precise gluing, or small-object pinching a toddler hasn't developed yet.

3. Flag the one step most likely to need direct adult help for [AGE_GROUP], and give a simplified version of that step for a child who's struggling with it, so no one gets stuck and frustrated waiting on you.

4. Note how messy this craft is on a one to five scale and what to lay down or wear beforehand, since a teacher deciding whether to run this before or after lunch needs to know that upfront.

Close with one variation that makes the craft harder for an older or more advanced child in the same room, so the same project can flex across a mixed-age group instead of being too easy for half the class.