20 Woodworking Projects for Kids

These easy woodworking projects for kids will have them creating and learning with wood in lots of fun and creative ways, that don’t require any prior woodworking knowledge or skill!

Wood crafts for kids don’t always have to involve hammers and nails. These creative wood projects for kids will inspire you give woodworking a go with your kids!

Wood is a fabulous medium for for kids to explore and create with, but it’s not something that is used often, and it can be a little daunting if you are not handy a hammer and nails yourself.

Traditional woodwork offers lots of learning opportunities, but there are lots of ways kids can work with wood that aren’t just hammering nails. These creative woodworking ideas for kids will help you to think a little differently about woodwork for kids, while also offering kids lots of opportunities to develop fine and gross most skills, practice creative thinking, work on problem solving skills, and more!

What you need to try woodworking with Kids.

You can purchase a children’s woodworking set, but we’ve found it is better to create your own so you can add exactly what you want.

Our list for what to include in a kids woodworking set has information about how to choose the best tools and what extras to add.

You’ll also need some wood!

Collecting wood for kids woodworking projects doesn’t have to be expensive. You’ll be surprised at how much wood you find when you start looking for it!

• Soft untreated wood such as pine is a great option, and you can often find lots of off cuts at construction sites that they may give you for free.
• If you know a wood turner or furniture maker they also have lots of off cuts and scrap wood that they may donate or you can purchase for a small price.
• Most hardware stores and craft stores, and even dollar stores will have packs to craft wood.
• You can also find lots of wood in nature that you can use – look for fallen branches that you can slice up and even bark and nuts.

Ideas for Easy Kids Wood Projects

These ideas are all great wood activities for preschool children and older kids.

All children need to be supervised when using woodworking tools, and young children may need more adult help to use some tools

Easy Ideas for Using Woodworking Tools with Kids

Hammering, nailing, drilling and sawing are loads of fun and teach lots of skills. Here are some ideas for making it work with preschoolers.

Woodworking tools for Kids
Lots of ideas for how we use simple woodworking tools with our preschooler.

Hammering into a big stump from My Montessori Journey
This is a really simple way for beginners to learn to use hammers and nails

Stump Geoboard from The Empowered Educator.
Turn your hammering stump into a fun geoboard with this simple beginner woodworking project!

Managing Safety Issues while using Woodworking Tools
This is a great article from Teacher Tom about how to manage tool safety with young children.

DIY Marble Run from You Clever Monkey
Once your kids get the hang of using a hammer and nails they can make this super simple, but supper fun marble run.

DIY Wooden Texture Stamps from Mother Natured.
Kids will love hammering items into pieces of wood to make texture stamps you can use with plaudough paint.

Chalk Board Blocks
This is an easy project to practice using a saw to cut wood off cuts into smaller blocks, just add some chalk board paint for some extra fun!

Porcupine Woodworking Craft from How Wee Learn.
This cute little porcupine is made from a wooden door stop and is a great project for kids who are mastering a hammer and nails.

Easy Woodworking Projects for Kids Without Tools

Wood doesn’t have to be nailed together, here are some ideas for making wood constructions without tools.

Wood Constructions with Hot Glue
This is my kids favourite way to build and create with wood. It’s easy to do and perfect for using all kinds of scrap wood to make amazing wood constructions.

Building With Wood from Merri Cherry
Use regular white school glue (PVA) to make these cool wood buildings and scultures.

Wood Working with Toddlers from Merri Cherry
You can even use a simple glue stick to stick wood together (non-permanently) which is a great option if you are doing woodwork with toddlers.

Building with Wood and Playdough
Adding some playdough to your wood scraps is a great way to make non-permanent wood structures that kids will love!

Clay and Wood Block Structures from Babble Dabble Do
Clay is another great addition to a woodworking project.

Things Kids can Make from Wood

Wood is a fabulous medium for lots of creativity, art making and STEAM activities. It’s great for making sculptures, you can make lots of crafty projects, and you can even make art onto wood!

Try some of these creative woodworking activities for kids.

Easy Wood Sculptures from The Artful Parent
Make simple 3D sculptures using wooden beads and wood glue.

Build Wooden Towers with Kids from Artbar
Kids will love building these simple, but super cool wooden towers using wooden pieces, glue and paint.

Straw and Stick Constructions
Use wooden skewers you can find at the store for this fun STEAM activity.

Painting on Wood
Use off cut wooden boards for water colour paintings – kids will love this new and interesting surface to paint on.

Drawing on Wood Panels from Buggy and Buddy.
Using a wood panel to draw on is another new and interesting art surface for kids to explore.

Painted Twig Wall Art from Pink Stripey Socks
Even a simple wooden stick can be used to make art!

Wooden Robots from Adventure in a Box
Make these cute little steampunk robots from wood, screws and metal scraps!

Flexicube Blocks from Babble Dabble Do.
Kids will love making this super cool flexicube woodwork project with wood blocks and tape!

Painted Wooden Blocks from Art bar Blog
This is a great wood project for preschoolers or even toddlers, and they would make a lovely gift.

Wooden Number Game from Laughing Kids Learn.
You could cut your own tree cookies or buy them to make this fun wooden game.

Decorate Peg Dolls from Happy Whimsical Hearts
This is a simple yet fun wood project using store bought wooden peg dolls and paint.

Do your kids like creating and exploring with wood?

We’d love to see what you and your kids have been doing with wood. Leave a comment here and tell us all about it, or share an image on instagram and tag me – @picklebums