DIY traffic light craft: detailed instructions on how to make a traffic light for children in kindergarten

We bring to your attention a huge scope and the best selection of ideas for creativity from the site dnevnikmastera.ru on the topic of fake traffic lights.

Since childhood, we have been taught the importance of following traffic rules, but what is the first thing that comes to mind when this is mentioned? Right! Traffic light!

The variations in the variety of manufacturing are so diverse that it is unlikely to be possible to combine everything in one review, however, our specialists from the website dnevnikmastera.ru have selected for you the most interesting and high-quality ideas that can easily be made at home, literally from scrap materials.

A fake traffic light can be assigned to be made when children are learning the rules of the road, or, for example, when it is necessary to make a miniature of a pedestrian crossing.

What might you need?

Ready to use table
Scissors,
Glue,
Paints,
Plasticine,
Additional materials.

As a rule, DIY traffic light crafts for children become one of their favorites.

There are absolutely no restrictions on your imagination, since a traffic light can be made from almost anything. The main thing is to maintain the correctness of the colors, but even here sometimes you can give free rein to little authors.

Project improvement

After you have written a sketch and blinked the LEDs on the breadboard, you can think about how to turn the traffic light project into something more. What other improvements are possible:

Make a real traffic light model. Place the LEDs and controller along with the breadboard into the case. You can choose a box large enough to accommodate the power supply. Or you can take a small case, for example, a toilet paper tube, and place the LEDs there. You can't get by with just a breadboard, because... wires and circuit boards will not fit into the miniature case.
You can expand the project, add LEDs for pedestrians and write a program for a pedestrian traffic light. Connecting these two traffic lights will not be difficult; the Arduino Uno can easily find 5 pins.
Make a project for an intersection. Here you will need more pins and another controller - for example, Arduino Mega.

Preparing the desktop

As a rule, any fakes, or rather, their manufacture, should begin with the preparation of available materials and a workbench. To prepare, cover the table and prepare paper, glue and other materials that you have.

Anything will do, the main thing is a round shape for a traffic light.

Important!!! Be sure to supervise young children when using scissors and provide guidance on how to hold them and cut shapes correctly.

Photo ideas on the topic of traffic rules

The photo of the crafts shows other interesting ideas on the topic of traffic. There are options made entirely from plasticine or textiles. The photographs show different ideas made from plastic and other materials. For example, a children's backpack can be decorated with a decorative element in the form of a traffic light woven from beads.

Traffic light made from plastic cups

As you may have guessed, the traffic light will be made using plastic or paper cups. You can work with fakes using either paint or paper appliqué. No difference. All you need to do is trim the bottoms of three glasses. Next, you take two glasses and attach them neck to neck to each other. After the model has dried, we can begin to attach our cut bottoms.

Fill them with the desired colors and be sure to glue the traffic light to the leg. Color the work and that's it. Ready!

Usually, making a traffic light for kindergarten puts many parents into a stupor. Now we will try to show how to make a very effective and fast fake - this is a traffic light book.

Traffic light programming

Before writing a program, you need to create a general algorithm of actions and describe the task in a familiar language. Try to do this yourself, and at the same time check whether you really know the traffic light algorithm?

Work algorithm

Here is the algorithm for a three-section traffic light for drivers, adopted as a standard in Russia:

It all starts with a green light. Let's turn it on.
After a certain amount of time, green starts flashing. Drivers and pedestrians finish moving (or, as is often the case, speed up).
Green turns off and yellow turns on.
After some time, the yellow light turns off and the red light turns on.
The era of red does not end with blinking, like green, but with the parallel inclusion of red and yellow.
After some time, red and yellow turn off, green turns on and everything starts all over again.

According to GOST R52282-2004 with the rules for the use of road signs and traffic lights, the duration of the “red and yellow” signal should not exceed 2 seconds, the duration of yellow is strictly equal to 3 seconds.
The green color blinks at a frequency of 1mg/second for 3 seconds. If you understand the algorithm, then writing a sketch for Arduino will not be at all difficult. You just need to replace each word “turn on” with digitalWrite with the HIGH , “turn off” with digitalWrite with the LOW , and create a delay using delay . Here, for example, is a fragment of a program that determines the transition from red to green.

// Disable yellow and red digitalWrite(11, LOW); // Red digitalWrite(10, LOW); // Yellow // Turn on green digitalWrite(9, HIGH); // Set the delay to 3 seconds delay(3000);

Sketch example

In order not to be tied to specific pin numbers in the program, you can and should create constants containing the desired pin number. In the code we will use these constants, not numbers. And if we need to change the connection diagram, then we will only have to change the numbers in the sketch in one place. There will be no need to make a global replacement for the document.

This is what the example above would look like using constants:

const int LED_RED = 11; // Port 11, red LED const int LED_YELLOW = 10; // Port 10, yellow LED const int LED_GREEN = 9; // Port 9, green LED const int TIMEOUT_GREEN = 3000; // Turn off the yellow and red LEDs. digitalWrite(LED_YELLOW, LOW); digitalWrite(LED_RED, LOW); // Turn on the green LED on GrnTime digitalWrite(LED_GREEN, HIGH); delay(TIMEOUT_GREEN);

This is how you can make the green light blink. Exactly like a regular flasher:

// Flash the green LED // First time digitalWrite(LED_GREEN, LOW); delay(TIMEOUT_FLASH_GREEN); digitalWrite(LED_GREEN, HIGH); delay(TIMEOUT_FLASH_GREEN); // Second time digitalWrite(LED_GREEN, LOW); delay(TIMEOUT_FLASH_GREEN); digitalWrite(LED_GREEN, HIGH); delay(TIMEOUT_FLASH_GREEN); // Third time digitalWrite(LED_GREEN, LOW); delay(TIMEOUT_FLASH_GREEN); digitalWrite(LED_GREEN, HIGH); delay(TIMEOUT_FLASH_GREEN);

The second and more correct option for blinking is to use a FOR loop. More details about it are written in our separate article about cycles.

for (int i=0; i<3; i++){ digitalWrite(LED_GREEN, LOW); delay(TIMEOUT_FLASH_GREEN); digitalWrite(LED_GREEN, HIGH); delay(TIMEOUT_FLASH_GREEN); }

Here, in principle, are all the features. Let's now put the code together and write the final program:

const int LED_RED = 13; // Port 13, red LED const int LED_YELLOW = 12; // Port 12, yellow LED const int LED_GREEN = 11; // Port 11, green LED const int TIMEOUT_RED = 3000; // Burning time of the red LED const int TIMEOUT_YEL = 1690; // Yellow LED burning time const int TIMEOUT_GREEN = 2000; // Green LED burning time const int TIMEOUT_FLASH_GREEN = 500; // Green LED blinking time void setup() { // All LED ports will be set to “external load” mode, OUTPUT pinMode(LED_RED, OUTPUT); pinMode(LED_YELLOW, OUTPUT); pinMode(LED_GREEN, OUTPUT); // Set the initial value of the LEDs digitalWrite(LED_RED, LOW); digitalWrite(LED_YELLOW, LOW); digitalWrite(LED_GREEN, LOW); } void loop() { // Turn on the green color of the traffic light digitalWrite(LED_GREEN, HIGH); // Turn on the LED delay(TIMEOUT_GREEN); // Wait // Flash the green LED 3 times for (int i=0; i<3; i++) { digitalWrite(LED_GREEN, LOW); delay(TIMEOUT_FLASH_GREEN); digitalWrite(LED_GREEN, HIGH); delay(TIMEOUT_FLASH_GREEN); } // Now turn off the green LED and turn on the yellow LED digitalWrite(LED_GREEN, LOW); digitalWrite(LED_YELLOW, HIGH); delay(TIMEOUT_YEL); // Turn off the yellow LED. digitalWrite(LED_YELLOW, LOW); // Now turn on the red color digitalWrite(LED_RED, HIGH); delay(TIMEOUT_RED); // Turn on the yellow LED without turning off the red digitalWrite(LED_YELLOW, HIGH); delay(TIMEOUT_YEL); // Turn off the yellow and red LEDs. digitalWrite(LED_YELLOW, LOW); digitalWrite(LED_RED, LOW); }

Upload the sketch to the controller and make sure everything works correctly. If something goes wrong, refer to the article on connecting an LED to Arduino - all typical cases of malfunctions are described there.

Traffic light made from disks

The traffic light craft made from disks also looks very impressive. For it you only need three old disks, which can be connected together with a thread. Below are a few options for creativity. You can paint your traffic light and hang it like a decoration, or you can cover it or cover it with the desired color of fabric or paper. The result will also be a fairly simple and entertaining fake.

Mosaic traffic light

In general, everything in this fake is extremely simple, so that a child even of kindergarten age can easily cope with it. All you need is colored paper cut out in the desired colors. Next, you need to make a stencil on an A4 sheet (you can just outline it with a pencil). Next, you need to apply glue to the desired area and sprinkle colored pieces of paper on it. It will be especially interesting for the youngest to fill the space of the mosaic, which, by the way, perfectly develops fine motor skills.

traffic light modular origami assembly diagram

Modular origami traffic light leg

Assemble 10 modules into a ring and assemble further in a circle, make the height as you need, you can adjust the thickness of the leg yourself.

traffic light from modular origami diagram

Glue the frame for the traffic light, make a cross-shaped hole in the bottom frame for the leg, glue it in, then glue all four sides of the traffic light. Glue down the legs of the modules for the stand.

Seal the resulting gaps between the glued plates with smaller modules (1/64 A4 sheet)

Then close the top of the modular traffic light.

Modular origami traffic light

Modular origami steam locomotive

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Interesting posts:

Victoria Marunyak My hobby is modular origami

My works. Origami is a very interesting activity. It is the art of creating different patterns by folding paper. My first craft was a smart little owlet. Here he is.

. But I didn’t stop there. My friends ordered the following craft for my husband’s birthday. He plays sports, he is a weightlifter. And I made him this weightlifter as a gift. Here he is.

I really enjoy giving gifts to friends. My next gift was a policeman. To my friend's Police Day. Here he is a guardian of order.

And here is my Firebird.

But that's not all of my crafts. Here's what else I have.

And in the summer I work at a school camp and practice my favorite origami . They are always happy to wait for me to get to work and make another beautiful craft. And here they are.

Traffic light colors

Probably the most popular and easiest option for making a traffic light fake.

All you need to do is make a stencil on paper with a pencil, after which the child paints it with the desired colors.

Pepper-traffic light

Bell peppers, known as "Traffic Lights," can also be made using origami techniques and then used to teach traffic rules. For example, pick up a yellow, red or green copy one at a time in response to questions from a teacher or kindergarten teacher.

Scheme of pepper “Traffic light”:

Step-by-step instruction:

Bend a square measuring 15x15 cm diagonally from top to bottom.
“Closing” from right to left. Leave it in this position.
Open the left “pocket”.
Flatten it into a diamond shape.
Turn the workpiece over.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 on the right.
We rotate the resulting “Double Square” 180° so that the free edge is at the top.
We “tuck” the corner of the first layer into the workpiece.
We tuck the side edges as shown in the diagram.
We make another fold along the dotted line.
Fold the top part in a “double zigzag”.
Fold the corners of the second layer along the dotted lines.
The pepper is ready.

Fake traffic light in the city

A fairly original idea for which the child is guaranteed to receive a good grade. To make it we will need matchboxes, cardboard, colored paper, and an old shoe box.

As you already understood, this miniature will be in a box. For the base, make the bottom, which will be in the form of our gray or black asphalt.

Matchboxes are stacked in houses. By the way, you can also make small cars out of boxes. To do this, just glue the wheels and paint the car. The boxes, as you already understood, need to be covered with paper and painted.

After this, all parts and models are placed in a box and glued with glue. The traffic light itself can be made from cardboard and colored paper circles.

Original traffic light ideas

To make an original traffic light, it can be made from threads:

The threads are wound around a balloon coated with glue.
When the threads dry on the ball, it is deflated and a ball of threads is obtained.
Three balls are glued together to make a snowman.
In place of the buttons, multi-colored circles made of paper or bottle caps are glued. The top ball is the head of a snowman, acting as a traffic light. You can put a cap made of paper on it and glue on eyes, a nose and a mouth.
Ping-pong balls can also be turned into traffic lights if you paint them in different colors and glue them together. A cap is put on the top ball.
Glue eyes and a mouth on each ball.
The expression on the face changes depending on the color of the ball.

Colors in the shape of a dog or cat's face

Cut out the base for the traffic light from black cardboard.
We cut out circles from white paper in order to stick the faces of a cat or dog on them.
We glue the circles onto a black blank.
We make animal faces from a square sheet of colored paper. To do this, bend the sheet in the middle twice to get a triangle. The edges are folded to form ears.
We bend the bottom of the workpiece into the middle to form a muzzle. Glue eyes from white paper and draw pupils. Using a marker, draw a mouth and nose, mustache and eyebrows. But you need to draw different facial expressions in animals. If the dog or cat is red, then they must be angry. The yellow animal has a neutral facial expression. And green is fun.
Glue the faces onto the white circles.

Important! For the dog, the front side obtained by bending the triangle is used, and for the cat, the wrong side is used.

Using quilling technique

The quilling technique itself is simple, but you need to tell and show children how curls are made.

To do this, you need to cut colored paper into strips 1 cm wide and wrap them as tightly as possible around a pencil, and glue the edge to the spiral.

When the required number of curls is ready, you can glue them to the created template.

The shape of the windows for light in traffic lights can be different. But it needs to be completely filled with glued parts.

Important! The main criterion in creating a traffic light craft is that the colors on it should be in the same order as on a real traffic light. While the children are doing the craft, they must remember the exact location of the colors of the traffic lights and know which color they can cross the road with.

Plasticine traffic light

The voluminous figurine will look very interesting, and on top of that, it won’t take much time to make. All you need is a base made of plasticine (you can wrap some kind of blank in plasticine to save money), and add circles of plasticine in red, yellow and green colors to the base.

We suggest looking at the photo below for even more ideas and interesting fakes.

Plasticine traffic light

When coming up with crafts on the theme “Fun traffic light”, do not forget about plasticine, which children love to play with and which can be found in almost every home. With basic modeling skills, you can make a textured or naturalistic traffic light.

Option 1.

The body of the road unit is molded from plasticine - it can be rectangular or oval. Lightly pressed circles of the desired colors are attached to one side. To make the structure more durable, you can insert a pencil or stick inside.

Option 2.

You can make a panel from plasticine. You will need cardboard inserted into a frame and plasticine.

A traffic light is drawn on cardboard, the entire plane is filled with plasticine of a neutral color (black, gray, beige). Signal lights are made from red, green and yellow plasticine. You can complicate the work if you use plasticine for the panel, formed into small balls - they are fixed to the base, slightly flattened.

Craft traffic light - step-by-step description with diagrams and instructions on how to make the product

What might you need?

Project improvement

Preparing the desktop

Photo ideas on the topic of traffic rules

Traffic light made from plastic cups

Traffic light programming

Work algorithm

Sketch example

Traffic light made from disks

Mosaic traffic light

traffic light modular origami assembly diagram

traffic light from modular origami diagram

Modular origami traffic light

Share on social media networks

Similar articles:

Interesting posts:

Traffic light colors

Pepper-traffic light

Fake traffic light in the city

Original traffic light ideas

Colors in the shape of a dog or cat's face

Using quilling technique

Plasticine traffic light

Plasticine traffic light