365 Days With Kiddos - #27 - Make Paper Puppets from a Children's Book

My kids don't watch a lot of TV. I try to make sure they have lots of opportunities to use their imaginations. They have been to a couple of puppet shows, thanks to the Banff Public Library and preschool. They also own more books than most children I know.

Recently, on a snowy day, I was going through these books, trying to cull a few from the collection. There is no shortage of things I could do with the ones that are in good shape; some could be passed on to friends, some could be sold to the second hand book store, and some could go to the thrift store. But what to do with the ones that are in bad shape? My toddler and I volunteer at a local thrift store a few times a week while my eldest is at preschool. We organize their books. I know for certain they do not need anymore damaged books that people could not bear to get rid of but that the store has to ultimately throw away. My kids are pretty respectful of their books, but some books I find at rummage sales and thrift stores I bring home unaware of the full extent of damage inside. We read around crayon and marker scribbles, bent pages, and stickers. We try to repair ripped pages and loose covers. But some books, namely pop up books and books that contain flaps can be a bit of a bummer when they are wrecked.

On this day, I was specifically inspired to find a use for a Spot book that was missing important pieces that conceal part of the page until you lift them up. More than half of these pieces were ripped out when it came to us. I mulled it over and remembered a cookie tin full of colored Popsicle sticks that I have also been wanting to use. The Spot book had heavy weight card stock pages, which once glued to Popsicle sticks could make great... PUPPETS! I also grabbed a heavy weight Kindermusik song book with simple illustrations that I had repaired on a couple of occasions but that refused to staying together. Voila! Time to get crafty with the cooped up kids... what a fun project for a winter storm day!

Make Puppets from Old Books
By Tiffany Teske

Materials
~ Books with card stock pages (or as a variation on this craft you can use thinner book pages glued to poster board or card stock and then cut out)
~ Scissors
~ Popsicle sticks
~ White glue (PVA is better than school glue because it won't wrinkle the paper)

Directions
1) Select the images you want to cut out of your book, remembering that you can probably only cut out an image from one side of the page.
2) Rip out the pages you will use.
3) Cut out the images. For young children who are learning to cut it is not important for them to be precise. For older kids, they can cut on the lines that are provided around the images. We didn't stick to a plan, some of the images we used are cut out on the lines and for some of them we cut out a whole scene rather than just a piece. We also cut out the title of the books so we could use them as the titles when we started out puppet show.
4) Glue your Popsicle sticks to your pieces. I am out of PVA glue so we used school glue which has more water in it and it will wrinkle even card stock if used too heavily, which is normal for young children. If you only have school glue you can minimize wrinkling by using a brush to apply the glue, sparingly. The point here is fun for your kids, not professional puppets. We didn't put Popsicle sticks on all of our pieces because my daughter wanted to use some of them like paper dolls.
5) Throw a blanket over a table and have a puppet show!

I am always happy to hear from readers who have made this craft, either on their own, or because they were inspired here. Please leave a comment if you have something to share!

365 Days With Kiddos - #2 - Your Child's Drawings and Paintings - An Awesome Birthday Card/Wall Hanging Project

Yesterday, I started my 365 Days With Kiddos posts with a post on repurposing your child's artwork into cards, stationary, and envelopes. Today, I want to share a project with you that my friend, Dominique and her kids made for my daughter's 4th birthday. On very stiff paper, I would suggest a 300 lb watercolor paper, Dom had her kids paint with watercolors. Once it was dry, she cut the first initial of Quin's name out of the paper (Quin's "Q" is 13" x 17"). She then used the left over parts from the painting to cut out Quin's age, the first initials of her kids' names and the words "happy" and "love", which they then glued onto the front of the "card". So simple and so pretty! This was my absolute favorite thing that Quin received at her birthday party. It is on her bedroom door so we can look at it several times a day. Thanks for the awesome idea, Dominique and your wonderful kiddos!

Happy Earth Day! A Kid's Craft Project and a Couple Children's Book Recommendations....

Today, it was FREEZING here... especially since yesterday was extremely springlike. Our Earth Day saw flurries. Oh well, I keep saying it is not really spring here until June...


I taught an Earth Day craft to an enthusiastic group of kids, ages 6-12, at the Banff Public Library this afternoon. The book that originally inspired our craft today is called "Seeds, Seeds, Seeds" by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace. This wonderful books tells the story of a young bear, whose grandfather sends him 5 seed projects in the mail. Each project is dedicated to several pages of the book. I would love to teach a whole afternoon that is just centered around this book. The projects include making seed identification cards, watching how a seed germinates over time using illustrations on cards, planting a seed, making a bird feeder, and making a frame covered with beans and seeds. The book is recommended for ages 4-8 but could be adapted to all ages.


Our project involved decorating mat board with seeds. I photographed each child at the beginning of the hour, and Tonya, one of the librarians who was also my lovely assistant (thanks, Tonya!) for the class, ran them to Banff Camera where they were printed while she waited.

Project Materials
- Mat board with window
- Decorative paper
- White glue
- Raffia
- Poppy Seeds, Sunflower Seeds in the shell, and Pumpkin Seeds
- Photo corners
- Photo

1) Select a piece of decorative paper and a mat. Using the mat as a template, draw around it, then cut out a piece of paper the same size as the mat board.

2) Put glue on three sides of the back of the mat board, flip over the paper so that the colored side is glued to the back of the mat (so that you could see the color through the window).

3) Take a couple of strands of raffia, twist the ends, cover them in glue, and stick them between the paper and mat board, on the side that is not glued together. Now glue the edge together.


4) Now, it is time to work on the design. Using glue in a squeeze bottle it is very easy to create your design. The large seeds can be glued right on. The poppy seeds are sprinkled onto the glue, then the excess is tapped of the back. I work over a shoe box lid when sprinkling the seeds and then tapping. I use a small dish to hold the seeds and to sprinkle from. It is easy to repeatedly pick up the box top and return the seeds to the dish during the process.



5) Put the photo corners on the edges of the photo, and lick, or if self adhesive, remove the backing.

6) Center photo and stick down. Voila!


The kids did a great job. I am always struck by the variety of designs that come from kids in the same group using the same materials. It is amazing!


The book that we read while our glue was drying is called "June 29th, 1999" by David Weisner. It is about a girl who sends her seeds up to outer space to see what will happen. She reports to her class what she is hoping and soon GIANT vegetables start landing in the area. It is only once vegetables she had not planted start to arrive that she realizes these must not be her experiments... I will leave the surprise ending for you to discover. The illustrations are lovely and the language is wonderful!

Happy Earth Day!!