Paper Puppets and Carton Creatures

Lions and Tigers and Turtles, Oh My!

A fun morning making creative critters of all kinds with recycled containers, scraps, and left-over art supplies. I love the intensity, followed by the delight! A great process-to-product balance in child satisfaction. I've done this workshop many times over the years. One parent once joked: "This isn't recycling, this is delaying." Maybe so---but in the process, a lot of imagination, problem solving, and creative thinking happens. And joy!

Make a Book

Summer! Time to head down to the library and pick a pile of books! There are so many ways to extend a book's content and value with art activities. These can, in turn, inspire kids to hunt out more books, too.

They can also create their own simple books. Stack several sheets of paper, fold them in half,

and you're ready to go. Fasten with staples, punched holes and ribbon, or a favorite of mine, shown here: Use a twig and a rubber band to bind the pages together.

In addition to visual story telling, this is a great way for kids to figure out sequence. What comes first? next? how does it end? Drawings can also be done separately, and then pasted into the book when they're finished.

Happy Reading!

Dough, a dear, or a turtle, or a.....

A friend's child told me about play dough they made at preschool using old coffee grounds, so I looked for recipes online. There are hundreds of sites with recipes and ideas. My little preschool pal pressed shells into a blob of this stuff, and when it dried it looked like a rock with fossils. Very cool.
Clay and dough are wonderful for kids to manipulate, roll, squeeze, pound and shape, even if they don't eventually make something with it. But some kids enjoy having a product, too--especially when it can be presented to someone they love.
So.......I decided to make up a batch of this fragrant dough and see what it would do.

Here's an easy project for kids that results in a pretty nifty gift idea. Form a hunk of dough into a rock shape and press a votive candle into the center. Wiggle it around a bit, and pat the "rock" into place. Now take out the votive and let the piece dry, or hurry it up a little in the oven (see recipe and instructions below).
When the piece is hard, put the votive back into the hollow. When piled with other stones, it looks like the real thing! And you can give yourself extra credit for recycling, too: the coffee grounds.

I also had to make a turtle, of course. My book SCOOT! has a repeating line: "Six silent turtle sit still as stones." So here's a little guy who looks like a stone!


COFFEE DOUGH (or try other variations--there's one with cornmeal I'd like to try)

1 cup used coffee grounds, cooled
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt

Mix together, then add water a little at a time to desired consistency. If it's too wet, add more flour. Knead together to form the dough. Wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate awhile before using.

I was eager to see the result, so I put my little experiments in a 250 F oven for 30 minutes, then turned them over and baked for another 15 minutes. They were not quite hard, but I'll let them air dry now.

Deck the Halls

Remember paper chains? There's something about the repetitive motion of this simple project that is calming and satisfying. It's also a great fine motor activity for little fingers that can result in an impressively
l - o - n - g chain of success.

This is the time of year when we seem to get even more paper in the mailbox than usual---fliers, catalogs, mailers, etc.
Take the cover weight ones, along with other bright colored paper you can fish out of your paper recycling box, and cut them into strips. If you are lucky enough to have a paper cutter, great. I'm an xacto knife and straight-edge fan. In either case, do this while the little ones are sleeping so that their fingers will be far away. If you're a scissor person, they can help.

Make the first loop. Then the kids can follow a simple mantra: poke through, glue, press. Glue sticks, paste, or a dab of white glue will do the trick. Coated papers take an extra pressing.

And paper chains aren't just for the holidays. Recycle birthday wrapping paper into strips to festoon the next birthday party.