Printable: Pop-up Birdie

We have a robin's nest in our yard and the babies have just fledged. This is what inspired this pop-up chick in a nest.


The Printable:

Print it up on heavy card stock. Color and cut out all the pieces. Don't forget to cut along the dotted line in the nest for the bird to pop up through! Assemble by slipping the bird through the slit from under and behind the nest. Glue the little tab on the back on either side of the pop-up bird's pull tab so that it holds the tab straight but also so that the bird can still move up and down. Do not glue the bird piece at all, just the short tab to the back of the nest. You might also want to reinforce the bird's pull tab with a popsicle stick. Now pull and push the bottom of the stick to make your chick move!

Chinese New Year Lion Puppet

Every year we go into Chinatown to celebrate Chinese New Year with our good friend N. And every year Spiff comes back impressed and with an urgent need to be a lion. We make paper lions. Spiff gets out some plastic oranges from the play food bin and makes me drum away on our coffee table while he dances away. I must say, even with a four year old dictator, I mean, director, it's a pretty good show.


Here's how you make our New Year's Lion:


What You Need:

• crayons, markers etc.
• scissors
• glue or tape
• two popsicle sticks
• piece of construction paper, any color
  
• this printable printed up on cardstock:

The Printable:


What You Do:
The directions are on the printable but here goes anyway. Color the pieces on the cardstock. Cut them out.

Valley fold the inside of the mouth and glue the back of the head to the back of the fold so the pieces line up to complete the front.

Glue a popsicle stick on the back of each set of legs so there's a handle hanging down for each hand to grab.

Next cut out two 3" (ish) strips of construction paper and glue one end of one to one end of the either to make a long 17" strip. Accordion fold every inch or so the entire length.

Glue one end of that to the back of the front legs and the other end to the front of the back legs to complete your lion's body. (The first one I did I had the paper going vertical but Spiff didn't like it since it couldn't fit "over" his head. So on his we put the paper horizontally. I don't think it matters. They both looked great if you ask me, but kids are picky.)

Beat some pots and pans and make your lion dance.

Printable: Cat Hand Puppet

Finger and Hand Puppets. Literally.

Remember these guys?

Printable: Theatre Tickets

Enjoy the Show!

Collapsible Theatre or Diorama Playboard

Dinosaur Diorama Playboard:

A while back, in the midst of our winter doldrums, we built a collapsible diorama of sorts to pretend play with our plethora of toy dinosaurs. Along the same idea, we soon built a theatre/tv . It's the same design except there's a hole in the middle and you turn it around to use and decorate the outside. When you use it for a dinosaur playboard, you don't cut out a hole and you decorate the inside with colorful Jurassic scenery.

Puppet Theatre:

Each were different dimensions suited to the cardboard I happened to find in my basement. The printable here is a plan with the dimensions we used for the theatre. You can really take a lot of liberties with the dimensions, based on what supply you have, but this is a good place to start. I thought given the cruddiness of this week, it was a good time to finally post the plan for some indoor fun. So here it is.


What You Need:

Big Honking Piece of Cardboard 30" x 28" ( but it can vary a lot based on what you've got.)
Yard Stick
Craft Knife
Markers, Paints, what-have-you
Fabric if you feel like putting up a curtain in your theatre. We were in a rush, we didn't.
Tape



What You Do:

Print up the printable and then draw out the design on your cardboard. With the knife (and no children near-by) cut out the solid lines (the tabs, the wings, the big honking hole if you're making a theatre, don't cut it if you're not.). Recycle the bits, you don't need them anymore. With the craft knife, score the dotted lines without going through the cardboard and the bend the pieces in (if you're doing the theatre do the scoring on the right side of your theatre to make mountain folds, with the diorama the wrong side to make valley folds.). Now you have two sides, a back and a bottom. Slip the tabs on the bottom of the wings into the slits on the bottom and now you have a standing theatre. While you use it you might want to tape the tabs on the bottom so they don't slip it out, untape it and take out the tabs to fold it up and store. (Ours in conveniently stored where the couch arm meets our living room wall and forms a nook. ) Now decorate it and hang a curtain if you like using glue along the top inside of the window. Make some paper bag puppets and I'll make some tickets and then on with the show!


The Printable:

Polar Bear Paper Bag Puppet

Ok, we've all done them- paper lunch bag puppets. I am a huge fan of paper bags. Not only can you carry your lunch in them, you can make puppets galore when you're done with your lunch. Just flip that sucker upside-down, lick up the crumbs, and get out your art supply. Spiff, my three year-old, decided we were going to make a polar bear puppet and since it's winter, I said, sure, why not? So this is a polar bear, but really it could be any bear. Heck, you could make three different bear puppets and put on a Goldilocks and the Specimens of Three Species of Bears. Why not?

What you need:
Paper Lunch Bag
Crayons, Markers, Paint Dobbers, whatever
Glue

Here's what you do:
Print up the Printable. Cut out pieces, color. Put lunch bag flat on table with the flap facing front and up. Stick ears onto top corners, face over flap, muzzle on face. Glue paws on. Open flap and glue in teeth and tongue. Stick a hand in the top of the bag, bottom of the puppet and put on a show.



The Printable: