This penguin craft is based on the book 365 Penguins . In the book a new penguin is sent to a family everyday starting on New Year’s Day for a full year. (We were given the book at a gift from Dr. Mom a few summers ago. It has become a favorite at my house. ) Creating a penguin craft based on the book seemed like a great way to welcome the new year.
The base of the penguin craft we made is a paper bag. I wanted there to be several ways we could use the penguin when he was completed. He could be used as a puppet to retell the story. He could be stuffed newspaper and made into a sculpture! He could be hung on the fridge as a work of art.
Here are all the supplies we used to make our penguin craft:
- Black construction paper
- White copy paper
- Orange construction paper
- Xtreme Glue Stick
- Scissors
Directions for creating our penguin craft:
We started by tucking the black construction paper under the paper bag’s flap. Then we traced the outside edge of the bag onto the paper. This piece of paper would be glued from the space under the flap to the bottom of the bag. It would become the penguin’s body.
The white tummy of the penguin was cut out of white copy paper. We had run out of white construction paper. The copy paper worked out just fine. A scrap of the white copy paper was used the make the eyes for the penguin craft.
After finding out how long and wide to make the penguin’s head, the head was cut out of construction paper with an attached beak. Scraps leftover from cutting out the penguin craft’s head were used to cut out his wings and eyeballs.
The last thing that needed to be cut out before the gluing began was a set of orange feet. The penguins in the book have medium sized feet. We decided our penguins needed medium size feet too.
Here are some other New Year’s activities we have done:
Ten Preschool Songs for New Year’s
Printable New Year’s Counting Game
STEM Challenge- New Year’s Ball Drop
