paper bag Archives - JDaniel4s Mom

Owl Craft Based on the Book Owl Babies

November 2, 2016 By Deirdre

This week started with my sharing with you an owl eyesight viewer. It could be used to look at the world through the eyes of an owl. Today I want to share an owl craft with you. Both activities could be done after reading the wonderful book Owl Babies.

Creating the Owl Craft

Owl Craft Supplies

brown paper lunch bag
white and black paint
cotton balls
fine grain sandpaper
wiggly eyes
dental floss
scissors
hole punch
pipe cleaner

Putting the Owl Craft Together

Cutting

You will start by cutting out to large ovals out of the brown paper lunch bag.

While you are cutting, you might as well cut a beak and two feet out of the sandpaper.

Painting the Owl Craft

Now you will use cotton balls to paint the front of the two owls. You will probably want to give your children own cotton ball for the white paint and one for the black.

Hole Punching

When the ovals are dry you will stack them on top of each other. Next you will have your children punch a ring of holes on the outside edge of the ovals. Your children will need to place single hole in the top of each of the owls feet.

Creating Facial Features

Then you will glue the wiggly eyes and the beak onto one of the ovals. This will be the front of the owl.

Sewing the Owl Craft

Now it is time for you to sew the top and bottom ovals together. You will need to wrap one end of the dental floss around a pipe cleaner. Your children will you this pipe cleaner needle to sew around edges of the ovals to create a pocket.

When they get to the bottom of the owl, they will line up the hole on each foot between the front and back layers. They will set the feet between the layers. Then the will continue around the oval until they close to where they started.

It is now time to stuff the owl with cotton ball. You may want your children to flatten out the cotton balls.

You will probably need to help your children tie the ends of the floss together in a bow.

If you like this owl craft, here are some more owl activities you will like:

Owl Eyesight STEM Exploration

Fall Owl Crafts

Little Owls Night Craft and Snack

Owl Hand Puppet

Cinco de Mayo for Kids- Paper Bag Chicken Puppet

April 25, 2016 By Deirdre

This post contains an affiliate link.

I recently went searching for wonderful book to share for Cinco de Mayo. I came across are number of Cinco de Mayo for kids books. Many of them were non-fiction. One of the fiction books that came of over and over again in my search was Chicks and Salsa. It is fun book about farm animals who are looking for something more exciting to eat than the feed the farm gives them. A rooster comes up with the idea of making salsa. He has seen it made on the farmer’s wife’s television.

Kids will love seeing what wonderful Mexican foods the chicken can make using farm fresh ingredients. They will also love seeing what they do when the garden runs out of the ingredients they need to make delicious Mexican appetizers and main dishes.

Cinco de Mayo for Kids Craft

I thought it would be fun to make a paper bag version of the book’s main character. It could be used for retelling the story and for telling new tales based on the book. Paper bag puppets are super easy to make on your own or along with your children.

Rather than walk you step by step through how I made the puppet, I want to share the key steps. Along with the key steps I want to offer you some tips that will help you make one of your own.

Materials Needed

glue stick
scissors
brown paper bag
construction paper of various colors

Basic Construction Steps

Trace the outline of the bottom section of the paper bag onto white paper.
Trace the outline of the top area of the bag (from the top of the flap to the bottom of the flap) onto red construction paper.
Cut out the two outlines and glue them in place on the side of the paper bag with the flap.
Cut out two beaks out of orange paper. The second beak will go under the top one side the flap. That way a bottom beak can be seen when the chicken talks. The bottom beak should be smaller than the top beak.
Cut out the waddle out of red paper. Glue it in place before you glue in the bottom beak under flap.
Cut the various parts for the poncho, sombrero, wings, and eyes. You can try to make them look like the ones on the cover of the book if you like. Our chicken looks similar to the one of the book, but not just like him.
Then it is time to start gluing. We glued the parts of the sombrero and poncho together before gluing them to the chicken.
The wings were glued on before adding the poncho. The waddle was glued on top of the poncho.
The sombrero and eyes went on last.

Here is another Cinco De Mayo for kids activity:

Build a Cinco De May Taco with Free Printable Spinner

Penguin Craft Based on 365 Penguins

January 4, 2016 By Deirdre

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

New Year’s Eve Countdown Ball

Printable New Year’s Counting Game

STEM Challenge- New Year’s Ball Drop

Paper Bag Gingerbread House Craft

December 4, 2015 By Deirdre

We love to make and decorate a gingerbread house at my house every December. We had fun creating a whole bunch of gingerbread houses made from paper bags. The goal was to create enough gingerbread houses to make a small village.

The first thing that had to be done was to cut out colored construction paper in candy shapes. We stuck to colored circles and candy cane rectangles. You could easily come up with a wide variety of paper candies.

My son does a good job of cutting paper. If your children aren’t there yet, you can have the candies cut out in advance for them.

We decorated the front of paper bag by adding a roof, chimney, and door. Then paper candies were added to it. You may decide that you want to decorate both sides of your bags.

Hint: If you want your gingerbread house to have more 3-D effect, you can add the following objects.

cotton from cotton balls
glitter
buttons
felt for the door and windows
burlap
paint

Do you have to use your gingerbread house in a village?

You really don’t have to. After creating your gingerbread house there are a number of ways you can share or use your gingerbread house craft.

First, I think it would make a fun gift bag.
Second, it would be fun to hang on a door or bulletin board in a village or own its own.
Third, this craft could be used a prop in a child created story featuring a gingerbread house.
Finally, it could be held up when sharing this fun gingerbread house poem. I found on ProTeacher.

I made a house of gingerbread.
It was so sugary sweet.
It took me all day long to make.
But, it lasted just a week.
Monday I ate the ceiling.
Tuesday I ate the door.
Wednesday I ate the windows.
Thursday I ate the floor.
Friday I ate all four walls.
Saturday I ate the lawn.
Sunday I licked up all the crumbs.
My gingerbread house is gone!

No matter how you share your wonderful gingerbread house creation I know it will be enjoyed.

If you like the winter activity, here are some more you will love:

Building a Snowman with Household Items

A Snow Globe Craft for Kids

Handprint Christmas Trees

For more Christmas crafts please check out my Christmas Crafts board on Pinterest.

Before or After Gingerbread House Why Not Read a Book

The links below are affiliate links.

Star Wars Craft- Chewbacca Puppet

September 18, 2015 By Deirdre

After making an owl puppet last week that featured fork painting, we decided to create another. We used the same brown paper bag and brown paint to create a Star Wars craft. This time we pained vertical strokes to make Chewbacca’s fur.

While the paint was drying, Chewbacca’s sash was created with black and white construction paper. The real Chewbacca’s sash has white vertical lines on the sash. It also has black lines on the white rectangles on the sash. We drew the lines onto our sash with crayon. To make finer lines we could have used colored pencils. I think the crayon lines came out well though.

The facial features on this Star Wars craft were also worked on while the paint was drying. Chewbacca’s eyes, nose and teeth were cut out of construction paper. We had a hard time trying to decide just what his teeth should look like. (I have seen a wide variety of teeth on other Star Wars craft idea featuring Chewbacca. Our Chewbacca ended up with a row of teeth that are all about the same size.

When our Chewbacca was finished, we practiced the sounds Chewbacca makes. I found a bunch of the communication sounds Chewbacca is supposed to make in a Yahoo forum. I am not sure he shares his feeling with these exact sounds, but it was fun to try to make our Chewbacca puppet say them.

Chewbacca Sounds

Angry = grrrwaaaaaarggggh
Laughing = brrwhhhaargh
Dissatisfied = wawoohrgh
Indifferent = br
Sceptical = mmmrwwaghgh
Frustrated = sputamureaghrh

After practicing to make sounds, your Chewbacca might like to read the following Star Wars books to your children:

If you create Chewbacca puppets, please share a picture with me on Facebook

Activities for Children – Learning with Paper Bag Bears

April 19, 2013 By Deirdre

What a Wonderful World was a in a recent collection of books I was sent from Tiger Tales. It is wonderful tale told by a mother bear to her cub. She shares with them that we need to be thankful for each and everything placed on Earth for us to share. This book is filled with thanks to God the simply wonderful world we live in. The illustrations show the bears at the shore, the a field of flowers, in the forest and some much more. I love the warm illustrations. They draw you in and make you want to visit those same places to take them in and offer thanks for them. This wonderful book inspired a multitude of learning activities for children.

What activities for children we did with the book?

I went to JDaniel’s school with a bunch of paper bags and used the Ellison to cut out a bunch of bears. We have a lot of brown paper bag and I thought we should use them in honor of Earth Day. Paper bags really make a great material for learning activities. Decorate and Weave

Activities with Children - Learning with Paper Bag Bears

I had JDaniel decorate the front of the one of the big bears. Then we punched holes around the edge of two of the bears stacked on top of each other and wove them together.

Tell Me Your Favorite Part

JDaniel was given a couple of big brown paper bears and I had him decorate them based on things that were asked on a couple of index cards. I wanted him to draw his favorite part of the book, his favorite place, and something he is thankful for.
Alphabetical Order

The bears were lined up on the floor in alphabetical order.

Before and After

I asked JDaniel to find the letters that came before and after a letter a placed on the table. It really made me think about letters.

Match the Letter to an Object

I had JDaniel pick a letter and then find an object in the kitchen that matched that letter. We ended up with a lot of cooking tools. I think we should try this in his room and see what treasures he find there.

Write the Letter in Salt

JDaniel wrote each letter he selected in a salt tray. We focused on uppercase letters this time. I think we will move on to lowercase letters next time. JDaniel decided he needed to trace the bear and then write the letter.He did a great job on these.Counting Buttons

JDaniel practiced one to one correspondence by placing the correct number of button on each bear on a card.

Write the Number

Then JDaniel practice writing those numbers in the salt I had placed in a tray.

Shape the Number

JDanel loves buttons. I had him form the number using some buttons I had placed in a cup.

Here are some other activities for children I know you will love:

Making Learning Fun with Rainbows

Kids Sensory Learning Activities

Outdoor Activities and Learning Games

What other activities for children could we do with these bears?

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I was sent the book What Wonderful World by Tiger Tales Books to review. All thought about it are my own.