Yes, there’s a time and place for proper behavior, but what happens when a tiger wants to go a little…wild?
We read Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown (Little, Brown, 2013, read here by Glasgow’s Improvement Challenge) Mr. Tiger is feeling stifled in the city with its mundane homes, drab clothing, and polite conversations. So he tries something different. He (gasp!) drops on all fours. This begins a chain of experiences that ultimately ends with Mr. Tiger running around the wilderness in just his stripes. But it’s lonely being on your own. Can Mr. Tiger’s friends maybe change a little bit and join him? Because sometimes, a little wild is a good thing!
In keeping with Mr. Tiger’s duel lives, this project begins with his house in the city…
Then rotate the box to visit the wilderness on the other side!
You’ll need:
- One 4.5” X 4.5” x 9” craft box (a large tissue box works too)
- 1 smaller box for the interior
- Green and brown poster board
- Construction paper
- 1 toilet paper tube
- 1 tiger house template, printed on 8.5″ x 11″ card stock
- Scissors, glue, and tape for construction
- Markers for decorating
Begin by cutting the top off the large box, as well as two windows on opposing sides. Next, glue a smaller box inside so your toilet paper tube tiger can peep out of the windows. Finally, use poster board and construction paper to decorate the city and wilderness sides! For added wilderness texture, we offered kids fabric flowers, green tissue paper, crepe paper streamers, and paper crinkle. The results were AWESOME!
We do, however, want to give a special nod to the creative individual who decided to put a hobbit door on Mr. Tiger’s city abode…
Next, use construction paper and markers to decorate a toilet paper tube like a tiger. Also, since clothing plays an important role in the book, we taped a little top hat to the top of the city window, and a little Hawaiian shirt to the bottom of the wilderness window.
There’s funny dialogue in the book, so we added speech bubbles on the tiger house template, as well as directions signs for the blank sides of the box!
We absolutely LOVE Peter Brown’s work…check out Creepy Carrots, this illuminating underwear, a growing garden, and a visit to Peter’s studio!