All creatures great and small gather in this colorful jungle city, which doubles as a beautiful sun catcher! This was such a simple project – clear sheet, tissue paper, glue, and scissors – but it’s been one our patron’s favorite story time projects this year!
We read Animal City by Joan Negrescolor (Chronicle, 2018). Nina loves to visit Jungle City and read stories to her animal friends. While each animal has a favorite (the flamingos, for example, like Mythology), the story they like best? The very book you’re reading! This book is absolutely gorgeous, and we tried to capture the artist’s color and shape play with our project.
You’ll need:
- A clear plastic sheet (more on this below)
- Tissue paper
- Scissors and glue for construction
The key to this sun catcher project is the clear plastic sheet. We used 16″ x 20″ archival mylar sheets (one of the perks of being a rare books library!). But you can use thinner clear cellophane wrap, which is sold in the gift wrap section of Michael’s Craft store. Another possibility? Parchment paper, found in the supermarket baking aisle alongside the aluminum foil. It’s opaque, but still lets plenty of light through.
To create your sun catcher, cut, arrange, and glue the tissue shapes to your clear sheet. We purchased pre-cut tissue circles and squares, but also had larger tissue sheets available to customize. We recommend using glue sticks, which allowed for better control and dried perfectly clear (even the purple ones!).
We also recommend markers, just in case kids wanted to add details, or draw expressions on their animals…
When your creation is complete, tape it to a window or door and admire the shapes and colors. It’s especially cool when the colors overlap!
James Herriot fans…today’s blog post title was for you! Animal city, indeed!
The alligator’s mouth consists of 2 “mouth pockets.” Print the template, and then cut 2 top mouth pockets out of green poster board. Staple the 2 pieces together to form a pocket:
Now tape the mouth pocket to the top of the tissue box. Important! Just tape the TOP piece of the mouth pocket to the box. You’ll need to leave the bottom piece free so you can slip your fingers into the pocket and operate the puppet. Here’s a photo of the taped mouth pocket. I used red masking tape so you can see what I’m describing more clearly:
Repeat the above steps with the bottom mouth pocket, then add card stock teeth to the mouth. To operate the puppet, slide your fingers in the top mouth pocket, and your thumb in the lower mouth pocket.
Here’s the finished alligator…we used green construction paper for the body, and green poster board for the legs and tail. Notice that the legs dangle off the bottom of the box with tape hinges – the puppet sits better in your arms that way. The eyes are jumbo pom-poms with 
Each kid got to take home a plastic ball for the alligator to consume, but as the kids milled around the gallery, the alligators started eating EVERYTHING. Scarves, pens, socks, hats…if it fit in the box, the gator consumed it!
If you’d like to make a beard, fringe a sheet of construction paper and attach a mustache. Tape a piece of twisteez wire to the back, then loop the wire around your ears to secure the beard in place.
That takes care of the crown and hair, but we wanted to go big with the bling…so we also made bejeweled collars and bracelets! The collar is a folded circle of poster board (we used gold) with the center cut out so kids can slide the collar over their heads.
The bracelets are paper cups (again, we used gold) cut to fit the kids’ wrists. We decorated everything with 
And Katie went with a bold metal block for hers…
Resplendent, indeed!