Category Archives: Picture Book Projects

Barnyard Pinball

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It’s a merry chase! Use your motor skills to navigate a yellow pom-pom hen around the barnyard. But beware the red pom-pom fox, who’s also on a roll!

We read Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins (Aladdin, 1971 read here by Miss Gray Educates). Rosie the Hen decided to take a little stroll around the farm, not realizing that she’s being followed by a hungry fox. Fortunately for Rosie, the Fox’s luck is horrible. He runs into misfortune after misfortune in pursuit of his chicken lunch. Happily, Rosie makes it back to her coop, none the wiser. The wordless sight gags on each page had our kids chuckling!

This book also gets a gold star rating from Katie. It was her son’s FAVORITE as a kid!

You’ll need:

  • 1 large box top (like a copy paper box lid)
  • 1 paper towel tube
  • 1 small box
  • 1 paper cup
  • Construction paper
  • 2 large pom-poms
  • Scissors, glue, and tape for construction
  • Markers for decorating

As you can see in the above photo, we used a copy paper box lid as the base of our barnyard. Then we glued a number of elements in place. The bee hive was a paper cup with an arched door. The haystack was a construction paper tunnel. The ramp was a paper towel tube, cut in half length-wise and elevated with a snippet of the remaining tube. The hen house was a small box with the lid positioned as a ramp, also elevated with a snippet of paper towel tube. We added a pond, fabric flowers, and tissue paper shrubs as well.

With all the obstacles complete, drop two jumbo pom-poms into the box lid. We thought about decorating these like a fox and hen, but they rolled much easier as simple poms.

With your poms in place, commence the chase! Tip and jiggle the box lid to make the fox and hen race around the barnyard, ducking into buildings and rolling up ramps.

Go a Little Wild!

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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!

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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!

Tigers on Tiptoe

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Can you tiptoe your tiger through the forest without making a sound?

We recommend reading The Tiptoeing Tiger by Philippa Leathers (Candlewick Press, 2018, read here by DaddyRead2Me). When Tiger prowls the forest, the other animals NOTICE and move away. But not Little Tiger. No one is afraid of him in the slightest! So he contrives to sneakily tiptoe around the forest until he thoroughly terrifies someone. It doesn’t work with Boar, Elephant, or the monkeys…but Little Tiger might have met his match at the pond!

You’ll need:

  • 1 small oatmeal container
  • Construction paper and/or poster board
  • 2 brass fasteners
  • 2 craft sticks, approximately 3″ long
  • Scissors, tape, and box cutter for construction
  • Markers for decorating

Begin by decorating a small oatmeal container like a tiger. For added texture, we used a pair of wiggle eyes, a bit of self-adhesive foam for the nose, and twisteez wire whiskers, but you can also just use markers to add these features. The dynamic part of the project comes when you add the moveable back legs!

Use a box cutter to make small slices in the oatmeal container, then attach the tiger’s back legs to the body using brass fasteners. Next, attach two, 3″ long craft sticks to the legs, leaving plenty of room for you to grasp the sticks. To operate, move the sticks up and down while gently sliding the oatmeal container forward, and you have yourself a splendid tiptoeing tiger!