Tag Archives: balance

Teeter Tower

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teeter tower

Balance the animals in a teetering, tottering tower…but will your stack stick the landing?

We read Chicken Cheeks, written by Michael Ian Black, and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes (Simon & Schuster, 2009). When a bear spots a honey-laden hive at the top of a very tall tree, he enlists a number of friends to attempt the reach it. The funny thing about this book, however, is that the narrative is driven by the…ah, alliterative body part each animal must balance on to stack upwards. Hence, “Chicken cheeks.” We’ll leave the rest to your imagination.

You’ll need:

  • An assortment of oatmeal containers, small boxes, and tubes
  • A selection of construction paper
  • A selection of eye stickers (optional)
  • Scissors and tape for construction
  • Markers for decorating

This project consists of a set of critters constructed out of tubes, boxes, and construction paper. We used eye stickers, but you can draw eyes on with markers as well. Any combination of animals will do, but here’s our story time stack:

MOOSE

The moose was the biggest and heaviest, and thus at the bottom of the stacking tower. This was a large oatmeal container wrapped in construction paper.

stack moose

DOG

This was a small box wrapped with paper. We went with a grey dog since there was already a lot of red and brown in the stack.

stack dog

TOUCAN

Our toucan was a round packing tape core, though a small box can easily be substituted. We used a cone water cup for the beak, but a cylinder of construction paper works as well. Feather crest optional!

stack toucan

POLAR BEAR

We decided to go easy with this one…the polar bear is a white craft box with a face. Done!

stack polar bear

TURKEY

Everyone’s surprise favorite was the turkey! It has a tape core body, but the tail is kids’ hands repeatedly traced onto construction paper. In other words, the classic kiddie turkey drawing, rendered in 3-D!

stack turkey

GIRAFFE

This is the same paper towel tube giraffe we created at our Don’t Rock the Boat story time. And if you want to add a tiger, turtle, parrot, ladybug, monkey, skunk, or elephant to your stack, you’ll find that post as well!

stack giraffe

BEE

By the time we got to the bee we were almost out of time. So I handed these to the kids almost fully constructed. They just had to add the pre-cut construction paper stripes (or draw them on with marker), choose a twisteez wire antennae, and stick the eyes on.

stack bee

Yes, this project was a lot of critter-building, but it was well worth the work. Especially when the artistic towers started growing taller and taller. Just look at this awesomeness!

You Complete Me

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you complete meYou can’t fly with one wing. But if you join up with another one-winged friend, well…the sky’s the limit! This project also double as a cute motor skills hook and balance game.

We read Horsefly and Honeybee by Randy Cecil (Henry Holt, 2012). Horsefly and Honeybee get in a fight over a flower, and each loses a wing. The helplessly earth-bound Honeybee is soon captured by Bullfrog. To make matters worse, her old enemy Horsefly is captured too. The two glower at each other on a lily pad until they hear Bullfrog returning for dinner. Clutching each other, they flap their combined wings and discover that together, they can soar far out of Bullfrog’s reach! The two friends also discover that there is plenty of room for both of them on a flower. Seriously, this book wins most adorable.

You’ll need:

  • Two toilet paper tubes
  • Construction paper
  • 1 piece of twisteez wire or pipe cleaner (approximately 3″)
  • 1 paper towel tube
  • 1 small box (ours was 2” x 4” x 4″)
  • 1 wooden dowel
  • 1 piece of yarn (ours was approximately 22″)
  • 1 small paper clip
  • Scissors and tape for construction
  • Markers for decorating

To make the dynamic duo of Horsefly and Honeybee, wrap 2 toilet paper tubes with construction paper. We added dark brown and black bands on their bodies, eye stickers, and a paper of pipe cleaner antenna for Honeybee. And of course, each gets one wing. Hot glue (or tape) them together, then tape a twisteez wire or pipe cleaner to the back. This is how you’ll lift them during the fishing game.

completed duo The other two game pieces are a lily pad and a flower. The lily pad is made out of construction paper, and the flower is a cupcake liner I found in the discount Easter section of Target. The flower is a small box hot glued to the top of a 6″ piece of paper towel tube. We added some green paper crinkle to the inside as well.

lily pad and flowerThe final step is to rig up a fishing pole. We used a wooden dowel, yarn, and an unfolded paperclip fishing hook. To play the game, place Horsefly and Honeybee on the lily pad. Then hook them with the fishing pole and fly them to the safety of the flower.

horsefly and honeybee gameSome story times, kids will grab the project’s supplies and create something entirely impromptu. So may I present…a Venus Fly Trap?

venus fly trap