Don’t Touch the Tiger

don't touch the tigerTyger Tyger burning bright! Make it past the teeth, and you’ll be all right!

We recommend reading Beware of Tigers by Dave Horowitz (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2006). Feathered friends Chirp and Birp are laughingly incredulous that a tiger is in their city, despite warnings from others. Well, there IS a tiger, and he is more than happy to entertain two tasty little birds. As his smile grows wider and wider, Chirp and Birp realize that perhaps cuddling up with a tiger isn’t such a great idea. Good thing they have a friend with even bigger teeth!

You’ll need:

  • 1 large tissue box
  • Construction paper
  • Scissors, tape, and/or glue for construction
  • Markers for decorating (optional)

This project is a modification of a Valentine’s box I pinned and swore I would find a use for. Yes! Begin by covering a large tissue box with orange construction paper. Next, use more construction paper to add a nose, eyes, and stripes (or draw them on with markers). The teeth are construction paper too.

To play the game, place several objects in the tiger’s mouth. Then challenge kids to gently reach in, and – without moving, tapping, or knocking over the tiger – remove the objects. The objects can be anything. For younger kids, it might be best to use something that stick out past the mouth like drinking straws. For older kids, smaller objects like jingle bells, foam beads, or pom-poms work!

tiger straws

Believe it or not, we have more chomping creature projects on the blog. Check out our cookie-consuming cow here, and our monster food chain here. Need some dental assistance? We have your crocodile care kit right here.

Welcome to the Jungle

welcome to the jungle

It’s a jungle out there, but we bet you can safely navigate your bouncy ball up ramps, over bridges, past drinking straw obstacles, and through pipe cleaner wickets to the goal!

We recommend reading The Zabajaba Jungle by William Steig (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1987). In a dreamy, dangerous journey through the Zabajaba jungle, young Leonard and his trusty bolo encounter a number of jungle creatures and treacherous obstacles. A Steig classic.

You’ll need:

  • 1 copy paper box lid
  • Construction paper
  • Drinking straws
  • Green pipe cleaners
  • Paper cups
  • Paper bowl
  • Poster board or tagboard
  • Scissors, tape and/or glue  for construction
  • Hot glue (optional)

Our jungle game is a copy paper box lid with as many (or as few) obstacles for you to navigate a ball through. We used bouncy balls – I bought a 6-pack for $1 at our local dollar store. Here’s our basic jungle:

just the obstacles As you can see, we had a paper bowl tunnel, a bumpy drinking straw “path,” green pipe cleaners acting as vine wickets, and a blue construction paper river. We used tagboard to make a bridge, as well as a ramp and an elevated pathway. At the bottom of the box lid are the “goals”…paper cup halves cut down to various heights. Want to fill things out a little? Add construction paper foliage:

with foliageYou can also add fabric (or construction paper) flowers for some pops of color!

with foliage and flowersTo play, drop a bouncy ball in anywhere, then navigate through the obstacles and foliage by tilting and turning your box top. The ball goes in a cup, you win! Bonus fun – use multiple balls at once, or play with one kid at each end of the box top!

It’s Elementary

elementaryCalling all consulting detectives…grab your sparkle stem magnifying glass and examine this most intriguing collection of 18th and 19th century puzzle cards. And, while the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, the answers to these cards are at the end of the post (and you can print a set of your own)!

You’ll need:

Cut a drinking straw down to 3″. Gently fold a sparkle stem in half (soft fold, not hard) and thread the ends into the straw. Round the sparkle stem loop sticking out of the top of the straw. Done!

sparkle stem magnifying glassAnd what of those curious cards? They are reproductions of 18th and 19th century rebus puzzle cards in our library’s special collections. A rebus (also called a hieroglyphic) puzzle is created using pictures in place of syllables or entire words. Sometimes, the placement of an object is important to the puzzle as well.

Here are 6 cards from our vaults, all hailing from England. The top three cards are from Feronica’s Hieroglyphical Riddles (publisher unknown, circa 1840). Across the bottom row, from left to right, are cards from Peter Ponder’s First Pack of Puzzle Cards (J. Aldis, 1808), Wallis’s New Pack of Puzzles for 1798 (John Wallis and Champante & Whitrow, 1798), and An Entire Pack of New Puzzle Cards (W. and T. Darton, circa 1805).

Want to try these puzzle cards on a few young detectives? You’ll find a printable set here!

rebus cards, from the collections of the cotsen children's library, princeton university


The solutions, moving top row to bottom row, left to right:

Handsome is that handsome does
Better a little fish than empty dish
Awl is well that ends well
Two implements of an excellent sport: bat and ball (for Cricket, of course!)
What most people are fond of: toasted muffin
Troublesome insects: ant, caterpillar, snail, earwig, and ladybird