Tag Archives: easy

Griffins are the GREATEST

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A baby griffin needs lots of care, attention…and hamburgers! Luckily, our story time kids were more than up to the task. This cuddly companion was part of To Be Continued, our chapter book story time for kids ages 6-8.

Is that tufted tail making your heart melt? Details at the end of the post for how to win a baby griffin of your very own!

We read The Menagerie, written by Tui T. Sutherland and Kari Sutherland (HarperCollins, 2013). When Logan and his broken-hearted father move to a remote town in Wyoming, Logan’s life gets considerably duller. Or does it? He soon discovers that the town is hiding a secret Menagerie filled with dragons, unicorns, and other mystical creatures. The Menagerie also has a BIG problem, as six griffin cubs have escaped, and need to be located and returned before the Menagerie itself is discovered. Logan and his new-found friends Zoe and Blue race against time, uncovering more then a few secrets along the way.

In the book, Logan and his friends track the baby griffins by spotting feathers they are molting. I hid these fantastic gold-tipped duck quill feathers around our gallery for the kids to find. Each kid needed to find at least two feathers.

Once all the feathers were located, the kids were awarded with stuffed baby griffins (purchased on Amazon)! Hoo boy, the kids were surprised and WAY excited! The loving attachment began immediately, and one little boy sent me multiple photos of his griffin Scorp, who, like another griffin in the book, had a serious hamburger addiction. Scorp also flew with him to Florida!

Would you like to receive a brand new baby griffin of your own? Simply e-mail danas@princeton.edu with the name you would pick for your griffin. We’ll put all the entries in a hat and draw a winner at random on Tuesday, June 16. Good luck!

A Bounty of Bunnies!

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It’s a bounty of bunnies bunnies bunnies in a basket basket basket! This simple project is both a hide and seek AND pattern game! Plus…rainbow bunnies. Rainbow bunnies are just awesome.

We read The Runaway Bunny, written by Margaret Wise Brown, and illustrated by Clement Hurd (HarperCollins, 1942). A little bunny poses a series of runaway-from-home scenarios, thwarted each time by his equally imaginative mother!

You’ll need:

  • 1 large tissue box
  • White poster board or card stock
  • 6 toilet paper tubes
  • A selection of construction paper
  • Scissors, stapler and tape for construction
  • Markers for decorating

First, the bunny basket.Cut the top off a large tissue box, then add a poster board handle and some construction paper ears, eyes, nose, and tail. Your bunnies are toilet paper tubes wrapped with construction paper. Six bunnies, six rainbow colors!

To play the hide and seek game, have a grown up or older sibling hide the little bunnies around the house. Then, ask your story time kid to find them and tuck them into the big bunny basket. For a pattern game variation, cut color cards out of construction paper, then shuffle them and ask your child to find the bunnies in the order of the color cards!

The Runaway Bunny was selected by a little girl who aged out of our Tiger Tales story time. It’s a big favorite of hers, so Emmalyn…this project is for you!

Protecting Our Most Precious Companions

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protecting our companions

Today’s simple project is the result of a news photo I saw the other day…an exhausted-looking mother in NYC, pushing a heavily covered baby carriage. She was wearing a medical mask. Gripping tightly to her other hand was a little boy, also in a mask, toting a stuffed dog.

But the stuffed dog wasn’t wearing a mask. And my daughter has the exact same stuffed dog. Something in my heart just pulled.

So here’s how to use two common household items to make a mask for those most beloved companions. The ones your children reach to for comfort and reassurance. And hey, if you want to give Domino the Dog a quick cuddle yourself, you just go and do that.

You’ll need:

  • 1 flat bottom/basket style coffee filter
  • 2 rubber bands
  • Scissors

Apologies for the image quality…I’m shooting from my not-so-camera-ready home studio!

Stuffed animal heads, noses, and ears vary wildly, so you might have to cut the coffee filter down a bit. Same goes for the rubber bands! You can see how I shortened my rubber band below:

shorter rubber band

Flatten the coffee filter, then fold the top and bottom inwards like a burrito. The size of the folds will, of course, vary with the size of your stuffed animal’s head.

Now tightly bunch both ends of the folded coffee filter. Use scissors to snip a small hole in the bunching on each side (and aim a little ways in from the ends so the rubber bands don’t tear through). Finish by looping rubber bands through the holes.

Slide the mask over your stuffed animal’s nose and face, and the rubber bands behind its ears. Adjust as needed. Stay safe, little friend!