Beware of Squirrel

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Dana Sheridan

It might look like an innocent tree…but beware! This leafy vision of loveliness has a feisty squirrel puppet hidden inside it. Get too close and you’ll receive a serious scolding!

We read ‘Ol Mama Squirrel by David Ezra Stein (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2013). ‘Ol Mama Squirrel is super-protective of her babies. Any cat, owl, or dog who even shows the slightest interest in her family gets a serious scolding (“Chook! Chook! Chook!”). This treatment also applies to kites, airplanes, and an innocent man who comes to prune the tree. But when a grizzly bear shows up, ‘Ol Mama Squirrel is outmatched. But not for long. She rallies mama squirrels from fire escapes, under the tracks, in the tree tops, and all over the park. Together, they scold the bear right out of the park!

You’ll need:

1 large oatmeal container
A box cutter
A 9.5″ x 17.5″ piece of brown construction paper
A sheet of green tissue paper (mine was 20″ x 29″)
A 1.75″ x 6″ rectangle of tagboard for tree branch
A square of green tissue paper (mine was 6″ x 6″)
Extra tagboard pieces for “wooden” hearts
1 brown paper lunch bag
A 3″ x 4.5″ rectangle of tagboard for the mouth
A pair of 2″ x 2.25″ rectangles of brown construction paper for ears
A 1.25″ x 1.75″ rectangle of red construction paper for the tongue
A pair of wiggle eyes
1 small pom-pom for the nose (mine was 1″)
A 1.5″ x 2″ rectangle of white card stock for the teeth
A 3.5″ x 7.75″ rectangle of tagboard for the tail
Tape, stapler, and scissors for construction
Markers for decorating
Hot glue

Begin by taking the lid off the large oatmeal container. Then use the box cutter to remove the circular cardboard bottom from the container. You now have an oatmeal container tube.

Use markers to draw lines of “bark” on the brown construction paper and then wrap it around the oatmeal container. The important thing to remember is that the plastic ring around the top of the oatmeal container is also the top of your tree. The cut end of the container is too ragged and will catch your squirrel puppet as it pops in and out of the tree.

Gently bunch one end of the sheet of green tissue paper together, then securely tape it to the tree, just underneath the plastic ring. Wrap the tissue paper repeatedly around the top of the oatmeal container, stopping every once in a while to secure it to the tree with pieces of tape.

Make sure that the tissue paper doesn’t hang over the edge of your plastic ring and droop into the oatmeal container. Otherwise, your squirrel puppet will get caught in the foliage as it pops in and out of the tree. I found some butterfly stickers in the art cabinet and we added those to the foliage for a little extra color.

Next, cut the first rectangle of tagboard into a branch shape. Use markers to add some “bark” lines, and fold on one end. Staple a crumpled green tissue paper square to the other end. Then tape (or hot glue) the folded end of the branch to the tree trunk.

Cut two “wooden” hearts out of tagboard and write names in them. I suggested “Mama” or “Mom” and then the child’s name or a simple “Me.” Tape (or hot glue) them to the front of the tree.

All this tree needs is a fiercely protective squirrel inside it! Cut your second tagboard rectangle into this shape:

Then fold it lengthwise to create your squirrel’s mouth.

Hot glue the mouth inside the paper lunch bag

You could skip the tagboard mouth entirely, but I found that it made the puppet easier to operate. The rest of the squirrel’s face is very simple.

Make two ears out of brown construction paper and tape (or hot glue) them to the back of the bag. Use red construction paper to create the tongue, and tape (or hot glue) it into the mouth. Hot glue wiggle eyes and a pom-pom nose to the bag. Use markers to add eyebrows and eyelashes. Last come the teeth – basically, a piece of white card stock folded and cut like so:

Attach the teeth to the mouth with tape (or hot glue). The face is done – all that remains is the tail! Cut the third tagboard rectangle like this, and scribble all over it with marker.

Staple to the back of the squirrel.

Ready to load your squirrel puppet in the tree? Put your hand into the puppet, then gently insert it into the bottom the the tree. Guide the squirrel up the tube and push it slowly and gently out the top (you might have to squish it’s head a little when you’re doing this).

To operate the puppet, use your free hand to grab the bottom of the tube. Then pop your squirrel puppet in and out of the tree. Don’t forget to scold!

French Pastries

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Dana Sheridan

I bet that title got your attention, right? We made these delicious-looking ornaments for a Journey to the Centre of the Earth event. Kids colored them, hung them on a ribbon, and then brushed the backs with vanilla extract. Mmmmm!

A quick word about our undying devotion to accuracy. Yes, we did the initial French pastry research using Google. But since the internet isn’t always the most reliable of sources, I took them to a local French pasty shop called The Little Chef for some fact-checking. Edwige Fils-Aime, the owner and chef, was kind enough to take a look and correct them for me.

While he was doing that, I got to take a look at things like this:

And this:

And THIS!

All in the name of research and accuracy, of course. And if some of the pastries happened to come back to the office with me, what of it?

To create French pastry ornaments, you’ll need:

1 French pastry template, printed on 8.5″ x 11″ white card stock
Hole punch
A selection of shimmer ribbon
1 bottle of imitation vanilla extract
Q-tips
Scissors
Colored pencils

Print the template (which features the artwork of talented student artist, Aliisa Lee), and use the colored pencils to decorate the pastries. Punch a hole at the top of the ornament and run a piece of ribbon through it. Knot or tie in a bow.

Dip a Q-tip into the imitation vanilla extract (I found clear vanilla extract at the store, which worked great on the white paper). Gently rub the vanilla extract-infused Q-tip on the back of the ornament.

The Little Chef was also a contender in our Hansel and Gretel Gingerbread Cottage Challenge. You can see his cottage (with a truly artisanal chocolate fence) here.

Monkey Business

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Dana Sheridan

With a turn of the wrist, this gymnastic little money swings around (and around and around) his colorful rainforest branch!

We read BIG Little Monkey, written by Carole Lexa Schaefer and illustrated by Pierre Pratt (Candlewick, 2008). A little monkey wakes up one morning, ready to play, and finds that his family still wants to sleep. He decides he’s ready to be a Big Little Monkey and leave the tree to find some new friends to play with. He encounters a sloth, a parrot, and finally…Sly Boa. The game “curl my tail around in tricky ways” doesn’t sound too good to Big Little Monkey, so he quickly scoots back to his family, happy to be their Little Monkey once again.

You’ll need:

1 small oatmeal container
Dark brown construction paper for body, hair, and ears.
Light brown construction paper for mouth (approximately 2.25″ x 3.5″)
1 oval of self-adhesive foam (approximately 1″ x 1.5″)
2 wiggle eyes
1 strip of brown poster board for the tail (approximately 2″ x 10.5″)
1 monkey business template, printed on 8.5″ x 11″ card stock
An 8.5″ x 8.5″ square of tagboard for arm & leg templates and tree branches
A box cutter
1 brass fastener
1 paper towel tube
A pencil for tracing
6 – 8 green construction paper leaves
2 small feathers
Scissors, tape, and glue stick for construction
Markers for decorating
Hot glue

Begin by wrapping the oatmeal container with dark brown construction paper. Fringe more dark brown construction paper and tape it to the top of the lid for hair. IMPORTANT: Make sure you don’t tape the lid to the oatmeal container closed! You’ll open the container later to secure your monkey’s swinging arm.

Cut the light brown construction paper rectangle into an oval, and glue to the front of the head. Attach the wiggle eyes (using hot glue), the self-adhesive foam oval, and two dark brown construction paper ears. I used the markers to drawl little swirls in the ears and put a smile on my monkey’s face.

You’ll notice that the ears very close to the eyes and mouth. This is so the ears don’t hamper the movement of the monkey’s swinging arm.

The face is done, now for the body! Curl one end of the brown construction paper tail around a marker, then tape or hot glue it to the back of the oatmeal container. Cut the arms and legs out of the template and tape (or hot glue) the two legs and the short arm to the container. I curled the short arm up in the classic monkey “hand in the armpit pose.”

Finally, the monkey’s swinging arm. Cut a tagboard arm from the template, then place the paper towel tube on the round part of the swinging arm. Use the pencil to trace the diameter of the tube onto the template. Then cut the circle out.

Use the box cutter to make a small slit at the bottom of the swinging arm (you can see it in Step 3 of the image above). Make another slit in the side of the oatmeal container. Push the brass fastener through the slit in the swinging arm:

Then remove the oatmeal container’s lid and push the brass fastener through the slit in the oatmeal container. swing arm 2c Reach inside the container to unfold the prongs, then replace the oatmeal container lid.

The monkey is done, now for the rainforest swinging branch! Cut two tagboard branches (mine were about 8.5″ long):

Hot glue or tape the tagboard branches to the very end of the paper towel tube. Use markers to color the bird and the butterflies. The butterflies and green construction paper leaves can be glued of taped onto the tagboard branches. The bird requires just a few extra steps. First, fold the template like so:

Using the dotted lines as guides, fold the two tabs outwards.

Use tape to attach 2 small feathers to the bird template as a tail. However, when you finally tape or hot glue your bird’s tabs to the branch, make sure the bird is at the very end and the tail faces away from the monkey’s swinging area.

Again, attach the branches and bird on the very end of the tube! Otherwise, those items will be smacked repeatedly (or completely taken out) by the swinging monkey. We had a few tangled monkeys and squashed birds at story time, and had to do some quick repairs.

To operate the monkey, slide the swinging arm over the paper towel tube, hold it at arm’s length, and begin swaying the tube back and forth. As you build more momentum, the monkey will circle around and around on it’s branch. It’s virtually impossible to not make monkey noises while you’re doing this. Go on. We dare you to not make monkey noises!

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Beware of Squirrel

French Pastries

Monkey Business