Help your oatmeal container bear reunite with his friend hummingbird in this gentle (and super silent) game of hide and seek!
We read Hector and Hummingbird by Nicholas John Frith (Arthur Levine Books, 2015). Hector is a bear who lives in Peru, and Hummingbird is his best friend. The problem is, Hummingbird likes to talk, and talk, and talk, and talk and doesn’t realize Bear is becoming increasingly annoyed with his chattiness. Finally, Hector blows his top and yells at Hummingbird that he wants to be left alone. But silence and solitude aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, and Hector soon wishes for his friend to return. Zip! Hummingbird returns in a flash (he’s been hiding close by on every page) and all is well. These days, the two friends still talk, but they also spend time enjoying a little companionable silence…sometimes.
You’ll need:
- 1 large oatmeal container
- Brown and black construction paper
- 1 pair of large wiggle eyes
- 1 pair of small wiggle eyes
- 1 jumbo pom-pom
- 1 medium pom-pom
- A selection of small feathers
- Scissors, tape, and glue for construction
- Markers for decorating
- Hot glue
The bear is very simple to construct. Wrap an oatmeal container with brown paper, then use the extra bits to make the feet, tail, and ears. Attach a pair of wiggle eyes and a self-adhesive foam nose (or just use markers to draw these on). Draw a smile on with a marker. Last come the construction paper arms, which are extra long and attach at the hands. This is so the bear can carry its hummingbird friend.
The hummingbirds were created by Katie. Aren’t they cute? She made a green version modeled after the ruby-throated hummingbird, and a purple version modeled after the violet sabrewing hummingbird.
To make a hummingbird, glue a thin black construction paper beak onto a large (1.5″ diameter) pom-pom. Glue a smaller (.75″) pom-pom underneath the beak. Add a pair of small wiggle eyes and 2 feathery wings and you’re set!
We loved how the book’s creator hid the hummingbird on various pages, so Katie made 2 hummingbirds for each story time kid and placed them in different locations in the gallery.
Then, slowly, and oh-so-quietly, kids and their bears went in search of their hummingbirds.
Looking for more feathered friends? Check out this reading canary, this chick magnet, this photo-ready penguin, and this avian obstacle course. Need something simpler? Give this craft stick bird a try, or this wrist parakeet. We have featured one celebrity bird on the blog…you’ll find him here, along with his famous literary connections.
We recommend Rub-a-Dub Sub, written by Linda Ashman, and illustrated by Jeff Mack (Harcourt, 2003). Zooming around in an orange submarine, a little boy encounters numerous ocean creatures – a seal, a manta ray, a horseshoe crab, and an eel to name a few! But an encounter with an enormous shark forces him to quickly retrace his steps to the surface, where he finds himself safe and sound – in his very own bathtub.
Next, turn the cups end-to-end and connect them together with hot glue. If you can’t do hot glue, simply connect the cups with tape. We used black masking tape for the photo below, but regular tape works just as well.
For the paper towel tube version of the project, cut the holes in the bottoms of the cups. Then place a piece of paper towel tube inside the bottom cup (our tube piece was 6.75″ long but you might have to adjust yours a little). Place the second cup over top of the first…
Then hot glue (or tape) the two cups together. So…is the extra effort for the paper towel version worth it? You decide! Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the 2 projects. One could argue that the paper towel tube version looks more like a spyglass, but the cups-only version is cute too.
Next, cut a periscope shape out of construction paper, tab the bottom, and attach the periscope to the top of the sub. Finally, use markers to give your sub portholes, plates, rivets, and bolts. Any markers will do, but we really liked how silver metallic marker looked on the black paper cups.
Miss Marissa designed this awesome project, and she made a fantastic I-Spy game to go with it! To play, print up the characters in this template (click 
Get ready for bed with a cozy nightcap and flickering lantern. You might, however, want to bring some earplugs…someone out there is snoring to beat the band, and it’s going to take some searching to find out who (hint: think furry and very, very cute)!
Fold the bottom edge of the tissue paper halfway up the poster board strip. Secure in place with multiple pieces of tape.
Now roll the poster board strip upward, once. This is the “hatband” for your nightcap.
Trim the excess panels of tissue paper off. The excess panels are the sections that are not attached to the hatband (the cuts are demonstrated below with dotted lines).
Circle the hatband around your head, and secure the ends together with staples.
Decide how tall you’d like your nightcap to be, then bunch the tissue paper together at the top. Secure with color masking tape (I used purple tape). Regular tape works as well!
Trim the excess tissue paper off the top of the hat.
Set the hat aside for just a moment…it’s time for the tassel! Fringe a 2.75″ x 8″ rectangle of yellow construction paper, then tape a 4.75″ piece of ribbon to one end. Roll the paper around the ribbon, and secure the paper roll with tape. Tape the tassel to the top of the hat (I used purple masking tape once again – regular works too). The final step is to decorate the hatband with self-adhesive foam shapes!
The hat is done, now for the lantern! My lantern consists of a plastic cup, 2 mini tin foil pie pans, a circle of mirror board, a sparkle stem, and an LED votive. However, if you don’t have these supplies (or if you’d like to construct a simpler lantern) I recommend 
To make the lantern’s handle, punch both ends of a sparkle stem through a second mini pie pan. Twist the loose ends together. Tape the pie pan handle to the bottom of the plastic cup like so:
Place an LED votive in the center of the lantern’s base, then put the plastic cup handle on top of the base. Since you want to be able to open the lantern to get to the LED votive, use tape to create a “hinge” on one side of the cup, and masking tape to make a “latch” on the other side (you can see my latch below, in purple). Finish by adding some (optional) foil star stickers to the plastic cup.
When your nightcap and lantern are finished, it’s time to play the “Find the Snore” game, starring THIS fantastic snoring kitten!
I drew the kitten on a small poster board facade, then taped it to a hand-held tape recorder. I bought it back in 2003 when I needed something inexpensive to record and transcribe my dissertation interviews. A quick Google search led me to a snoring sound track, which I recorded right out of my computer’s desktop speakers.
When it came time to play “Find the Snore,” we darkened the gallery, and asked the kids to cover their eyes while I hid the kitten and pressed “play” on the recorder. Wearing their nightcaps and carrying their lanterns, the kids had to follow the snore to find the kitten!
The first few times, I kept the kitten fairly low to the ground, or just above eye level.
