Tag Archives: how to

Tiger Tales

Posted on by

It’s story time, and this sweet tiger is eager to read! Best of all, the book is all about your favorite things. It’s art and autobiography, mixed into one!

We read Read to Tiger, written by S.J. Fore and illustrated by R.W. Alley (Penguin Group, 2012; read here by Super Mega Toy Squad). A little boy is trying to quietly sit and read, but an effusive and playful Tiger keeps interrupting with everything from chewing gum to karate. Will Tiger ever settle down? Well, maybe if the book happens to be about his favorite thing…TIGERS!

You’ll need:

  • A large tissue box 
  • Construction paper
  • Paper cup
  • Glue, scissors, stapler, and tape for construction
  • Markers for decorating

Wrap the tissue box in orange construction paper. Your tiger stripes can be black construction paper, drawn on with markers, or you can use self-adhesive foam like we did. The tiger’s muzzle is a shortened paper cup. Add ears, a white tummy, a tail, and some hind legs. Finally, overlap two rounded strips of construction paper around the front of the box so the tiger can cradle the story book. Done!

Our book was about 4″ tall. We folded and stapled together some sheets, then filled the pages with drawings of our favorite things…favorite bird, holiday, weather, number, dessert, color, drink, fruit, animal, etc.

Finally, in keeping with the spirit of the book, story time kids could come “read” their book to me (with a few additional tigers in attendance, of course). And please note the awesome sparkle stem eyeglasses on the tiger on the far left…

This story time was special for another reason, but we can’t do a reveal right now! Stay tuned, and in a few months, all can be shared!

Treetop Architects

Posted on by

Design you own tree house complete with tire swing, water bucket, and stunning views of the verdant foliage. Best of all, it can be crafted with just about anything!

We read The Tree House that Jack Built, written by Bonnie Verburg and illustrated by Mark Teague (Orchard Books, 2014). Jack lives in a tree house with his animals friends who cavort and cause a bit of mischief throughout the day. But when it’s bedtime, everyone settles in for a peaceful night of moonlight and ocean waves. Raucous and then relaxing, this is an especially awesome bedtime story choice!

You’ll need:

  • An assortment of small boxes, toilet paper tubes, and paper towel tubes
  • 1 flat corrugated cardboard base (we used a 9.5″ x 13.5″ cake pad)
  • Green poster board
  • Scissors, glue and tape for construction
  • Markers for decorating
  • Hot glue

Building off your corrugated cardboard base, simply hot glue boxes, toilet paper, and paper towel tubes in whatever way works for you! We also offered natural craft sticks, wooden letters (leftover from this project), stickers, fabric flowers, and green paper crinkle for added texture. The results were fabulous!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Note: the tire swing is a little snippet of foam pipe insulator you can get in the plumbing section of Lowe’s or Home Depot. It was definitely a big hit! And if you’re looking for a slightly more fantastical spin on this project, please see our fairy houses. Or at the very least, check out Katie’s hilarious real estate listings at the end of the post!

Digging Those Dinos

Posted on by

It begins as a simple brown briefcase, but unfolds into a magnetized dino dig! No briefcase? No worries! This Katie-designed masterpiece can be replicated with any box top or cardboard surface.

We read One Hundred Bones by Yuval Zommer (Templar, 2016). Scruff is a messy but happy-go-lucky stray who loves to dig (much to the chagrin of the neighbors). But when he finds an enormous cache of bones, he rallies the other dogs to help unearth them. Some of these bones seem a little…unusual, so the gang goes to the Natural History Museum, where Professor Dinovsky is happy to receive their dino-tastic discovery AND adopt Scruff, digger extraordinaire!

You’ll need:

  • 1 flat piece of cardboard (ours was 10″ x 15″)
  • 1 flexible magnetic adhesive sheet (ours was 8″ x 10″)
  • 1 dino bones template, printed on 8.5″ x 11″ brown construction paper
  • 1 dino bones template, printed on 8.5″ x 11″ white card stock
  • 1 dino dig tools template, printed on 8.5″ x 11″ white card stock
  • Scissors, glue and tape for construction
  • Markers for decorating

In its most basic form, this is a magnetized board that you can match the also-magnetized bones to. So this project can be done with any flat piece of cardboard. First, trim a .5″ x 10″ strip off a 8″ x 10″ flexible magnetic sheet (which we purchased on Amazon). Set the strip aside, then stick the remaining sheet to the cardboard. Glue the dino bone template on top of the magnet sheet. In the below photo, you can see the black magnetic sheet peeking out from under the brown paper…

Now cut the dino bones from the template. Section the magnetic strip into pieces, then stick them onto the backs of the various bones. The bones will now connect to the dino template (and you can see we added a tissue paper border for extra fun)!

Scatter the bones through a room and have your little paleontologists discover, dig, and collect them up using the paper tools from this template!

We had the good fortune of scoring some flat cardboard boxes with flaps through this program, so we took the project to the next level by turning it into a fold out dig with envelope pockets for the bones and tools.

We added a string strap to turn in into a portable briefcase, complete with a wood bead and rubber band closure and dino prints stenciled on the outside!

We finished the entire project by handing out plastic pith helmets (purchased from Oriental Trading Company). As you can imagine, a dino-themed project went over VERY well. There’s always a dino shirt or two at story time, but we were delighted when one little girl arrived with a stunning purple dino bag…

And I can’t resist adding this photo of Katie snagging the above photo whilst being carefully supervised by the dino bag’s owner. So sweet!