The cookies are served, the tea is steeping, and now it’s time to greet your guest…a very civilized T. Rex puppet that sips tea and nibbles delectables!
We read Tea Rex by Molly Idle (Viking, 2013). When Cordelia invites Mr. Rex to tea, she follows all the proper rules of etiquette. Of course, it quickly gets derailed by T. Rex’s size, loudness, and clear preference for snacking on her little brother’s teddy bear. Nevertheless, she persists, and later earns an reciprocal invitation to a dino-mite tea!
You’ll need:
- 1 large tissue box
- 1 small tissue box
- Brown or green construction paper or poster board
- 2 brass fasteners
- 2 wooden coffee stirrers
- A bit of crepe paper streamer
- 1 teapot template, printed on 8.5″ x 11″ white card stock
- Hole punch, scissors, and tape for construction
- Markers for decorating
First, set your tea table! We used a 2″ x 4″ x 4″ craft box, but you can also cut down a small tissue box. Add a crepe paper streamer skirt to make it extra fancy. The teapot template is from this Delicious Dim Sum post. Use the leftover paper from the template to create teacups, a serving tray, and cookies. Once the table is ready, it’s time for your guest to arrive…
Our T. Rex puppet is a 4.5” X 4.5” x 9” craft box, but a large tissue box wrapped with construction paper works too! The head, legs, arms, and tail are made from brown poster board, and his collar and necktie are extra teapot template paper.
The puppet’s arms swivel on brass fasteners. Simply tape wooden coffee stirrers to the backs of the arms to get them to rotate. Tape a cookie and a cup to T. Rex’s hands, move the sticks up and down, and watch him enjoy his refreshments!
The books hilariously builds up to P.U. Zorilla inevitably doing what skunks do. We wanted to capture some of that fun, so our skunk box actually “sprays” when startled, courtesy of a rectangle cut in its rear and a white plastic grocery bag…
Also part of the story time project? A police hat for you, and a police collar for your skunk. The hat is from our 
Katie printed 6 images on 8.5″ x 11″ card stock. Half of the images were calm (flowers, puppies, ice cream truck) and the other half were alarming (robber, loud noise, ghost). Katie walked the kids through the training, asking them to react to the different scenes. If it was alarming, the kids pulled the plastic bag out of their skunks and sprayed!
The kit provides the basic pieces to get started. Namely an instructional booklet, 2 pipe cleaners, crystal powder, a plastic narwhal figurine, and a little paper backdrop to pose the finished product on.
However, you will have to fill in some gaps with items you may or may not have already at home: 2 heatproof glass jars with lids (I used old jelly jars, but Bell jars would totally work), measuring cups and spoons, a plastic plate, and a pot holder or trivet. Most importantly, you need to use distilled water to make the crystal growing solutions. I bought a gallon of distilled water at the grocery store for 99 cents.
Next, you make a crystal “growing solution” and let the narwhal soak in the solution for 4-8 hours. If you made the solution correctly, crystals will grow on the pipe cleaners. Let the narwhal dry overnight, then do a second round of soaking in the growing solution. If your experiment worked, you finish with a beautiful narwhal with a crystal tusk, water spout and tail!
One suggestion…I had to get a bit creative with my glass jar because there wasn’t enough growing solution liquid to fully cover my narwhal. I simply rolled up a dish towel and rested my jar at an angle so the pipe cleaners were submerged.
Another suggestion is using something other than your fingers to remove the narwhal from the liquid after it is done soaking. I used a wood skewer, but you can also use a plastic spoon or tongs. In fact, every time I handled the narwhal or any of the experiment materials, I thoroughly washed my hands to remove residual crystal powder (which is aluminum potassium sulfate, or alum).
It took me 4 days to finish the project. But I allowed extra soaking time for the pom-pom “icebergs” to grow bigger crystals, so technically you can wrap up the experiment in 3 days. There is a great deal of adult supervision to complete this kit. I fully agree with the suggested age range of 8 and older with adult assistance. There is no way a child should work with stove tops, microwaves, boiling water, and chemicals without an adult present.