It’s a simple craft, but oh-so-dynamic when this owl family reveals itself to be a set of charming nesting dolls!
We read Owl Babies, written by Martin Waddell, and illustrated by Patrick Benson (Candlewick Press, 1992). Owl Mother is gone from the nest, and her three baby owls anxiously puzzle out where she could be. It’s not long before Mother returns, with much flapping, dancing, bouncing, and celebrating from her dear owlettes. A sweet tale of connection and family, this was one of Katie’s son’s favorites when he was a little guy. Now he’s a massive freshman at the University of Oklahoma. Just like owls, time flies!
You’ll need:
- One small oatmeal container
- One 14oz paper cup
- One 8oz paper cup
- One toilet paper tube
- Construction paper
- Scissors, tape, and glue for construction
- Markers for decorating
- Optional: feathers
As you can see, we did different combinations of construction paper, textures, and feathers to make each owl unique, but also to keep them visually cohesive as a family. If you can, we highly recommend brown AND white cups, just to give the nesting doll reveal a fun color-change.
For safely transporting their owl family home, we also gave a kids a “nest.” As you can see, it’s a paper bowl covered in brown paper. We made sure the paper was firmly flattened and glued in the bed of the bowl, so there would be no wobbly owl babies!
At our story time, however, we went with a sturdier mole rat that could stand on its own. First, we traced our mole rat templates onto pink construction paper, then backed them with corrugated cardboard. We added a toilet paper tube support to the back, and then finished by attaching the clothing magnets. Here’s a look at the back and the front of our finished mole rats:
We also decided we needed to be extra fancy and make our mole rat a closet. As you can see, the closet rack is a snippet of 
Kids loved customizing the various outfits and hats!
We recently discovered the coolest little easter egg (and book), and wanted to share it!
And yes, the back cover does that as well, but you’ll have to acquire a copy and see the lovely image for yourself! Better yet, turn this into a story time and activity with this simple (but SUPER popular) 
Don’t forget to pack the marshmallows!