Tag Archives: story time project

More Cowbell

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more cowbell

Is that a drum solo? Or the sound of a massive stampede? YOU decide when your buffalo finger puppet performs on this awesome drum set! It took a little work, but we figured out how to get this entire drum set on a single sheet of paper. Just cut, color, fold, and rock out!

We recommend reading Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums, written by Audrey Vernick, and illustrated by Daniel Jennewein (Balzer + Bray, 2011). From the first time you brought that baby buffalo home, you knew he was destined for great things. So order a drum set and wait for the magic (and don’t forget a couple cases of earmuffs for the neighbors)!

You’ll need:

First, cut the drum set from the template. It will looks like this…

drum set step 1Decorate it with markers, and don’t forget to write the name of your band inside the circle of the bass drum! When you’re done coloring, flip the drum set template over:

drum set step 2Roll the lower drums inwards, and tape them to the back of the set.

drum set step 3Next, fold the tabs downward along the dotted lines. These are your drum heads. Use scissors to shape them to the tops of your drums, then secure them with tape.

drum set step 4Repeat the same process with the upper drums.

drum set step 5Now fold the long base of the drum set upwards, tucking the cymbal stands between the lower and upper drums.

drum set step 6Turn the set around, and stick small tape loops to the tops of each cymbal stand. Pinch two circles of tin foil onto the tape loops. Your cymbals are ready, and your drum set is done!

drum set step 7Use scrap paper from your template to fashion a pair of drum sticks and finger loops. Tape the sticks to the finger loops, and slide them over your fingers.

drum sticksFinally, your buffalo drummer! Cut and color the buffalo finger puppet from the template (or use the full color version here). Cut finger holes in the chest. Then ready your drum sticks, step behind the drum set, and JAM!

more cowbell

D-O-N-U-T-S-!

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Whip up this amazing batch of donuts for your friends to enjoy! All you need are tape cores and felt (or construction paper). These beautifully crafted delectables were created by Marissa, whose love of donuts knows no bounds!

We recommend reading Please, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony, (Scholastic, 2014). Mr. Panda has a box of tasty looking donuts to offer (and a cute little hat), but he very bluntly changes his mind every time a customer demands a donut. The problem? Everyone forgets to say “Please!” Finally a lemur utters the magic word and receives the entire box of donuts (and the hat)! To the politest, goes the prize.

You’ll need:

  • Several masking tape cores
  • Stiffened felt or construction paper
  • Scissor, hot glue and/or tape for construction

I love Marissa’s creativity and ingenuity…the “donut” is actually a masking tape core!

donut masking tape core 3 Wrap the outside of the tape core with felt and secure the felt in place with hot glue. The top of the donut is a circle of stiffened felt. Marissa left the donut tops unattached so you can mix and match your donut styles. Genius.

felt donut 3If felt isn’t your thing, construction paper works for this project too – and you can use tape instead of hot glue. Here’s my construction paper donut with self-adhesive foam sprinkles to give it some texture (but construction paper sprinkles work just as well).

construction paper donut 3Marissa crafted a custom cardboard box for her set of donuts and, best of all, made a cardboard panda hand to smack away greedy donut eaters. You can see the whole thing in action on her Instagram. You can also check out her fully stocked alphabet refrigerator, shadow puppets, bug sculptures, and 7 foot hand-crafted wall hanging. Girl is on FIRE!

So FLUFFY

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so fluffy

He’s big. He’s soft. He’s…so…FLUFFY. This simple box kitty is also incredibly stylish.

We read Papillon: The Very Fluffy Kitty by A.N. Kang (Disney Hyperion, 2016). Papillon is a big, fluffy kitty. In fact, he’s so fluffy, he can float on air! Miss Tilly fears her cat will fly away and get lost, but then she discovers that clothing keeps Papillon on the ground. She begins designing costumes for Papillon, each outfit more ridiculous than the next. Papillon finally puts his paw down and refuses to wear anything. And, just as Miss Tilly fears, he floats out the window and gets lost in the scary woods. Papillon tries fashioning a hat, scarf and belt out of leafy vines so he can walk home, but they don’t work! Luckily, a friendly bird tows Papillon home. When Miss Tilly meets Papillon’s new friend, she has her best design idea ever…a birdhouse hat to keep the friends together, and Papillon somewhat grounded.

You’ll need:

  • 1 large box (ours was 4.5” X 4.5” x 9” – a large tissue box works too)
  • White poster board
  • Cotton balls
  • Black construction paper
  • 1 paper cup
  • Hat decorating supplies (more on this below)
  • Scissors, tape, and glue for construction
  • Hot glue

cat box

Basically, each kid started with a cat box, as shown above (it’s remarkably similar to this one, but we used a box instead of an oatmeal container this time). Definitely use hot glue to fix the pieces down, and use poster board for the hind legs, front legs, tail, and ears. Anything less sturdy is going to buckle under all that glue and cotton balls. Because you’re going to use lots and LOTS of glue and cotton balls…

fluffy catBasically, just cover the box with cotton balls! The fluffier, the better! For the face, we used large, 1.5″ eyes stickers from Oriental Trading Company (a roll of 100 pairs is $2.50), and a bit of self-adhesive foam for the nose. You can just use construction paper to make these, though. The whiskers are construction paper as well.

Once the fluffy cats were finished, the costuming portion of the project began. We made hats. The basic hat was a 5.25″ circle of white poster board with a paper cup hot glued to it. Kids could choose the color, and height, of their paper cups.

cat hatThen, out came the Bling Bin, as well as sparkle stems, duck quills, patterned paper, and fabric flowers. And things got FANCY.

When the costumes were finished, each cat received his/her very own bird friend. This was a little wooden bird whistle, left over from this epic robot story time. Tweet tweet!

cat hat bird