Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Fun Ground Hog Day Crafts for Kids

By Dawn Marcotte


Groundhog Day is will son be here, on February 2. To celebrate this fun holiday kids can use their imagination and make a groundhog mask. They can also play with shadows, to better understand what the groundhog is supposed to see to predict the weather.

Groundhog Mask

This mask is easy to make and can be modified to become almost any animal. To celebrate Groundhogs Day these instructions will create a groundhog mask that kids can wear and play with.

Items Needed

Paper plate

Brown Paint

Paintbrush

Brown construction paper

Scissors

Pink pom pom

Black pipe cleaners

Glue

Paper hole punch

Elastic string

1. Place newspaper on the work surface. Set the paper plat upside down on the work surface and paint it brown on the side facing up. Allow the paint to dry.

2. While the paint is drying cut out two small circles from the brown construction paper. These will be the ears. Cut the black pipe cleaners to create at least 4 lengths for whiskers.

3. Glue the ears onto the face of the paper plate mask. Use the scissors to cut out eyes on the face. Glue the pink pom-pom down for the nose and glue the pipe cleaners in place for whiskers.

4. Carefully punch a hole on opposite sides of the paper plate. Tie one end of the elastic string in the first hole. Measure around the child's head and cut the string with enough left to tie it into the other hole on the mask.

The mask is now ready to wear.

Shadow Puppets

Part of the myth for groundhogs day is the animal seeing its shadow or not to predict the weather. This doesn't really work of course, but kids may enjoy playing with a lamp in a dark room to make hand shadows.

Encourage kids to experiment with holding hands and fingers in different positions to create hand shadows. A bunny, a dog or a flying bird are fairly simple hand shadows to make. Kids can also use common household items such as craft sticks and pipe cleaners to add to the shadows or make completely new ones. If they are feeling really inventive they can trace items onto construction paper and cut them out. Hold them up to create shadows and tell a story.

Groundhogs Day is a fun holiday that celebrates a myth.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment