Tag Archives: animals

Cardboard Roll Bunnies

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IMG_9557These cute little bunnies are made from toilet rolls, but any cardboard tubes could be used. We covered the rolls with white paper first. We glued the paper to the tubes, and folded the ends inside the tube for neatness.

Making bunny ears.

Making bunny ears.

Drawing on details.

Drawing on details.

Adding a tail.

Adding a tail.

 

 

 

 

I cut out some pink cardboard for the inner sections of the white paper ears, and L glued the cardboard to the paper. The kids glued two ears into the top of their cardboard roll. Then they got busy gluing on googly eyes and using markers to add the facial features and arms. L also drew a little carrot in the hands of her bunny, which A promptly copied onto her bunny too. L drew her bunny’s feet on, but A wanted to use a white pipe cleaner as feet for her bunny. I cut two small lengths of pipe cleaner, and bent them around to form little feet, then A glued the end of them into the base of her roll.

To finish the bunnies off, the kids glued a cotton ball onto the back of the cardboard roll as a tail. While we had the cotton balls out, L had an idea for making baby bunnies. She made some ears out of paper and markers, and glued them to a cotton ball. Then she added some tiny googly eyes. She gave this baby bunny to A to play with. They called this one Baby Hopsity, and the bigger bunnies were Father and Mother Hopsity.

Baby Hopsity.

Baby Hopsity.

Cardboard Roll Chicks

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Gluing on the yellow paper.

Gluing on the yellow paper.

The roll covered in paper. The edges have been folded into the roll.

The roll covered in paper. The edges have been folded into the roll.

We used toilet paper rolls for these chicks, but rolls from paper towel or similar could have been cut in half to use instead. We covered the cardboard rolls in yellow paper so that the paper extended beyond the ends of the roll. We cut these sections just to the edge of the cardboard to create a fringe of paper at the ends of the roll.  Then we folded the excess paper fringe into the centre of the roll to make a neatly covered cardboard roll.

 

Adding feet.

Adding feet.

Adding eyes.

Adding eyes.

I cut out some feet shapes from orange cardboard and the kids added them to the base of their rolls. Each foot had a little tab of cardboard folded up and glued on the inside of the roll. L and A added googly eyes and the beaks were made from a small piece of pipe cleaner folded into a little triangle and glued onto the roll.

L cut down some yellow feathers to the size she wanted, and placed them on the sides of her chick for wings. She also glued a small piece of feather to the back as a tail. A cut up feathers to use on her chick too. She added wings, a tail, and some hair to her chick. Both chicks are really cute.

The back of L's chick.

The back of L’s chick.

Showing the placement of feathers on A's chick.

Showing the placement of feathers on A’s chick.

 

 

Sheep Cupcakes

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IMG_8959A while ago I saw some of the librarians at our local library had made foods inspired by books, and they had made sheep cupcakes for Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek. We own this book, and it gets read over and over to the point where both L and A are able to recite the words! I love the idea of book inspired food, and these sheep cupcakes looked simple enough, so I gave them a go.

Cupcakes ready for icing.

Cupcakes ready for icing.

Big L made a double batch of butter cupcakes, and when they were cool, I iced them with basic vanilla frosting. Then I covered each one with mini-marshmallows (I think the pack called them mallow bakes). I had these in pink and white, so we had some pink sheep and some white sheep.

Covered in mini marshmallows.

Covered in mini marshmallows.

For the heads I used some honeycomb chocolate pods, which are like a small biscuit cup filled with chocolate and come in a number of different flavours (I think they are made by Mars). The filling side of the pods was facing out, and I drew on this using white chocolate writing fudge to form the facial features and ears of each sheep.

It didn’t take me as long as I expected to make these sheep cupcakes, and I was quite happy with the result. Everyone thought they were very yummy too.

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There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Mozzie by P. Crumble and Louis Shea

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IMG_8896There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Mozzie by P. Crumble and Louis Shea, paperback picture book, published by Scholastic Australia in 2010.

This is an hilarious Australian twist on the classic There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly. Only here, the Old Lady swallows a Mozzie (mosquito), followed by a range of Aussie animals, which get bigger and bigger.

The illustrations in There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Mozzie are fantastic. The Old Lady is comically dressed in purple slippers with matching purple hair, and a purple bow on her wide-brim hat. My favourite picture is of the Old Lady eating an echidna sandwich with tomato sauce, but every page contains a wonderfully humorous drawing. And the story is just as entertaining, as she eats her way through the Australian bush in an attempt to catch the mozzie she has swallowed.

I shared this book with my children, and they loved it. It’s best for lower primary school children and below, though all ages can have a laugh while reading this book. It is perfect for reading aloud and for sharing. Once we’d read the story we really enjoyed talking about the pictures, and how silly the Old Lady is for swallowing all those animals, especially since she took her teeth out at the start! A fun book we will read over and over.

The Terrible Plop by Ursula Dubosarsky

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IMG_8646The Terrible Plop by Ursula Dubosarsky and illustrated by Andrew Joyner, paperback picture book, first published by Penguin Group (Australia) in 2009, this edition published by Penguin Group (Australia) in 2012.

The rabbits are having a relaxing snack by the lake when they hear a loud noise. It frightens them and they run away from the lake as quickly as they can telling all the animals they meet on the way about the “Terrible Plop”. They come to a bear who doesn’t believe anything could be scarier than him, and he forces the smallest of all the rabbits to show him where this “Terrible Plop” is.

Just as some children are wary of trying new things, the littlest rabbit discovers that some things seem scary at first, but once they are explained, they are not really scary at all. This is something most people can relate to. The Terrible Plop is an entertaining story with rhyming text and lovely illustrations. It is an excellent read-aloud book, and I love sharing this one with my kids. Great for preschoolers and lower primary school children, this story is sure to become a favourite.

Pom Pom Bunnies and Chicks

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IMG_8836When we went into Riot Art & Craft last week they had a large display of Easter crafts, including some little craft kits. Each of the kids picked out a pom pom critter kit to make at home. L chose mini chicks and bunnies, and A chose some chicks.

IMG_8818IMG_8819There were some instructions on the back of the pack, but it would have been possible to complete the pom pom critters from the picture alone, given what was in each kit. We had to cut up some of the pipe cleaners to the right length, but otherwise everything was ready to go.

 

Adding the chick's bunny ears headband.

Adding the chick’s bunny ears headband.

L got started on hers straight away, getting the beak and little puffy cheeks onto her chicks. A asked that I help her with the glue, and making the pipe cleaners into the right shapes. Once I’d placed the glue, she put the pieces together carefully.

One of L’s mini bunnies experienced a small accident which left its face elongated, so L started calling it the ele-bunny. I think she just damaged the pom pom, making it a weird shape.

L's mini bunnies and mini chicks.

L’s mini bunnies and mini chicks.

It was a fun way to pass an hour or so, and once the pom pom critters dried, the kids had great fun playing with them. A even took her chicks to bed with her and cuddled them to sleep.

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The Bear’s Lunch by Pamela Allen

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IMG_8642The Bear’s Lunch by Pamela Allen, paperback picture book, published by Puffin Books in 1998.

When Oliver and Wendy go for a picnic lunch by the lake, they are unaware that a very hungry bear is roaming near by looking for a meal. The bear becomes increasingly hungry, so when it spies Wendy and Oliver, they look like a nice, easy lunch. However, Oliver and Wendy have other ideas.

Pamela Allen books are very popular in our house, and The Bear’s Lunch has been read many, many times. My kids love to do all the growls and roars throughout the book. The story is easy to follow along, and it is great to share with young children up to lower primary school age. This is a fun story with a happy ending that most children will enjoy.

Bunny Cake

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IMG_8719Big L made a round buttercake, and I decided we should decorate it as a bunny. It was iced with plain white frosting andIMG_8711 then covered in dessicated coconut.

Bunny ears.

Bunny ears.

The ears were made by gluing some pink foam onto white felt, and then when they were dry, I attached them to the back of the cake using toothpicks, so they were sticking up into the air.

I used both normal sized and mini marshmallows to make the nose and the teeth. The eyes are half a marshmallow with a mini m&m as a pupil. The mouth is made out of writing fudge, but I had lots of trouble getting it into the shape I wanted as it didn’t stick to the coconut very well. By the time I came to make the whiskers I was a bit frustrated with the writing fudge, so I started looking for something else to use. I thought about using liquorice, but we didn’t have anything, so I compromised and used dry spaghetti. I broke the spaghetti into the lengths I wanted and then laid the pieces down as whiskers.

Everyone was very happy with how our bunny cake turned out, and even happier when they were eating it!

 

Animal Magnets

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Lots of spare animal cards.

Lots of spare animal cards.

Last year Woolworths wowed all the kids with their Aussie Animal Cards to collect. And then came the baby wildlife Aussie Animal Cards just before Christmas. L and A got to collecting them, and filling up their albums, but they were left with lots of spares. When the promotion finished, we didn’t quite have the full set. Our friends were very generous in giving us their spares to try to complete our sets, and now I think we are only short one card. However, there is a huge stack of spares left, and most people we know already have a full set, and still have spares. The kids like looking through all the spares, but I thought they might be able to be put them to a better use.

I received a new laminator for Christmas, and I was keen to try it out. L picked out five of the Aussie Animal Cards, and I placed them into an A4 laminating pouch and laminated them. I cut around each card, making sure there were no pointy corners. We glued some magnets to the back of each one. We tried some of the magnets at the top of the card, and some in the centre, both worked well.

Laminating the cards.

Laminating the cards.

Adding magnets.

Adding magnets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the glue was dry we put our new animal magnets onto the front of the fridge.

Lined up on our fridge.

Lined up on our fridge.

Balloon Octopus

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Sticking the tentacles on.

Sticking the tentacles on.

Making balloon octopuses (octopi?) is a quick and easy after school craft activity. All you need is some balloons, tape, crepe paper (or streamers or tissue paper) and permanent markers. I blew up a balloon for A, but L blew her own up, and tied it off. I added string to the knot so that the octopuses could be hung up.

Drawing a face onto her octopus.

Drawing a face onto her octopus.

They each cut up some crepe streamers into eight pieces for the tentacles (another opportunity to practice some counting!). Then they used tape to stick these on around the bottom of the balloon. A used the permanent markers to draw a face, including hair, ears and cheeks, while L covered her balloon in red spots, and told me it was a ‘red-ring octopus’. L also put some red spots on the tentacles. They had to be careful not to use too much pressure when drawing on the balloons so they didn’t pop. A glued a few pieces of pink tissue paper to the back of hers to make it pretty.

Once they were finished, I used blu-tack to stick the strings to the roof so that the tentacles hang down and swish in the breeze.

A smiley octopus.

A smiley octopus.

A spotty octopus hanging from the ceiling.

A spotty octopus hanging from the ceiling.