Crazy Animal House - Toddler Art Project

Crazy Animal House

Age: 18 Months - 5 Years or older (younger ones need more supervision)

Time: 15 min (+ Prep)

Theme: Doors, Windows, Houses

Books: The Doghouse by Jan Thomas, A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker

Materials:

Construction Paper
Glue Sticks
Small pictures or silhouettes of animals (I used recycled wrapping paper, but it is easy to find and print images)  
Adults get to use Scissors, Exacto Knife and a Ruler

Prep: The house is made from a half sheet of construction paper (6 x 9). You can freehand or use your own measurements for the house, window and door or use mine. Mine were cut with an exacto knife as follows: Mark the Center (3”) of the top of the sheet. From 2” down on each side cut to the top center, creating the ‘roof’. Cut parallel lines 1” and 3” below the roof edge (3” and 5” down from the top) and about ½” from each of the edges. Make a horizontal cut in the middle (3” from edge) to create two window shutters.  The door is 1” below the window (6” from the top), the horizontal cut (top) 2” long and the vertical edge cut to the bottom of the page. The animals are easier – size them so they can ‘hide’ behind the windows and door and cut them out.

Activity: Each child gets a full sheet of construction paper (or copy paper), a pre-cut house, an assortment of animals to choose from and a glue stick. Glue the house to the full sheet of paper (an adult can help fold the windows and door open so they don’t get glued closed). Choose and glue animals inside and outside of the house. Color if desired. 

Notes/Tips: Putting the animals out on a large paper plate will help them from ending up everywhere. The kids I did this with had a lot of fun playing ‘peek-a-boo’ with the animals in the houses, as well as inviting the adults to ‘guess’ where they were.

Ali Croc in the Swamp - Toddler Art Project

I often feel like a coloring page is an incomplete activity to offer little ones, so I try to embellish them with something - like adding craft sticks for skis, or cotton balls for bunny tails. This one is along those lines. It is also a good project for a mixed age group as older kids can do most of the prep on their own.

Ali Croc in the Swamp

Age: 18 Months - 10 Years (younger ones need more prep & supervision)

Time: 10 min (+ Prep)

Theme: Alligators & Crocodiles

Books: An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni, Lyle, Lyle Crocodile by Bernard Waber, Mama Don’t Allow by Thatcher Herd, If You Are Happy & You Know It Jungle Edition by James Warhola

Materials:

Green (or white) construction paper

Copy paper and printer

Crayons/Colored Pencils/Markers

Adults / Big Kids get to use Scissors & Pinking Sheers

Prep: Make Ali Crocs (or just a sample/template if you are working with bigger kids – they can trace and cut their own): Fold your construction paper in quarters long way like an M. Make a light outline using the folded edge as the creatures back. (If you position your sketch to the edges 1 sheet will yield 4 Ali Crocs.) You can free hand your Ali Croc or if you search “Fold Up Animals” you can find a template. Cut out the creature – use pinking sheers for the mouth to make a toothy grin!

Find and print a swampy home to color. I found ours at http://www.coloringpages101.com/coloring_pages/Others/Pond_wxxxf.gif

Activity: Each child gets an Ali Croc, a swamp and crayons/pencils/markers. Color the creature and color his home.  Add some friends in the pond. Take him for a swim. Have fun!

Notes/Tips: If you just ‘print’ a page from a website it will have the web address at the bottom, but if you right click and copy the picture then paste it into a Word Document then print that it won’t. You can also resize pictures this way.