Simplifying Mom: Purposeful Crafting : Snowman Puppet!

Being a teacher, I just hate doing random crafts with my kids. By that, I mean the crafts with a specific end product with no purpose. So when we craft at home with a specific end product, I set some sort of purpose. A way to do that is to connect them to a book, poem, holiday, gift, etc.

***Sidenote: When I say random crafts, please don't confuse that with my FAVORITE type of crafting. That is the setting out materials (a "play invitation") and having the children create a piece of art work with no boundaries/no set directions.***

This week it was our turn to host playgroup. So, I thought I would read a book and do a winter craft. Any snowman book would do, so I chose I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow. I found this idea for a snowman puppet here.

I tweaked this idea a bit. Here's what I did:

Materials:

Elmer's school glue
Elmer's Glue-All glue
3 cotton balls
Thick craft stick
Pipe cleaners: 1 brown & 1 orange
Felt: 1 strip of colored felt - any color you wish for scarf
Googly Eyes

Directions:
1. Cut a brown pipe cleaner in half. Use the GLUE ALL glue. Regular glue won't work.

2. Glue (with school glue) 3 cotton balls. If you want this to be more toddler friendly, squirt some glue on a paper plate and let them dip the cotton balls in the glue, then press them onto the stick.

3. Use the felt strip for the "scarf". Set the felt piece under the snowman and then wrap it around attaching it together with a drop of glue. Toddlers can use their fingers to put glue onto the felt or a q-tip to dab it. Then squeeze the two pieces together.