Monster Box

Sweet Pea is 4 years old.

From: I found these cute “Tattle Monsters” from Giggles Galore.   Although those monsters were made by Mariah for her classroom, I thought a Sweet Pea would be able to make something similar with a little help.  As a bonus, our monster also serves as a fun Halloween decoration.

Material:

• Empty Kleenex box.
• Paper tube from an empty roll of toilet paper.
• 2 pom-poms.
• 1 piece of paper.
• 2 colors of craft paint.
• Small bowls to hold the paint.
• Paint brush.
• A foam circle stamp, the end of a short dowel rod, a bottle cap or something else that can be used to “stamp” a 1/2″ circle.
• Scissors.
• Sharpie.
• Glue.

Procedure:

• Cut the toilet paper tube in half.
• Have your child select a paint color and paint the outside of the Kleenex box and the paper tube.  Let the box and tube dry.
• Have your tot paint the box and tube again with a second coat. Let the second coat dry.

• Show your tot how dip the stamp into paint and then “dot” it on the Kleenex box to make polka-dots.  Also let her decorate the paper tube and allow everything to dry again.
• Using the Kleenex box as template, draw a rectangle on the piece of paper.  Cut out the rectangle so it is slightly (1/2 inch) smaller than the Kleenex box.

•  Draw a zig-zag line across the rectangle with the sharpie and let your tot cut along it to create the jagged monster teeth.
• Glue the teeth into the monster’s mouth.

•  Glue one pom-pom inside each paper tube.

•  Glue the paper tubes to the Kleenex box.  I rotated the tubes so the eyes were against the sides instead of at the bottom of the tubes.
• If you need a few minutes of free time, require your tot to stand and hold the pom-poms or paper tubes in place for 3 or 4 minutes while the glue dries.  😉

Observations: Sweet Pea really, really loved her monster box.

She had an especially good time painting the Kleenex box, and I am now trying to think up other random things I can let her paint.

This activity could be adapted for a wide variety of ages, but it is probably best for preschoolers and up.

Notes from the Trenches:  I forgot about the tip from Giggles Galore to “stamp” the dots onto the monster and instead had Sweet Pea just paint them on.  She had a really hard time of it and just painted swipes of orange all over the box.   I was able to keep my inner perfectionist under control and didn’t yank the paintbrush out of her sweet little hands and just do it myself… But just barely.  🙂

Rating: 3 Stars * (Fun, Easy, Frugal)