CRAFTS | Old MacDonald’s Barn 2.0

Some photos on my new, improved! barn, now with more a barnlike roofline and hay instead of grass. Plus, MacDonald’s sign over his animules’ home. A definite improvement over the prototype.

 

CRAFTS | “Old MacDonald Had a Barn, E-I-E-I-O!”

 

 

 

 

Most of my Storytimes include a rousing rendition of “Old MacDonald” accompanied by an assortment of farm animal stuffies that I pull out of a library bag at the appropriate moment. Kids love it. Parents anticipate naming the farm animals with their kids, and I thoroughly enjoy performing this bit of Storytime magic.

Last week, however, I got tired of pulling the animals out of a bag so I decided to build them a proper home out of a 12- x 18-inch corrugated carton shipping box and lots of glue.

I resized and printed on tabloid-sized paper an image of a barn that I liked from the ‘net (tip of the hat to whoever designed this one) …

 

 

 

… and thoroughly gluesticked it to the box.

Then I decided the bottom needed finishing, so I went for some grass:

(Next time I’ll start with the bottom sheets first.)

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a few images of the prototype I made last week:

 

 

 

 

Today the editor inside of me decided to make it a bit better, so I’ve been tinkering with the barn images a lot.

I also decided that the bottom would be better as hay, not grass (duh!).

I’m still not happy with the box’s non-barnlike roofline, but hey – it’s a box from which animals magically appear and as such it “does the trick.”

 

PHOTO > Mom Sandie (thanks!)

So …

Here are some JPEGs of my reworked barn and hay …

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Much nicer, eh?

If you’d like to build yourself a replica, here’s a tabloid-sized (11 x 17 inches) PDF of the barn and hay ready to  print and glue down whenever you decide to give your farm animals a proper home. I mean, who likes living in a bag?

 

PDF TEMPLATE > OLD MacDONALD’S CARDBOARD BARN

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

 

 

 

NO GIRAFFES IN THIS BARN!

STORYTELLING PROPS | The Rabbit in the Carrot Pop-Up

I was called in at the last minute to give a Family Storytime to a group of caregivers and their charges. Needing some extras, I went into the “closet” and found a cute Made-in-China pop-up toy featuring a little rabbit hiding inside a carrot.

I asked my boss what she knew about this object and she replied:

Well, I was mesmerized and so were the kids and their caregivers.

So, I decided to buy one for my regular Storytimes.

A long search came up empty-handed. As no bunnies in carrots were to be found, my crafty side began to think that I could build one myself.

I already had a finger puppet from IKEA that I could use:

So, I gathered together a pair of scissors, a stick, a plastic funnel,  squares of orange and green felt, a piece of white fabric to make a “skirt” for the bunny, a sewing kit, thick rubber bands to hold the skirt to the funnel, and a bottle of Weldbond to hold the last layer of felt in place, and … got busy!

Weldbond – It’s the best!

About an hour or so later (twisting the felt just-so was somewhat frustrating!) I had my bunny on a stick. Up and down she goes, depending on her shyness quotient (or how enthusiastically the kids shout out their part in the play: “Yes, she will!”).

Total cost: less than $3. That’s a lot of joy per buck.

And, if I may say so, I think it’s better than the Made-in-China one back in the box in the “closet” at work.

pinterest.com/flannelfriday

and …

librarystorytimeabcs.blogspot.ca/2012/04/flannel-friday-round-up.html