Opossums

I want to apologize right up front for not having any photos of this next craft. I've only done this craft once, several years ago, and didn't even think to take pictures of it. But since it goes with my Nocturnal Animals theme, and I still teach about it every year, I wanted to mention it to you.

First, you need to explain to the kids that Opossums are different from Australia's Possums, even though many people call the Opossum 'Possum. This is something I didn't know until I taught my kids about it. (I love learning new things while I'm teaching them!) For the craft, you need a styrofoam egg, pipe cleaners, wiggle eyes, and a small pom pom.The pom pom (we used pink) gets glued onto the smaller end of the egg. This is the nose. One pipe cleaner (again, we used pink) gets stuck into the bigger end of the egg. This is the tail. You then can wrap it around your finger to make it curl a bit, like it's wrapped around a branch. We also used small pieces of pink pipe cleaners to make ears. You stick one end in, bend it over a bit and stick the other end in. Do this again for the other ear. The wiggle eyes get glued on. Then we used more small pieces of pipe cleaners (white I think) to stick in the bottom for legs. The kids drew on a mouth with a marker. I'm not going to lie to you -- every parent that picked up their child thought it was a mouse, but the kids were very excited to correct them!

Again, I'm sorry I don't have a picture, but I hope it's easy to visualize.

Fun Fact: The Virginia Opossom is the only marsupial found in the United States.