Penguin Chick Craft

I read in the news the other day that January 20th is Penguin Awareness Day, so I knew I wanted to make a penguin craft with the kids today. I've done a few penguin crafts in the past, but this time I decided to make a baby penguin. My goal was to make something that resembled this cutie:

(source)

I kind of used this coloring sheet as my template, but made it more symmetrical. I traced a body onto black paper. I cut out a white face, a black beak and black toes.

Then I made puffy paint by mixing glue and shaving cream and added in some white and black paint.

If I had to do it again, I wouldn't bother with puffy paint. The kids used porcupine balls to paint the body of the penguin and you can't really put it on thick when using those. It didn't dry puffy at all, so it wasn't necessary. They dabbed the ball all over to create a fuzzy-looking texture. I covered up the head with a paper towel so they wouldn't paint it, but I'm sure older kids wouldn't need that.

Then they dabbed on some plain white paint right over the gray paint.

Next it was time to glue on the white face and beak. We turned the paper upside down so they wouldn't have to lean over the wet paint. And because a black beak would have been lost on the black part of the face, I made them three dimensional by folding the paper before cutting them out.

Then wiggle eyes were glued on. When the paint was dry, I cut them out and the kids added toes to the bottom of their penguins. They turned out so much cuter than I imagined!

I love the crooked white face on my daughter's above. Totally adorable!

Fun Fact: When a penguin chick hatches, it immediately starts calling so its parents recognize its voice. This is important so that when the mother or father return after getting food, they can find their chick just by the sound of its voice.

Polar Animal Crafts

This past week my class studied polar animals. Since my crafts were mostly "reruns" that I tweaked a bit and ones I copied from other people, I thought I'd quickly show them all in one post. I will link back to my original posts if you would like further instructions.
I decided to add some color to our crafts this week. Some by choice, others not so much. First up is the penguin. I used this craft, but cut the body and flippers from all different colors of paper, just for fun.

When we learned about polar bears, I used a craft I found at Mrs. Nessman's blog. I loved it! The kids used crumpled up waxed paper to make ice for their polar bears. They did all the tearing and crinkling and gluing themselves. I had already cut out the polar bears for them. They just added eyes and noses with a black marker. So cute!

I think next time I might try having them watercolor the background before adding the waxed paper.
For our seal pup craft, I had planned on making the same craft we made last year, but I forgot my fake snowflakes at home. So instead I found colored sand and asked the kids if they would mind making colorful seal pups. Of course they loved the idea! So they painted with glue and sprinkled on the sand.

Then came the snowy owls. We used the same technique as our puffy paint owls, but we just used regular white paint instead of making puffy paint. The kids used little porcupine balls to stamp an owl shape on their paper.

And then they added yellow eyes and brown beaks. I was low on blue paper, so we had colorful backgrounds instead.

I love all the colors!

I added in one more polar bear craft that I found at Mrs. Payton's Precious Kindergarteners. We made huge polar bear paws! The average polar bear's paw is 12 inches across, so I got the biggest white paper I could find and drew a paw shape on it. Kind of like an oval, kind of like a rounded rectangle. The kids cut them out themselves.

 I cut the claws and paw pads out for them and they glued them on.

But I took this craft one step further and added their footprints!

Then, similar to when we studied gorillas and we made our hand prints on top of a gorilla's hand print, I asked the kids what they would do if they ever met a polar bear. A friendly polar bear. I wrote their responses down and displayed it in the hallway.

And all week long, the kids could play with polar animals in water beads! The clear is the ice, the blue is the water.

I hope you enjoyed my polar animals recap!

Polar Bears at Twilight

I saw this amazing art project at That Artist Woman that involved several techniques for texture. (You really should head over there and a take a look.) Unfortunately, I didn't have the important supplies, like watercolor paper, disc tempera paint and/or an ample supply of watercolors. So I had to change some things and also make it a little easier for my class, and although they don't look as cool, they are cute and were fun to make. So here is how we did it. The kids used a pencil to draw a horizon line on a piece of white construction paper. Then they painted the top part with very watered-down tempera paint.

While it was still wet, they stamped out the full moon the same way Gail did, by putting a tissue over the end of a cup and holding it there for 10 seconds, but we used a bigger cup. And I also held the tissue on with a rubber band so it was easier for the kids.

Then they painted the bottom with regular light blue tempera paint.

I really wish I had enough blue watercolor paint for the whole class, because Gail used plastic wrap to make it look like ice, and it definitely didn't work with liquid tempera paint. So we blotted it with a scrunched up napkin,

which looked fine when wet, but didn't look much different when dry. So if you have watercolors or tempera discs, use those because it is awesome! (Seriously, go look at Gail's pictures!)
When the paper was dry, the kids glued on the polar bears. Instead of using a stencil and painting them on, I cut out several bears (and baby cubs!) for the kids to use. They made eyes and noses with a black Sharpie.

I really wish I went with a darker blue and purple because they ended up drying much lighter. But honestly, next time I'll spring for the watercolors!

Fluffy Seal Pups

I'm back with another polar animal -- Harp seals! But for our craft, we made the pups. These fuzzy Whitecoats are so cute!

Here's how we did it. I printed out a coloring page of a seal pup (found here) and had the kids use a black sharpie to color in the eyes and nose.

Then they used a paintbrush to apply glue to the seal pup.

I brought in fake snowflakes that I found at Michaels last year,

and the kids sprinkled the flakes onto their seal pup.

When it was covered, they pushed down on it a bit using their palm and then shook off the extra snowflakes. And their seal pup was born:

Some even colored in a blue sky and a breathing hole. Seal pups like to wait at these holes for mama to come up!

And here's an unrelated picture I wanted to share with you. One of my kids drew a picture of me.

I said, "That's me?!" and he said, "Yeah. You're having a bad hair day." Oh my, these kiddos sure know how to make my day ;o)

Fun Fact: A mother harp seal uses its sense of smell to distinguish its baby from all the others.