Flapping Wing Stick Puppet Bats

We had a few bat books by Brian Lies, straggle in at the library, this week. Usually, when we pass a theme, I cancel the holds on any books, that didn't make it in in time. Somehow, I missed these, and I'm so glad I did.

For one thing, Bats at the Beach, ties our own trip to the beach, perfectly in with our fall reading. Lies captures the beach experience - and makes it even more fun, by filling it with some of the cutest bats you'll ever see, and a free flowing, rhyming text.

You can can find bat facts, activities, and a video preview, of at least one of the books, at the author's website (click here, to go there). We were inspired by the books to make some cute, bat, stick puppets.

I had the children paint fat, craft sticks, black. They could be colored with markers, but my youngest two prefer to paint, whenever possible.

While those were drying, I traced, and cut out, some bat bodies, and wings, using a glass as a guide, for the round parts (older children could do this step, themselves).

I attached the wings, loosely, to the bodies, with paper fasteners. Then, the children glued on eyes, and drew mouths, and teeth, with a white crayon..

...and glued the bats to the sticks.

Finally, I taped a piece of string to the tips of the wings...

...so the children could pull (gently) on the string, to make the wings flap.

Find out what other's have been reading this week, at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns' What My Child is Reading blog-hop.

It's great to be a homeschooler.