Thumbelina Egg Carton Craft

Our story choice for stART (story + ART) this week, was Hans Christian Andersen's Thumbelina, retold and illustrated by Lauren Mills. Mills' has shortened, and softened the original story for the modern audience. Of course, my youngest two want to rush straight out to the video store to rent Barbie Presents Thumbelina, which I imagine has been adapted, and softened even more.

Generally, no matter what version of Thumbelina you're reading, or watching, the little girl "no bigger than your thumb", starts out in a flower. So, we focused on that detail, and made Thumbelina, flower puppets.

I cut a few sections out of an egg carton, which the children colored green, on the outside.

Then, I used a scissor blade to poke a slit in the bottom of each section for them.

The children added eight, heart shaped, flower petals, traced and cut from construction paper, to each flower. My youngest, was content to let me do the cutting for her today, because she was getting to color with a marker, which she's normally not allowed to touch.

The girls colored craft sticks green, leaving a small space at the top, uncolored, or Thumbelina's face.

We drew on simple faces, and the girls added some bits of yarn, for hair. We decided it was easiest, to glue the yarn to the front of the craft stick, and color the hair on the back side, with a marker.

Thumbelina was placed in the flower, and our puppets were ready. Pull the stem down, and you have an ordinary flower.

Push it up, and Thumbelina appears.

For more story stretching, arts and crafts projects, check out this week's stART link up, at A Mommy's Adventures.

It's great to be a homeschooler.