Saturday, October 9, 2010

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.

7 comments:

Christy Killoran said...

We love all three of those books and own Bats at the Library. Your craft is great! I'm adding it to my to do list.

Debbie said...

Those bats are so cute. You know I have yet to find paper fasteners here. I look every where I go, I see so many great crafts using them and I am bummed I can't find any.

Brimful Curiosities said...

I have Bats at the Ballgame on hold at the library. Hoping to get it soon. My son is obsessed with bats after helping construct a see-through bat model. I like your bats.

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

What a neat craft, and it might just easy enough for us to attempt, since we have Bats in the Library to read and also Stellaluna. Unfortunately, so far daughter refuses even to open Stellaluna, somehow she finds the cover very unappealing. Thanks for joining WMCIR!

Ticia said...

Love the bat puppet. Maybe when the kids get back from grandparents we'll make that. Batman's been nuts about bats recently with Halloween.

LitLass said...

We'll have to find those books. The puppets turned out great!

Jackie Higgins said...

We're doing Bat books this week. (Mostly because my 2 yo is going to be Batman for halloween). I'm not sure if he could make this but he would love retelling and playing out his stories with one so I think we're going to try this puppet this week. thanks for the ideas.