Thursday, December 2, 2010

Christmas Bear Craft





The Man of the House had to go back into the office, last night, after supper. So, I seized the opportunity for some late night, messy crafting, with the girls.

When, I checked out Kestutis Kasparavicius' The Bear Family's World Tour Christmas, from the library, it was because I thought it would be a Christmas-around-the-world sort of book. It turns out to be more about bears around the world, than about Christmas, as a bear family takes their house, attached to a hot air balloon, and travels the world to help all of their relatives, in distant lands decorate for Christmas.

In keeping with the book, I found a Christmas bear, paper doll print-out, here (the Internet can be a mother's best friend). I printed two copies as 5"x7" prints, then flipped the picture, and printed them again, so each of the younger girls, could have two bears, that sit facing each other. While their older sisters went to work helping to cut them out, the younger girls made houses for them to decorate for Christmas.
I gave them each a cardboard house cutout, along with a fireplace shape, an oval for a rug, and dryer sheet boxes.

They painted the boxes brown. We used acrylic paint, because it dries quickly, and is very easy to clean up, with soap, and water (though it can stain clothing).

Then, colored, and glued the house fronts, to the flaps of the boxes, with the bottom of the house, touching the fold of the lid...

...so they open to reveal the "house" interiors, where they glued the fireplaces, and placed the rugs.

They have some more decorating to do, but at that point, it was time to clean up the mess, and put on jammies, before Daddy arrived home, tired from work. Though, we left the houses out, so he could see what the girls had been up to (minus all the wet paint, and paper clippings).

For more story stretching arts, and crafts, check out this week's stART (story + ART) link-up, at A Mommy's Adventures.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

15 comments:

Michelle said...

This sounds like a cute book even though it is different than what you (and I) would have thought it was actually about. I love your project and I think Emily would too!

Thank you for linking up to stART :0)

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

I love the bears and their houses. This craft might be very popular here with the catch that we don't have big sisters to help cut things out.

Christy Killoran said...

We own that book. I agree that the title is somewhat deceiving. The book could be so much better than it is. My kids seem to like it though.

I think my kids would love to do this craft!! Very cute.

I love that you refer to your husband as the man of the house in your posts; it always makes me smile.

Unknown said...

What a BEARY special evening for you and the girls... (hee! hee!)

Joyful Learner said...

How clever to think of flipping the image around and printing it again! I love the bear houses and the story sounds interesting. Did it show how Christmas was celebrated/looked in various countries?

Tonya Gunn said...

so sweet - that came out wonderful.
I recently blogged about a car garage my daughter made for her little brother.

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Joyful Learner - Sadly, no. It mentions the different types of bears you might find - like pandas, polar, and spectacled bears, but not any real Christmas traditions.

Debbie said...

That sounds like a cute book. I love the girl's houses. It sounds like your husband and Papa would get along great! Papa loves to see what we have done, but don't let him see the mess.

Christianne @ Little Page Turners said...

Your expectations for the book definitely sound better than the actual book, but those bears are adorable! Our man of the house likes seeing our projects too... minus all the mess. :)

Ticia said...

That looks so cute. I agree the Internet is a moms best friend

Anonymous said...

I love the bears and their house. Really cute project.

Phyllis said...

So cute!

Unknown said...

I like this! I am not familiar with the book, but this craft reminds of the book Goodnight Moon.

Jackie Higgins said...

I need girls!! I mean, I think boys would like this book and project but girls probably would devote more time to it. My son has to be the big bad wolf and destroy every house-like structure in sight!! Anyway, great project! And you're right, you can find anything on the internet.

Darcey said...

I love the bears and their houses! This looks like a fun project and it came out really cute! This was one of my favorite crafts posted this week and I've linked up to it here: http://play2grow.blogspot.com/2010/12/weekly-favorites-december-5-2010.html