stuff you can steal from me!
Samples, unused ideas, really cool things that shouldn't go to waste... here they are!
If you want to use this stuff for educational purposes, go ahead. All I ask is that you give me credit by not removing the copyright information from each piece.
If you want to publish this stuff in any format, you need to ask for permission.
If you are going to publish it for profit, you need to make me an offer.
roadkill butterfly collection
I think this is an original idea. After using butterflies in Riker mounts with preschoolers a few times, I knew I needed to find a better way! The poor children would turn the boxes over to try to see the undersides of the wings. They spent most of their observation time trying to open the boxes. With my roadkill collection, they can see the front and the back. They can even bend it a little with no harm done. And yes, these are really roadkills. You'll notice some have missing or torn wings.
I love to laminate things, so it seemed like a natural solution. I use a rolling laminating machine, and it was impossible to place the butterflies on the rolling laminator properly. If you have a pocket laminator, you might be able to do a better job of that. I ended up using clear contact paper.
I first tried to laminate whole butterflies. That really didn't work. Either they were too fresh and their guts squished out, or they were too dry and their bodies crumbled. I decided to use dissection scissors to carefully snip the wings from the body.
Arrange the wings on the sticky side of the paper. Cover with another piece of contact paper. Trim. If you set the finished product in the sun for a few minutes, the contact paper will seal better and give you a nicer-looking finished product.
mushroom in the rain story cloth
Mirra Ginsburg's story about how mushrooms grow in the rain lacks a little in the natural history of predators and prey, but it is a charming story. I always include a little debriefing. You can make a "growing" mushroom with a couple pieces of fabric and a little interfacing. But first, the story! In brief, an ant finds shelter from the rain under a small mushroom. One by one, wet animals appear. And, one by one, they miraculously fit under the mushroom. The animals are amazed that such a tiny mushroom provided shelter for so many animals until a frog comes along and clears things up.
To make the stage, you'll need a piece of green fabric for the "meadow" (about 1 1/2 to 2 yards square), a piece of slippery brown or beige material (like nylon) for the top of the mushroom (about 2 yards square), a scrap of brown or beige material for the stem of the mushroom, and some scraps of interfacing.
First, fuse a piece of interfacing to the center of the wrong side of the green fabric. Sew a circle (about 1/2 - 2" in diameter) in the center of the interfacing. Cut the center out of the circle, leaving a 5/8" seam allowance. Clip the seam allowance.
Now, cut a mushroom stem (a rectangle) from the brown or beige scrap. The short side needs to be long enough to go all the way around the circle you sewed plus seams. The long side needs to be twice the height of the finished stem. I reinforced my stem with interfacing. Sew the long edges together.
Now for the tricky part! Pin the clipped edges of your circle's seam allowance to the end of the tube right sides together and sew. Then fold the top of the tube down inside the stem wrong sides together. Tuck the seam allowances inside the stem and handstitch in place.
When you are ready to tell the story, slip the center of the mushroom top up through the stem and pull on it until you can make a little mushroom. As you tell the story, pull the mushroom top up through the stem. I usually do this by reaching under the top (right next to the stem) and giving a tug about 3 - 5 places around the stem. Then a few quick adjustments to the top, and you have a bigger mushroom waiting to accomodate the next wet, tired animal.
glow-in-the-dark stars
Those stars that you can stick to the ceiling can also be used to create real or imaginary constellations. Buy several packs. Divvy them up and place them in clear plastic bags. Right before you want to use them, give them a good charge. Go to a dark room and invite kids to play with the stars on the floor.
owlets in a nest
This nest is made from twisted paper. I made it at least 20 years ago, and it still looks great. (I have been careful not to get it wet.) I simply bought a couple of colors of Paper Twist and untwisted them to varying degrees. Start with a circle that is about the size of your ideal nest. Weave the pieces in, out, under, and around each other until you have a nest.
Now for the owls. I think I bought these little owls from Country Critters. They were great, but they were all the same size! Being a wise naturalist, I know that owlets are not the same size . . . so I did a little natal surgery. I made one owl smaller by removing the bottom panel and removing some stuffing. I made one owl larger by opening the bottom panel to the front, adding some padding, and sewing in a back panel. Actually, while I was at it, I just made this one a puppet by sewing in a place for a hand. And voila, natural-history correct owlets with very little hassle.
animals get hungry, too!
Desperate for a craft for a preschool program about food chains, I turned to Russian nesting dolls for inspiration! For each child you will need: a paper towel tube, 2 toilet paper tubes, a scrap of red paper, paint or markers, glue, a black film case, black felt scraps, black yarn scraps, wiggly eyes, a silver gel pen, and an acorn.
To make the snake, trim one toilet paper tube to make a head. Trim the other to make a tail. Push the head on one end of the paper towel tube, and push the tail onto the other end. Using paint or markers, add eyes, nostrils, and a pattern. Glue on a tongue.
To make the mouse. Use hot glue to attach eyes, felt ears, and yarn tail. Use a silver pen to draw on whiskers and mouth.
To play, open the film case so the mouse can "eat" the acorn. Then let the snake "swallow" the mouse. Note: Snakes usually eat their prey head first, but the photo looked better if you could see the little mouse's face. Remember, predators aren't mean, they are just hungry!