Brown Bear Straw Toppers

Aren't these straw toppers / puppets adorable?  Our book of the day was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle, and I surprised the kids with these super-cute straw-topper puppets.  They were so much fun to make, and we had a great time retelling the story with them...

 

Nothing brings a story to life more than a bit of dramatic play.  The girls enjoyed finding the right character for each page of the Brown Bear book and then having each animal say the next part (in squeaky animal voices, of course).

These straw toppers were really easy (and fun) to make.  I cut craft foam into the desired shapes, and then cut little slits for the straw to fit into:

 I slid the straw into each topper before putting the finishing piece on (to cover the straw, like fins, wings, noses, etc..), and then glued that piece into place.  I used regular glue, but if I had a hot-glue gun, I may have tried that to make them even more durable.

Here's another picture of the full collection (in order):

The best part about these straw toppers is that they can be used as puppets and, well, as straw toppers too:

Wouldn't these be a hit for a birthday party where the theme is Brown Bear, Brown Bear?

 

I think my girls enjoyed drinking out of their special straws just as much as the puppet show - they've been asking for drinks with straws all afternoon!  Since the toppers are made of craft foam, if they get a little wet from the drinks, they can easily be wiped off.

It seems that now that I have kids, I let them do all the crafting and hardly have time for my own creations.  I'm really proud of how cute this little project turned out!

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Every day in March, I will be doing an activity with my kids based on a different children's book.  To keep up to date with all our fun projects, please follow Learners in Bloom on Facebook:

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