Welcome to May! What a strange year it has been so far! Our CWP family is very fortunate to be safe at home and hard at work providing remote arts access for NYC students and trainging for teaching artists. In these trying times, we know you are probably looking for some fun to lighten your day as well as for activities to entertain yourself and the children in your life, so for May, we thought we would celebrate the silly holidays and bring you a DIY craft for each one!
May 1st is National Mother Goose Day! Who doesn’t love Mother Goose?! These are probably some of the first stories and nursery rhymes, and songs you remember. The classic stories that have been adapted time and time again throughout the ages. Today we thought we would celebrate one of the most well known, The Three Little Pigs.
If you’ve never heard or read The Three Little Pigs, it is a story of how hard work and dedication pay off. It is a great example of a morality tale! Three little pigs each build a home. Two of the pigs want to do it in the fastest and easiest way possible. One uses straw and the other uses sticks. They finish quickly but their houses are easily blown down by the Big Bad Wolf. The third pig however, took his time and worked hard to build a house out of bricks. The Big Bad Wolf huffs and puffs with all his might but he is unable to blow down the third little pig’s house. There are countless versions and adaptations of The Three Little Pigs; the earliest printed versions date back to the 1840s, but the story itself is thought to be much older!
Today we’re going to show you how to make easy (and adorable) figures so that you and the children in your life can create your own version of The Three Little Pigs tale! All you need is empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls, scissors, and something to decorate with! If you don’t have empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls, you can also use paper that you tape in the shape of a tube!
We know supplies might be hard to come by, so whatever you have will work!
- 4 empty toilet paper rolls OR 2 empty paper towel rolls cut in half OR Or 2 sheets of paper cut in half (hamburger style) taped together in a tube
- Scissors
- Marker, paint, crayons, colored pencils, felt, googly eyes (whatever you have will work!)
1. Cut about an inch off the bottom of three of your tubes to make them shorter than your fourth roll. Don’t worry if they’re not exactly the same size. Save your cardboard scraps, you can use them to decorate with!
2.On the three shorter tubes (these are your pigs!) cut out a square notch on the bottom front to create feet.
3. On the taller tube (this is your wolf!) cut a rectangle notch on the bottom front to create feet.
4. On your pigs, cut triangle ears on the front (the same side as the feet) and cut the excess cardboard off, leaving just the triangles on the front.
5.Cut ears on your wolf, experiment with shape and angle!
Don’t worry if you make a mistake, it just gives your figures character!
6. On your Wolf, cut a triangle with a flat tip about one inch down from the ears. Leave the trainagle attached at the top. This is it’s snout!
7. Color and decorate your pigs and wolf however you like with anything you like. Get creative! And don’t foget the tails!
Did you create Three Little Pig Figures? We want to see them!
Check back tomorrow to learn how to create a DIY Herb Garden for National Herb Day!
