Polar Animal - Walrus

While looking for polar animals, I kept seeing the walrus. They are pretty cute! But I had to make them a little more simplified for our preschoolers.

Items needed:
brown, light brown or gray, and white construction paper
glue
scissors
black marker
yarn (I had rug hooking yarn on hand in light yellow and pulled the strands apart to make four pieces)

This was another activity to help with cutting skills. We traced the body shape onto the brown paper and had the kids cut them out. We cut out the tusks, legs and the nose ahead of time and had the kids glue them on. Before adding the whiskers, they had to draw in the eyes, and the dots on the nose. The final step was to glue the whiskers in place.

The best part of this project was the facial expressions that the kids drew on. One had eyebrows and another looked angry! We used one of our bulletin boards and created a snowy backdrop and placed the walrus' all around. The kids really loved this project.

Polar Animal - Polar Bear

This was a fun project and quite labor intensive. My inspiration for this one came from a photo of a polar bear peeking up over the edge of the iceberg. Once the kids finished their version, we hung them on the clothesline in class, side by side, so it looked like a row of bears peeking at us.

Items needed:
White, blue, black and gray construction paper
scissors
black marker
glue
shaving cream

Shaving cream? What?!! Don't worry, I will explain shortly.
First things first, trace the head shape on white paper. We cut out the ears in white and black, gluing the two together. Then the gray snout and black nose was traced, cut and assembled. Finally the eyes were traced, cut and glued together and drawing the black center in with marker. A blue rectangle was cut also.

The kids then cut out the head, glued on the ears, nose and eyes. The could draw in a mouth if they wanted using the black marker.
Then they glued the head to the back of the blue paper (iceberg). Now depending on the kids skill sets, if the project is not overly glued, you can proceed to the next step. Our group has a love affair with glue so we needed to let them dry overnight!

For the iceberg, we painted on puffy paint. Puffy paint is my new favorite project plaything! Keri found it on the internet somewhere and told me about it. She couldn't find the link again so I cannot give credit! Sorry. But she told me what was needed and I just played with it to get it to work. In a small bowl, add about one quarter cup of white glue. Then add a mound of shaving cream. I eyeball everything. But for those less adventurous, it should fill the palm of your hand and be about three inches high. You can't really screw this up. Mix the two together with a large paintbrush. I mixed it using a folding technique like when baking. Don't overdo it or the puffy will not be there. Less than a minute of mixing seems to be adequate. The end product will be still puffy but with a slight shine from the glue. This is the only tricky part. Kids have a tendency to paint it flat. I recommend putting a huge dollop on the blue paper and have them smear it around to all the edges. Let dry overnight.
The next day, you will have a puffy surface but will be dry to the touch! This is also great for fur or snow projects!