Patterns for Penguins

The versatile, playful penguin pattern!

       This cheerful construction paper penguin pattern comes in handy for educators who need to decorate a winter or Christmas themed bulletin board. Each penguin may be labeled with student names and stapled to a scenic view on a bulletin board.

       Penguins can also include numbers or letters and hung on a "wash line'' across the top of a boarder on the wall. 

       Or perhaps teachers would like to include simple math problems or fractions on the belly of each penguin, then laminate the critters for a thematic set to introduce young students to a game.

        Or, simply glue together the parts of the penguins in a step-by-step assignment to help teach little ones 'how' to follow instructions as these are read aloud. There are so many uses for paper patterns like this one within the context of a classroom.

       Penguins are a playful winter theme that may be used beyond December to decorate with. Keep them up through January and February to introduce new units of study in the natural sciences!

       If you want them to look more festive for the holidays, students could cut triangle shaped stocking hats and rectangle shaped scarves from printed papers and tape these on top of their paper pets!

More Winter Weather Fun:

• Coloring collection at Crayon Palace Blog here
• Assemble a mini book, read a story, make a paper chain all about penguins...

Template/Patterns for construction paper penguins by kathy grimm.

Cut Simple 3-D Christmas Trees

Left, 3-D paper Christmas trees are cut in stacks of three sheets of paper, thus six sides are 
made when the trees are folded in half down the center. Right, see the tree craft with 
pom poms included.

      
       To make these easy little three-dimensional paper trees you will need to download and print on either your home computer or school computer the template provided here.
       The following supplies are needed: a stapler, hot glue and glue gun, colorful papers, scissors, and pom poms.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Download and print the template for our paper Christmas tree. Link above.
2. Cut-out the tree shape and trace around it on top of 3 to 4 stacked papers. I chose green and red, but any color would be attractive. Cut the stack all at once.
3. Fold each duplicate paper cut tree separately, in half exactly.
4. Staple down the center of the stack on the fold line. You will need to do this four times down the center.
5. Now fan out the paper tree so that it stands on it's own.
6. Hot glue pom poms in between the tree halves to decorate.

More Christmas Tree Crafts:

• Kids can cut and paste a heart-shaped Christmas tree
• Glue together a modern looking tree ornament...

Craft a Paper Snowman Wreath

        This easy paper snowman wreath is made with: a white paper plate, a stapler, construction paper (black and white), pom poms, decorative scrapbook papers, white school glue, a cord for the hanger and student scissors.

Left the basic snowman shaped wreath. Center, glue the colorful Christmas tie between the 
wreath and the snowman head. Right, the finished wreath with all the cheerful trims.

       

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Download and print out the template pieces from our blog for this snowman craft here. This particular craft may be used at Christmas using themed papers or it could also be made just during the winter months using different themed papers too.
2. Poke a small hole into the paper plate using the tip of your scissors. Then cut out the circle in the center of the paper plate marked by a seam. This cut-away section will become the head of your snowman.
3. Staple the head to the top of the paper plate rib to create a basic snowman wreath. (see photos above)
4. Now cut out the bow pattern and trace around it on top of decorative paper. Cut out the bow, paste this between the head and body of the snowman wreath using white glue. Let dry.
5. Using a black magic marker, draw the different sections of the bow shown on the printed template copy of it.
6. Cut out the pattern for the snowman's top hat and trace around this on top of a piece of black construction paper.
7. Glue a decorative paper ribbon on top of the top hat and add trims. I've included a tiny holly leaf template for this.
8. Glue or staple the top hat onto the snowman's head.
9. Glue on the pompoms for his eyes, nose, mouth and holly berries.
10. Cut long strips of white construction paper approximately 3 inches wide. 
11. Cut fringe into these strips and curl them with your scissors.
12. Glue the fringes onto the snowman wreath to add texture and 3D surface area.
13. Glue on a red tie ribbon to hang the wreath from his top hat.

More Snowman Crafts:

• Crafty Kid's Christmas Corner at my Belznickle Blog here

An easy paper Christmas light garland craft...

Left, rainbow colored lights. Right, yarn 'electric cord' connecting the lights in one long garland.

       These easy little vintage Christmas lights look so cute on a teacher's bulletin board or on a child's Christmas tree in their bedroom. Use the template/pattern below to cut them out of layers of festive colored construction papers all at once. Then paste on black switches or color these with a black crayon. Paste a black yarn electrical cord on the backsides of the bulb switches connecting the light bulbs to one long garland.

Templates for three different crafts at Thrifty Scissors: electric light bulb garland,
a snowman wreath and 3-D paper Christmas trees.

• Holiday Lighting Magic
• A glowing electric light bulb garlands for web pages
• Color these antlers full of ornaments

Grandpa's Glasses.

 Grandpa's Glasses

Author Unknown

My grandpa has to wear glasses,

'Cause his eyesight is not very strong,

And he calls them his "specs," and he's

worn them

For ever and ever so long

And when he gets through with his 

reading

He carefully  puts them away,

And that's why I have to help find them

'Bout twenty-five times a day.

But at night when we sit 'round the 

table,

And papa and mamma are there,

He reads just as long as he's able,

And then falls asleep in his chair.

And he sits there and sleeps in his 

glasses,

And you don't know how funny it

seems;

But he says that he just has to wear them

To see things well in his dreams.

Backward Kiddy Kar Race

        This race is much funnier if there are only a few contestants. There should be only two teams, with two on a team, the first one on each team being provided with a kiddy kar. These first two riders are asked to turn their cars around so that they are facing away from the goal, and then sit on their cars with their backs to the goal. When the starting signal is given, they start racing to the goal, backwards. When they reach this goal they are to return to the starting point, going backwards of course, and give up their kiddy kars to the second members of their teams. These second victims run the race in the same inverted order.

• See what a Kiddy Kar or Kiddie-Kartoy looks like
  

Hobby Horse Race

        There are seldom more than two players on a team, that being sufficient ! The first one of each team is supplied with a hobby-horse. When the signal is given, these riders start riding their horses to the goal. If they ever reach it, they are to return and give their horses to the other member of their team. Experience proves that most second riders never get a chance to ride, for too many first riders fall by the wayside!

•  What is a hobby horse?
  

Hobby Horse Cup 

Nose Push Race

        If contestants in this race are expected to look respectable for the rest of the party, a sheet should be provided for the race-course. There are not more than three contestants, each one of them being provided with a peanut, and, we hope, a long and practical nose. Contestants are asked to kneel at one end of the sheet, put their peanuts on the sheet before them, and when the signal is given, to push the peanuts to the other end of the sheet and back, using their noses as the pushers, their hands being clasped behind them.
       The winner is not the only one who deserves a prize in this contest!

The Pea Pushing Race - A big nose helps!

Siamese Twins Race

        Children are paired off into couples, the two members of a team having their backs to each other, with their hands joined at the side. One of them is facing the goal. At the signal, all teams start racing to the goal and return, their method of locomotion being anything they choose. Usually they try to run, but they soon get over that foolishness, and finally discover that the best and safest means of getting there is to hop, both members of a team hopping at the same time. The relay plan may be used.
       There is no prize good enough for the winners of this race!

Relay Races

        In several cases a suggestion is made to the effect that the relay plan may be used. When this is used, all the children are divided into groups of equal size, members of a group standing in lines or columns or couples, as the case demands. When either the first runner or the first couple has run the course, the second contestants are touched off, and then the third and fourth, and so on until all members of a team have run the race. The team whose last runner or couple first finishes the required stunt, gets the prize as the winning team.
       Relay races are particularly good for large groups, for a great many children can take part in a race which requires comparatively little space.

The Snow House

       ''At night after the children had gone to bed and it had grown colder and colder Old Man Snow came around to see what the children had been doing,'' said daddy.
       " 'Well, well, well,' he said as he saw a snow house and a snow fort and a snow man, 'this is fine. They appreciate me. They know what handsome things I can make. This is really gorgeous.
       " 'Look, Prince Icicle, isn't this fine?'
      "Prince Icicle appeared with a number of the other princes and princesses who hung down from the roof of the snow house and the top of the snow fort and from the shoulders of the snow man. Prince Icicle himself took a very fine place over the doorway of the snow house.
       " 'Isn't this handsome?' asked Old Man Snow. 'Our fine king will be delighted and his royal majesty will be honored.'
       "As Old Man Snow said these words along came King Snow. He wore a most beautiful crown of snow and he showed the Icicle family the compliment of wearing icicles from his beard and his crown and his locks of snow and from his hanging snowy sleeves.
       " 'They stopped me as I went by the brook,' said King Snow, 'and begged me to have some of their jeweled icicles. Don't they sparkle beautifully? Yes, they asked me to have them, and the brook, which
was beginning to freeze around the edges, begged me to listen to its story. 
       'It had so much to tell of its travels, how it ran down a long and winding hill and how it couldn't help trickling and laughing all the time with the jokes and merry tales it kept hearing.'
       "So Old Man Snow, King Snow, Prince Icicle and the other princes and princesses talked all through the night and told wonderful stories as they sat in the children's snow house."

Craft and Color More Snow:

• Cutting snowflakes and drawing snowman... - Read all about Wilson Bentley too...
• See how we made a snow house for our Christmas display!
• Young people can craft a snowman from a paint stirring stick
  

Baby Bears

       "In the winter, at the start of the new year," said daddy, "when Mother Bear was sleeping and dozing and dreaming in her home back in the hole of a big rock, the little bears arrived. She taught them about the berries they must eat and about the things which would make them feel well and strong. She also told them of the bad things they must not touch - the things which would make their little tummies feel very miserable indeed and which would make them quite, quite sick.
       ''And when, at last, they went out of the cave, and saw the real world, the trees and the forest paths, they wanted to start off at once for adventures, for the world looked so mysterious and wondrous.
       " 'Do you want to leave your old mother?' the black bear asked.
       " 'We love you, mother, but we want to see the world,' they said.
       " 'Bang,' suddenly went a gun and Mother Bear received a slight wound.
       ''The baby bears were around her in a flash, but mother bear was safe, for the man with the gun had hurriedly gone when he had seen how near the old bear was. And he had seen her teeth and had almost
been able to feel them!
       ''And the babies knew their teeth would never have done. They, too, had had a glimpse of their mother's anger and their mother's strength.
       ''And as they licked the wound they said,
       " 'We won't leave you, Mother Bear. We don't know the world as yet.'
       ''And Mother Black Bear groaned with the hurt from the slight wound in her shoulder, but still more she grunted with pleasure, for her babies had seen that they still needed their mother.'' 

More Bears To Color:

• Color the polar bears at the zoo
• Color-by-number: Bear Bone 
• These bears have their marching orders