Comments on: Carlo and the Really Nice Librarian http://victoriabeatty.org/blog/?p=2338 creativity @ the 21st century library Sat, 19 Jan 2013 03:38:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Vicky http://victoriabeatty.org/blog/?p=2338&cpage=1#comment-156 Vicky Sat, 19 Jan 2013 03:38:49 +0000 http://victoriabeatty.org/blog/?p=2338#comment-156 Hi Glenys! Unfortunately, my pattern is packed away and not easy to unearth right now, but I will describe the process. The head, ears, lower jaw, neck, forelegs, tail, and spots for the paper bag body are made from a file folder. One file folder is enough for all these parts. In addition, the puppet has smaller spots (for the file folder neck) made of brown paper; and horns, eyes, nose, mouth, tail tuft, and hooves made of black paper. So for each child you will need one file folder, one lunch-sized paper bag, and probably about a quarter-sheet each of brown and black paper. To make it easy on yourself, you could draw all the shapes on A4 paper and photocopy onto cardstock and just get the kids to color, cut, and assemble with the paper bag. The neck must be made of file folder or card for sturdiness and so as not to be too droopy. The main thing to know about assembling the puppet is that the lower jaw is glued to the underside of the head such that the mouth looks partly open. The forelegs are glued to the underside of the folded-over bottom of the bag, and the open end of the bag is where one puts the puppet on. You can put your fingers into the folded-over top to make the giraffe bow and gesture with its forelegs expressively. Since I can't lay my hands on my pattern, here is my advice for creating your own! You could search online for an image of giraffe spots and then enlarge to create a template for the spots. The other body parts can be simplified into geometric shapes that could be rounded off if desired. For example. the giraffe ears and face are diamond-shaped; the lower jaw and tail tuft are triangles; the neck, forelegs and tail are rectangles, and the hooves are square or heart-shaped. The eyes could be narrow diamonds or rectangles, and the nose is a rectangle, and the horns are long narrow ovals. I hope this helps! Let me know how it turns out! Vicky Hi Glenys!
Unfortunately, my pattern is packed away and not easy to unearth right now, but I will describe the process. The head, ears, lower jaw, neck, forelegs, tail, and spots for the paper bag body are made from a file folder. One file folder is enough for all these parts. In addition, the puppet has smaller spots (for the file folder neck) made of brown paper; and horns, eyes, nose, mouth, tail tuft, and hooves made of black paper. So for each child you will need one file folder, one lunch-sized paper bag, and probably about a quarter-sheet each of brown and black paper.

To make it easy on yourself, you could draw all the shapes on A4 paper and photocopy onto cardstock and just get the kids to color, cut, and assemble with the paper bag. The neck must be made of file folder or card for sturdiness and so as not to be too droopy.

The main thing to know about assembling the puppet is that the lower jaw is glued to the underside of the head such that the mouth looks partly open. The forelegs are glued to the underside of the folded-over bottom of the bag, and the open end of the bag is where one puts the puppet on. You can put your fingers into the folded-over top to make the giraffe bow and gesture with its forelegs expressively.

Since I can’t lay my hands on my pattern, here is my advice for creating your own! You could search online for an image of giraffe spots and then enlarge to create a template for the spots. The other body parts can be simplified into geometric shapes that could be rounded off if desired. For example. the giraffe ears and face are diamond-shaped; the lower jaw and tail tuft are triangles; the neck, forelegs and tail are rectangles, and the hooves are square or heart-shaped. The eyes could be narrow diamonds or rectangles, and the nose is a rectangle, and the horns are long narrow ovals.

I hope this helps! Let me know how it turns out!
Vicky

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