What you will need:

• Plastic Bag
• One Paper Plate
• Two Cotton Balls
• Tape
• Tissue Paper
• Glue
• Paint

Stage One:

Fill the plastic bag with tissue paper. Roll the bag up to a tube shape (as shown above). Tape the bag in shape.

Stage Two

Using the paper plate, draw and cut out four dragon feet shapes (as shown above)

Stage Three:

Using any color you choose, paint all of the dragon pieces.

Stage Four:

Glue the dragon feet into place and also glue the two cotton balls (dotted with paint) to make eyes.

Stage Five: Finished!

Once the paint is dry, your creation is complete!

Why don’t you try adding decoration to the dragons back, or add a nose!

• Now try using other materials instead of the plastic bag and tissue paper? How about bubble wrap instead? What about ping pong balls for eyes instead of the cotton balls?

Down in Who-ville

Liked Christmas a lot…

 But the Grinch,

Who lived just North of Who-ville,

Did NOT!

The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!

Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason.

It could be that his head wasn’t screwed on quite right.

It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.

But I think that the most likely reason of all

May have been that his heart was two sizes too small…

“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” by Dr. Seuss

The holidays are a wonderful time to get together with your family, don’t let the never-ending holiday cheer overwhelm you and turn you into a Grinch!

Here at the museum, we like to avoid becoming Grinch-y by making our own Grinch cookies! The recipe is originally from Betty Crocker but we found it on a cool blog called Living the Domestic Life (click on these links for the recipe!)

These gooey, green, mint-flavored, chocolate-chip cookies will subdue the Grinch in all of us. And if you would like a fun coloring activity to do while you wait for your cookies to bake, print out this Mr. Grinch Coloring Page!

Happy Baking!

]]> http://blog.austinkids.org/2011/12/19/how-the-grinch-made-cookies/feed/ 0 austinkids Mr. Grinch Grinch Cookies http://blog.austinkids.org/2011/12/08/holiday-light-bulb-ornaments/ http://blog.austinkids.org/2011/12/08/holiday-light-bulb-ornaments/#comments Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:00:16 +0000 austinkids http://blog.austinkids.org/?p=7747 ]]>

Aren’t these homemade ornaments charming? If you want your holidays to be filled with creativity, you can dazzle your family with your very own ornaments too!

They are pretty simple to make, you need an old light-bulb (we found a nice round one to mimic the shape of store-bought ornaments) paint, paintbrushes, a pipe-cleaner/string/or ribbon, liquid glue, shaving cream, and optional glitter.

First, clean off your light-bulb so that the paint sticks.

Then, plan out what you want to paint onto your ornament, we chose our name, a candy-cane, and a snowman. But if your hand isn’t as steady as ours, you can just do fun designs, like red and white stripes, snowflakes or just random!

It was kind of difficult to paint the light-bulb while holding it, since you want every part of it to have color. So we suggest you take an old egg carton, or a small cup to prop the light-bulb on while you decorate it.

We created a snow effect on the bottom and on the snowman by combining equal parts liquid glue and shaving cream. It should dry puffy and it’s a lot of fun to paint and play with!

We added glitter to the top part of the ornament, but you can go crazy and do a whole glitter ornament if you want, who’s stopping you?

Finally, we used a pipe cleaner wrapped around the top of the light-bulb. Make sure to twist it in a way that lets you hang it on your tree. If you don’t have pipe cleaners, you can try using ribbon, yarn, or string tied at the top for hanging.

So from now on, don’t throw out broken light-bulbs, make ornaments instead!

On the window ledges,
On the branches bare;
Now how fast they gather,
Filling all the air.

Look into the garden,
Where the grass was green;
Covered by the snowflakes,
Not a blade is seen.

Now the bare black bushes
All look soft and white,
Every twig is laden,
What a pretty sight!

“Falling Snow” by Anonymous

Snowflakes have a certain mystery and magical quality to them. So this winter why don’t you enjoy nature’s ice art, and make some snowflakes out of paper? You can make 6 individual snowflakes using just one sheet of printer paper. Here’s how: print out this snowflake activity: Snowflake Pattern, cut along all the lines to get your 6 snowflake templates. Then watch the slideshow below for instructions on how to create your 6 snowflakes. Happy winter!

Click to view slideshow.

This neat activity, is half the mess of a real gingerbread house, and it’s free! You can practice all your candy decorating skills so that when you get that real cookie house, you’ll be a pro.

You can check out the Museum Dec 1st-23rd during Gingerbread House Workshops, where we’ll provide enough candy and gingerbread to make a mansion! Registration just opened,  so sign up all you gingerbread architects!

Download our at-home gingerbread activity here: Paper Gingerbread House and tell us how your gingerbread homes turn out!