Miscellaneous Crafts 2

Drop the Ball

Create a game using egg boxes, kitchen roll tubing and a cardboard box. A ball is rolled down the tubing and when it drops out the end it falls into one of the holes in an egg box. You can label the holes "win" and "loose" or give them numbers to score by, or label them with things to do (e.g. mime a chicken trying to fly). You will need:

Three cardboard egg boxes;
a largeish cardboard box;
the inner tube from a kitchen roll;
glue and sticky tape;
optionally - paint.

Cut the top from each of the egg boxes, but do not cut off the side flap that tucks under the top.
Glue the egg boxes together using the side flaps, and use clothes pegs to hold then together while they dry. When dry you should have a rectangular structure of six spaces across and six spaces down like the illustration below.

If you like, paint the egg boxes, perhaps giving the holes different colours.
Now tape up the cardbox box so that it doesn't have any opening flaps and it is quite firm. The ideal size is about 60cm x 40cm x 40cm.

Cut two holes in the box, just big enough to slide the kitchen roll tubing through. The holes should allow the tubing to penetrate and stick out at both ends, and should be angles so that a ball will roll through -- as shown here.
Push the tube through the holes and carefully apply glue around the edges where the tube meets the box.
Leave to dry.
Once the glue has dried you may like to paint the box and tube.
Finally, label the holes inside the egg boxes and place them under the tube, angled slightly upwards, towards the box.

To play the game, drop a ball through the tube and see which hole it lands in.

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Puppet

Create a puppet using lollipop sticks, cotton, string, corks and wool.

You will need:

Two lollipop sticks,
a small book (the "Ladybird" books are ideal),
some string,
some sewing cotton,
a cork from a wine bottle,
two drawing pins,
and some wool.

Drill holes at each end of one of the lollipop sticks, and at one end only of the other.
Glue the sticks together to make a cross, with the "T" piece of the cross having the two holes.
Wrap the wool around the book -- take several turns until you have a nice thick ring of wool around the book.
Carefully slide the wool from the book and then tie the wool across its middle with the string, as tightly as possible (best done by an adult). Make sure there is about 8cm of string on either side of the knot.
Carefully cut through the looped ends of wool and fluff out to make a woollen ball or "bobble"¹.
Carefully cut the cork into two equal pieces.
Tie a small loop at each end of the dangling string and carefully push the string into the cork pieces using the drawing pins, one for each "leg" and "foot".
By now the lollipop sticks should be glued dry. Thread some cotton through each of the holes, and tie it off so that the cotton hangs from the ends of the sticks. Make the cotton about 15 cm long.
Tie the ends of the cotton from the "T" piece onto each of the cork pieces (you should be able to tie it around the drawing pin). make sure the cotton lengths are equal.
Now thread the third piece of cotton through the middle of the woollen ball (you'll probably need to use a long, strong needle) and tie it off so that it is shorter than the leg pieces.

Bobble puppet Your puppet is complete!

Note1: You may, if you wish, make the bobble the "traditional" way by wrapping wool around a disk and then cutting the wool and tying it off -- however this is harder for children to accomplish.

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