January 2017 Story Hour: Animals in Winter

I'm always looking for themes for story hour. Sometimes I find a really awesome theme, but can't find books to go with it. Other times, I find the perfect book(s), but can't find or create a craft to go along. That was my problem with Animals in Winter. The books I picked were

• Stranger in the Woods by Carl R. Sams
• One Snowy Rescue by Christina M. Butler
• The Mitten by Jan Brett

I love all these  books. They are perfect for a non-Christmas themed Winter story time. But it took me ages to come up with a craft. Finally, one of my regular patrons, who sometimes helps me cut out shapes for the story time crafts, suggested animal masks. It was perfect! 

For the craft, you will need

• foam sheets
• Sticky-back foam (unless you'd rather use glue)
• hole puncher
• 8" strips of ribbon
• Mask templates, found HERE (or create your own!)
• Exacto knife

I looked around Pinterest for some ideas and found some really great templates, but I chose to do a bear mask, the template for which I had to create myself. However, after cutting out all the necessary parts for the bear and actually having story hour, I found that the original bear template was nowhere to be found, and for that I apologize. 

Basically all I did was freehand half a bear, fold the paper in 

half, and cut it out. I did the same for the snout. 

How to create foam masks: 

• If you are using sticky back foam, cut the mask bases out of regular foam, and the rest out of the sticky-back foam.
• Use and Exacto knife to cut out the eyes
• Use a hole puncher to punch holes for the ribbon

The kids can do the rest, which is basically just sticking the masks together and tying on the ribbon. Ta-da! Animal masks the kids will love.