What to do with an old box (for kiddos)!

This summer my co-workers and I (Jennifer) taught about soil and the soil food web as part of our summer program series for kiddos.  I focused on soil herbivores and omnivores and wrote a little puppet show highlighting these cool creatures, but alas - no puppets existed for soil herbivores other than a snail.  Imagine that!  Knowing we had many miscellaneous craft supplies stored away at work and I had a nice big box from our new dual flush toilet, I made a set for the soil creatures and drew/colored 2 dimensional soil herbivores and omnivores.  Check it out...

This is such an easy project to make at home and is a great learning tool!  I laminated the soil creatures for resilience during many programs, but it is not necessary for home use.  Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of the back but that is the control station for the puppets.  I cut a slit in the box behind each creature that needed to move and attached with duct tape a perpendicular piece of cardboard to the creature.  I then pushed that piece of cardboard through the slit (from the front) and voila - a handle to move the animal when operated by a young hand! I made the slits large enough so the creatures moved with ease up and down and back and forward.

I added some other creatures for fun and so loved seeing kiddos make up their own story with the creatures after mine.  Yay for creative learning!

The soil creatures highlighted are: millipede, springtail, snail, fungus, bacteria, carrion beetle, earthworm and pillbug.

Other creatures included for fun are: bat, downy woodpeckers, salamander and monarch.

I would love to see anyone else's creation should you make something like this!