I have been wanting to make this Chews a Card valentine mailbox since my Family Fun magazine arrived last month. Today we finally made it... with a few changes.
Materials Needed: Empty gallon ziploc box, pipe cleaners, pieces of foam, modge podge, tape, scissors, googly eyes, foam heart sticker, paint (we used red and gold), tissue paper (we used pink), 2 paint brushes, and a paper plate to use as a palate.
Directions:
1. Paint the ziploc box. I did one coat before my little guy started painting so that there would be enough layers of paint so you couldn't see the writing on the box. If I had let him do all the layers, it would've taken us all week just to paint. We painted the first 2 layers red and then the 3rd layer had some gold splotches in it.
2. Let the paint dry.
3. Take out the Modge Podge and cut up some pink tissue paper. Add some layers of Modge Podge to the box and stick on the tissue paper. Paint over the tissue paper and Voila! Texture and some other colors!
4. Let the Modge Podged box dry.
5. Cut the foam pieces to look like teeth. Tape them onto the back of the mouth (ziploc opening).
6. Add a foam sticker heart to the top of the box to be the monster's "nose."
7. Twirl two pipe cleaners around a pen or marker.
8. Make two holes in the top of the box and stick the twirled pipe cleaners through the holes. Tape them to the inside of the box so that they stay in place.
9. Tape the googly eyes to the top of the pipe cleaners.
10. Start filling up your monster mailbox with Valentine's Day cards!! He will chew them all up!
This project was a lot of fun... although I think I liked it a lot more than my toddler. His favorite part was the painting and modge podging. He also loved stuffing the monster's mouth full of mail. There are definitely several parts in this project that can only be done by a parent. I knew that when I started this project, since it is for an older kid (7-8 year old +)... but we still loved it and I'm excited to show off our creation at our V-day party tomorrow! I also loved using a ziploc box instead of a kleenex box, since we always have empty ziploc boxes and rarely buy kleenex.
Language Development:
While you're making your monster, talk with your child about the body parts of the monster and the shapes that they are. The teeth are triangles, eyes are circles, nose is a heart, and box (head) is a rectangle. We had fun making the monster come alive, talk, and eat lots of letters! Playing pretend and having made up conversations is always a fun way to expand on language or learn new vocabulary.
Leave a Comment