4 1/2 years old

Where the Wild Things Are Small World Play

08:30

Ethan loves the story of Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, he even dressed up as Max for World Book Day!  So it seemed the perfect book to choose as inspiration for a craft project!


What you'll need:

  • wooden pegs
  • markers
  • pipe cleaners
  • yarn
  • felt
  • glue
  • box
  • paint
  • paint brush
  • tissue paper
  • play dough
  • egg carton
  • washi tape
  • anything else your little ones imagination decides that they need!


I had started out this project planning making out some little peg dolls of the wild things and Max from the story.  However, shortly after we started Ethan started saying that he wanted to make trees and a world for them to play in, so we ended up making a whole story scene completely inspired by Ethan's ideas!


We started by making peg dolls for Max and 3 wild things.  Ethan and Ivy used markers to draw faces on the pegs and then used the pipe cleaners, yarn and felt to make tails, horns, fur and whatever else they could come up with.  This activity was completely open for them to explore and I only helped when they asked for my help.


Then Ethan painted a box green to be their world, as there are mostly trees we thought that green everywhere would be easiest.  Of course you could add more colours and paint a blue sky or maybe water for the boat to sail in.


Next we made some trees.  As I hadn't planned this part at all, I asked Ethan what he would like to use to make trees and straight away he said pipe cleaners.  Then I suggested that we use some tissue paper, and he thought that was perfect.  He ripped off strips of tissue and crumpled them up, then wrapped the pipe cleaner around it to secure it.


We then put a few balls of play dough in the bottom of the box to plant the trees into so that they would stand up straight.  Ethan then looked at the book to decide what else he wanted to make, and decided that he needed a boat!  So we used one small egg carton section and Ethan made the sails for it using washi tape.


Then it was ready to play in!  Ethan was so excited that he had made his own small world for the characters to play and have a wild rumpus!  I think there might be a lot more of this sort of activity in our future!


This post is part of the Read It - Make It series on Emma Owl, take a look at all the fantastic crafts that you can make based on books!


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17 comments

  1. Talk about setting their imaginations alight! Such a wonderful idea - and book!

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    1. Thank you for hosting the series, it inspired us all!

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  2. What a lovely idea and it makes a great craft. I love how books can inspire crafts like this.

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    1. Thanks! We get loads of inspiration from books, the kids love exploring them further :)

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  3. I used to love making things with wooden pegs when I was in primary school and it is something I would happily do with my 2 little rascals. Books are fab for inspiring people

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    1. I love these proper wooden pegs, they're great for crafts and activities aren't they?

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  4. Looks like you have had a lot of fun creating, we are just after making a rocket for school, such rewarding experiences and priceless bonding time with the kiddos!

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    1. We love making things! And rockets are always a hit here too!

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  5. I think Eliza would love to do this, she loves making models at the moment

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  6. Thanks for sharing this gorgeous craft project. My 2 used to love making things when they were small x

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  7. That looks amazing and so much fun - we used to love doing things like this x

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  8. Oh this is too cute! My boys used to LOVE this book. I think it is an ace book.

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  9. What a fun idea! I absolutely love Where the Wild things are - such a brilliant book and what a great way to enjoy it afterwards too!

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  10. Love this. What a super-cute idea!

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  11. Oh you are gifted I could never do something like this. What a cool book to be such a fan of. xx

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  12. Oh this is fabulous, what a great idea and we absolutely love where the wild things are too. Lovely :)

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  13. Small worlds are such an awesome way to extend a story!

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