Make a Yeti of Your Own

As a parent, librarian, and children's book author I absolutely love book-related crafts. They're a great way to extend a story (and the learning) plus they're just plain fun! I put together a Yeti craft that I totally adore. It doesn't take many supplies, is cheap, and can come out looking like Yeti who was designed by Hazel Quintanilla for our Unicorn and Yeti series. And, of course, it can be a unique creation with any face design and as much (or as little) fur as the maker wants!

If you're a librarian you're probably already thinking about Summer... because Summer Reading is coming! This year's theme of the Collaborative Summer Library Program is Imagine Your Story. I love this theme because it encompasses so, so much. Just as with imagination, the possibilities are endless! I personally am hoping to fill my library with rainbows and unicorns, yetis and dragons, and as much fantasy fun as I can find the time to put together!

Below I have photos, a list of materials, and instructions for a Yeti craft. I hope I've made it easy to follow. It's a great craft to do with just one child or a whole group. I plan on doing this craft at my library this summer and I cannot wait!

If you do the craft I hope you have fun with it! And if you have time to share a photo with me, I'd love to see it!

Yeti Craft Instructions are below or if you'd like to download the instructions along with the body, face, and feet templates just click here: Yeti Craft PDF.

Yeti Craft Instructions

To make one Yeti you will need:

• ½ Sheet of White Cardstock
• Colored Paper
• Approximately 12 Cotton Balls
• Glue
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Tape
• Fine tip markers
• Glue Stick (optional)
• Construction paper, sequins, glitter glue, feathers, chenille stems, etc. (Optional for accessories)

Directions:

1. Use the Yeti craft template, a toilet paper tube, or cut a strip of cardstock about 4" wide. 
   
2. If you used cardstock, roll it into a tube and tape it together.
   
   

1. Use the Yeti craft template or cut two strips of white cardstock or stiff paper approximately 3” long and ¾” wide for arms. Tape one on each side of the tube at arm height, about ¼ of the way down the tube.
   
2. Use the Yeti craft template or cut an oval out of colored paper. Draw your Yeti face onto the oval, then glue your face onto the tube. (A glue stick works well for this but liquid glue will do as well!)
   
3. Stretch and tear cotton balls to use as fur. Glue them onto your Yeti body and arms. Keep gluing on cotton balls until your Yeti has as much fur as you want.
   
4. Fill in the top of your Yeti's head by gluing in cotton. (*Tip - If you fold and glue some of the cotton balls over the top (head) hole it will help hold the other cotton balls on when you fill in the top of the head.)
5. Use the template or lightly trace around the bottom of the Yeti onto card stock and add feet to the traced circle. Cut out. Put glue on the bottom of the Yeti and press feet on.
   

Now you have your very own Yeti! In SPARKLY NEW FRIENDS, Unicorn makes Yeti a fancy hat to wear. You can make your Yeti a fancy hat too! Make a top hat out of construction paper and decorate it. Make a crown out of chenille stems! What other accessories can you make?

Do you want the downloadable pdf now that you saw how easy and fun it is to make your own Yeti? Just click here: Yeti Craft PDF (Note that the Yeti arms are supposed to meet the top edge of the paper when you print out the template so cut them straight across.)

If you make a Yeti I'd love to see it! You can post a photo as a comment on this post or tag me on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook!

Escargot!

Not too long ago I followed someone on Twitter because she looked interesting. I found her because she entered the giveaway for my book, KICK! JUMP! CHOP! THE ADVENTURES OF THE NINJABREAD MAN, that was happening through Ninjas Read. Miss Gee, known as @MsGeeLvsBooks on Twitter, is a 2nd grade teacher and an aspiring teacher-librarian. Sounds just like my type of gal! When I followed Ms. Gee I had no idea I was entering a contest. And a really cool one at that! Not long after I received this tweet:

@heatherayris you're my 100th follower! So cool! My class is going to pick their favorite picture book to mail to you 😆 DM an address ❤️📚 pic.twitter.com/89LVi4vK9D

Unexpected and exciting! I got in touch with Ms. Gee and soon this cute little pink package arrived. I had run to the post office before work so I went straight to my favorite part of the library, the children's section amongst the picture books, of course, to find out what was inside the package!

I opened it up and there was the most adorable snail I had ever seen! (I put the book up on my shelf to admire it while I read the card!) Ms. Gee's class chose ESCARGOT written by Dashka Slater and illustrated by Sydney Hanson as their favorite book!

Now, I see a lot of books every single day in my work at the library and I was super excited not only because of the beautiful illustrations and the fact that this is a book about a snail. I love snails! I was excited because I had never seen this book before and oh my gosh do I love the story! You see Escargot is a beautiful snail from France and he simply wants two things: to be your favorite animal and to eat the fabulous salad at the end of the book. But wait! There is a carrot and that is trouble. Big, big trouble!


Oooo, la la! I cannot wait to share this story with the kids who come to the library for storytime and tell them about Ms. Gee's 2nd grade class in Virginia and how they chose this very book as their favorite!


Want to hear one more amazing thing? Miss Gee won the copy of my book in the Ninjas Read giveaway. I had absolutely nothing to do with picking the winner on that. It was completely run by the amazing ninja writer, Corey Rosen Schwartz. I'm no mathematician but there has got to be a mathematical lesson in probability on that! Maybe Corey could help us out. Her new book, TWINDERELLA, is a mathy fractioned fairytale.

Mathematics aside, I love that luck, Ninjas Read, and Twitter connected me with this fun new book and let me have a peek into what a second grade class on the other side of the United States from me loves.

A huge THANK YOU to Ms. Gee and her second grade class! You are magnifique!

Reading Journal

My daughter reads tons of books. She has to read alot for school where the Accelerated Reader tests are part of the curriculum, but she reads alot for herself too. She doesn't read books just once either, she reads them over and over. This year I decided it was time for her to keep a reading journal.

I gave her a beautiful little notebook to get her excited. She devised her own rating system. Hers is a four flower system consisting of four different flowers she drew, one each for poor, okay, good, and awesome. The awesome flower has lines of brightness coming off of it to pronounce it's awesomeness. She's also added MNIS and DA to her contents as she is reading the entire MY NAME IS AMERICA and DEAR AMERICA series. Books get a checkmark every time she rereads them.

In the journal she numbers each entry then puts the title, author, and rating flower. She also writes a little about the story. Sometimes its her favorite thing about the book; favorite part or favorite character. Other times she writes her opinion of the book, from, "sad and touching" to "one of my favorite books!"

She has some criticisms. One book was, "kind of boring because there's not enough detail." A very good observation I'd say. One of her favorites is THE WESTING GAME. She is actually waiting for it to be made into a movie. Lots of checkmarks by that one. By far, the best entry is for DEAR AMERICA: COLOR ME DARK. "I love this book!!!! You melt into the story and can't stop reading until you reach the end." I love the way she describes reading this one. What writer doesn't want a reader to feel like that. No other book has gotten four exclamation marks either. Guess the awesome flower wasn't enough.

It will be interesting to see, as time goes on, if her analysis will get more in depth or if she'll just keep it to snippets of opinion and sparse observations. I want her to keep her journal up so I'm not making many requirements on it. She seems to be enjoying it. We can talk about the books she's read and she can see a concrete result. It is something she will be able to look back on later, too. It's something any parent can do with their child. It doesn't take alot of time. Wish I had done it when I was a kid.