Anansi & Goldilocks Crafts

I love reading and telling Anansi stories.  Recently I read one of my favorites Anansi & the Moss Covered Rock by Eric A. Kimmel.  As a media specialist I would have students retell the story through a series of drawings, but with only 1 hour in the public library we just didn't have the time.  So instead we made these really cute spiders.  I prepared the webs using pipe cleaners and yarn beforehand, since children from ages 3-10 show up.  I discovered that tacky glue or using a hot glue gun is better than Elmer's for making the pipe cleaner legs stick to the construction paper.  

Last week I read The Three Bears by Byron Barton.  It was a great way to get the kids to participate in telling the story, since almost everyone knew the story of Goldilocks.  After I read Barton's book I read Dusty Locks and the Three Bears by Susan Lowell.  I love Lowell's Western twist to a familiar story and the children loved it too.  Afterwards we made bear puppets.  I took the pattern from DLTK's website.  They actually have various options for this puppet but I choose the simplest pattern.  Paper Bag Bear Puppet