• Home
  • About Me
  • PR Friendly
    • Site Statistics
  • Copyright, Disclosure & Privacy Policy
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Kid Crafts
    • Valentine’s Day Crafts & Activities
    • Easter Crafts & Activities
    • Summer Crafts & Activities
    • Halloween Activities & Crafts
    • Thanksgiving Crafts
    • Christmas Crafts & Activities
  • Dr. Seuss Activities
  • STEM Activities
  • Games for Kids
    • Shark Games for Kids
  • Shop

STEM Activity: Build a Chair for a Stuffed Animal

September 14, 2012 by OneMommy

Every day little ones race across the living room and bound onto the couch.  Together they jump as if the cushions are their very own mini trampolines.

If you know a young jumper, then the book (affiliate link) Little Fox by Marilyn Janoyitz will soon become a favorite.  Little Fox loves to jump on his mom’s chair and even tries to ride it like a horse.  Then, one day, Momma’s chair breaks.

The book inspired this fun preschool STEM activity to build a chair for a stuffed animal.

STEM Activity: build a chair for stuffed animals; book activity for Little Fox

There are so many materials that your child could use when designing his/her stuffed animal chair.  I suggest gathering a variety of materials for your child to choose from.  I put mine all in a box as an invitation to create.

STEM challenge: build a stuffed animal chair

Affiliate links have been provided below.

Possible Materials:

  • Cardboard Tubes
  • Empty Play-Doh Cans
  • Empty Food Containers
  • Cardboard (Empty cereal boxes would work great.)
  • Cotton Balls
  • Craft Foam
  • Scrap Paper
  • Drinking Straws
  • Scissors
  • Clear Packing Tape
  • Craft Glue
  • Hot Glue Gun

 

The challenge, of course, is to design a comfortable chair that will actually hold a stuffed animal.  We chose smaller stuffed animals, but you may want to increase the challenge and have your child create a chair for a larger animal.

Allow your child time to go through the materials and experiment with what might work.  We used hot glue to quickly put materials together.  (Caution: hot glue should only be used with adult supervision.  Younger children can tell where to place items and the adult can do the actual gluing.)

Clear packing tape may also work in quickly holding items together.   For smaller pieces, like adding cotton balls to the seat, craft glue will work.

As your child builds they may find their design needs tweaked a bit in order to hold up their stuffed animal. Cardboard tubes may need to be cut shorter so the chair doesn’t tip as easily; a different back may need to be created to hold animals in place.  This is all part of the learning process.

 

Mine each built 2 chairs, and each of them was a unique design.

Little Fox book activity -- build a chair STEM challenge

 

Finally, be sure to test those chairs out!

Little Fox book activity: STEM activity - build a chair

 

Thanks to this STEM activity the stuffed animals now have chairs.   I wonder if I will see them bouncing on them like a certain couple kids do each day on my couch?

 

Check out these other STEM challenges:

  • Craft Stick Catapults
  • Design a Boat That Floats 
  • Plastic Egg Submarines
  • Make a Paper Cup Phone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Kids Activities Tagged With: fun with learning, preschooler, STEM activity, teaching kids

Comments

  1. JDaniel4's Mom says

    September 14, 2012 at 10:25 am

    What wonderful chairs! I bet the animals loved them. Thank you for sharing on Read.Explore.Learn.

    • OneMommy says

      September 21, 2012 at 2:33 pm

      Yes, the animals were quite please with their new chairs. 🙂

  2. Rach says

    September 14, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    What a fun way to bring the book to life! 🙂

    • OneMommy says

      September 21, 2012 at 2:35 pm

      It’s one of my favorite things to do with the kids — must be the teacher in me. 🙂

  3. jen says

    September 14, 2012 at 6:25 pm

    I’m gonna write that title down for Christmas gift purposes.

    Did you and the kids ever read Mrs McGee’s Coconut, by Allia Zobel-Nolan? I recently got it for my granddaughter. It’s the same kind of book, she was thrilled every time she picked it up. She was here for two weeks and we read that book multiple times every day. Very cute! I bet your kids would like it too.

    • OneMommy says

      September 21, 2012 at 2:34 pm

      I’ve never heard of that one — but I’ll add it to our list of books to look for at the library next time. It sounds fun!

  4. Kristiina says

    September 15, 2012 at 1:50 pm

    That’s awesome. I’ll have to check out that book for the next time I baby sit my sisters kids.

    • OneMommy says

      September 21, 2012 at 2:35 pm

      I bet they’ll love it!

  5. Danyelle Franciosa says

    September 17, 2012 at 1:21 am

    One of my nephews love that book when he was a little younger.
    I remembered the time when his mom was still at the office and his big brother called me to read him that book cos he can’t sleep. I really miss that little boy.

  6. Donna DM Yates says

    October 9, 2012 at 3:15 pm

    What a cute, cute book with a great lesson. But the best part was the chairs your children made.

    • OneMommy says

      October 11, 2012 at 3:48 pm

      Oh, I have to agree! I was so excited to let them design their own chairs!

Trackbacks

  1. Meet OneMommy says:
    September 28, 2012 at 6:30 am

    […] TBL: What keeps you going? OneMommy: I may have resigned my teaching position, but I have definitely not stopped teaching.  In fact, I have lots of fun with my kids bringing some of our favorite books “to life,” like our latest with Little Fox. […]

Connect with me

Link to my Facebook Page
Link to my Pinterest Page
Link to my Twitter Page

Check Out My New Book & Popular Posts

Engineering Activities for Kids

how to make egg geodes

Straw Weaving -- weaving craft

how to make vanishing ghosts by melting packing peanuts

Search this site

Recent Posts

  • Make Learning Easier with DIY Math Manipulatives
  • Engineer a Truss Bridge with Craft Sticks
  • Dragon STEM Activities
  • Fun and Foamy Elephant Toothpaste Experiment
  • Shark Party Games — Perfect for Shark Week or a Shark-Themed Birthday Party

Proud Member

Women Online
Blog Meets Brand

Archives

Copyright © 2023 · Lifestyle Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in