This craft did not start well. Easter grass is messy on good days but answering an email, after I got the grass out ( oops) I found my son trying to clean it up in the family room. The grass was everywhere and all I could do was laugh. Here’s a pic of the carnage. 
That said, we had so much fun doing this monster craft which was inspired by the books below and my son’s newest pjs – which will debut once the weather cools.
- Gather your materials. If you are brave( and crazy like me ) use Easter grass you have laying around. If you are smart, grab some green tissue paper. You will also need some colored scrap paper , green construction paper and another full piece of construction paper in a contrasting color, scissors and glue.
- Start by cutting the green paper into a monster body and 4 limbs.
- Next hand your child the glue and have them glue the body onto the plain full size piece of construction paper.
- Add the limbs, I made 4 but my son only wanted his monster to have 2. That’s cool.
- Time to add a lot of glue – if you are using tissue paper add a few layers, adding glue as you need it.
- Add the grass. A cool trick is to make balls with the grass and glue those on. This minimizes the mess and random stray pieces falling all over your floor. After he added a ball of grass I would squish it hard to the glue to make sure it stuck.
- While they are adding grass cut out your features. I made horns, a big happy mouth, some claws and one eye with an iris.
- Glue the iris to the eye.
- Add glue for the facial features to the grass.
- Add on your mouth and your eye.
- Add the horns.
- Add the claws/toenails, or in our case, knee pads.
- Let dry!
Books
“When A Monster is Born” by Sean Taylor is funny, my son didn’t find it as funny as I did but he still laughed and didn’t seem scared any of it. The story is about a monster and all the life changing choices he faces every day like whether to eat a principal or run through a wall of a school. This book feels like a choose your own adventure book, it’s fun , repetitive and silly. There is quite a bit of talk about monsters eating people , though nothing too gory.
“Go To Bed Monster” by Natasha Wing is a book anyone who’s ever struggled with bedtime will instantly relate to. The little girl in the book Lucy isn’t sleepy so she draws a monster but soon his refusal to go to bed even after she is sleepy backfires. I like this book, and despite his refusal to believe the monster was a monster not a dinosaur my son really likes this book and it got read 5 times today! * ( See comments for one from the author, I am so sorry I referred to Lucy as Sarah- you’d think the many times we read it itwould have stuck- no more late night blogging for me! )
15 Responses to “Messy Monster Craft”
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My kids would love this craft.
I need to look for that book.
Thanks for sharing!
This is a great craft. We recently read When a Monster is Born and my son LOVED it; he is 5 so maybe your son will enjoy it more in a few years.
I also wanted to tell you about a new book titled The Sleepy Little Alphabet by Judy Sierra. It features lowercase letters and it is a fun read. I am writing a post about it for tomorrow. I think you might like the book.
How cute! What a mess, but a fun mess! His monster is just adorable.
I like your book suggestions. We are reading Junie B. Jones and The Monster Under the Bed! My girls like to listen to chapt. books at night. So exciting that my 2nd grader is reading them herself now, too. Did I say 2nd grader? Oh my- my little ones are getting old!!
Take Care!
Jen
Creative and Curious Kids!
My son and his buddies would love this craft!
thats such a cool craft i wanna do that with my son for sure
thanks for your continuing fab ideas and your fab knowledge of kids literature
That's a really cute monster. Thanks for including my book, Go to Bed, Monster! FYI though, the girl's name is Lucy.
Natasha,
Thanks so much for stopping by- I am so embarrassed that I made that mistake. I have corrected it. Thanks so much for a sweet book to add to our library!
That is adorable, Allie! He looks like Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc. I bet your little guy would like the book M is for Monster
I love this idea! We have a lot of green tissue paper that I think I'll cut into strips for my daughter to use, and we'll have to see if we can find that book from the library. Any excuse to use glue and she is happy as can be…
I just want to touch it – so fun and fluffy.
And, I finally added you to my blogroll since I love your site.
Melissa
http://imaginationsoup.net
He's so cute! I love the smile. Thanks so much, I'll be linking.
wow i like your activities.. can i link you up? – Teacher Sparrow
We just did this last week and we had a blast!
This is one of my favorite monster activities!! So funny!
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