MINI MONDAY: COFFEE FILTER MONSTERS!

Create your own friendly monster and have oodles of fine-motor fun!

Materials

• Coffee filters x 2
• Washable Markers
• Water dropper or spray bottle
• Paper Towel
• Googly Eyes
• Markers
• Glue
• Scissors
• Construction Paper

Directions:

• Lay two coffee filters on top of each other
• Use the washable markers to colour a design on your coffee filters. Try using many different colours for an added effect!
• Place the coffee filters on the counter over a few pieces of paper towel. Using a water dropper or a spray bottle, wet the coffee filters. This will cause the colours to mix together!
• Once you’re done applying water to your coffee filters, leave them to dry overnight
• Once your coffee filters are dry, use scissors to cut lines along the outer edges of your coffee filters to create a “fringe” for your monster
• Pull your coffee filters apart. Rotate one slightly so that they no longer line up perfectly. Use glue to attach the two coffee filters together
• Use a combination of markers, paper, and googly eyes to give your monster a face!
• Cut four strips of construction paper. Fold each strip like an accordion, and use glue to attach them to the back of your monster to create their arms and legs
• Now your monster is ready to come alive!

Keep the fun and learning going! Can you…

• Guess which colours will be created when you add water to your monster?
• Count how many eyes your monster has?
• Tell a story about your monster? What’s their favourite thing to do?

ESSENTIAL LEARNING EXPERIENCES

Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills are developed when children learn to use their smaller muscles, like the ones in their hands, fingers, and wrists. Fine motor skills are used for everything from picking up a utensil to eat, buttoning clothing, and holding a pencil when learning to write.

This craft helps to support the development of fine motor skills by inviting children to use their smaller muscles to manipulate the scissors, squeeze the dropper or spray bottle, and fold their monster’s arms and legs!

Cause and Effect

Cause and effect refers to the relationship between an action and its outcome – for example, “when I step in the puddle, my foot gets wet!” Children can learn to understand and anticipate cause and effect reactions to a variety of actions.

This week’s craft helps to support the understanding of cause and effect reactions by encouraging children to think about what will happen when they add the water to their coffee filter!

Stay tuned for more resources to help spark kids’ creative learning!

Donate Today

Your support of the Children’s Museum is more important than ever during these difficult times. If you are able, please consider making a donation today.