Looking for unusual bird crafts for kids to try? These racing penguins are cute - fun to make and play with.
Racing Penguins
Two penguins race to reach the ocean. They run across the snow, dodging hazardous lumps of ice, zip across the frozen sea, and SPLASH! The red-beaked penguin makes it underwater first and catches the chocolate fish!
Make this cool penguin racing game. Kids love it. (Suits age 8 and up)
What you'll need:
Shoebox lid
Acrylic paints
White craft glue
Stiff cardboard
Iceblock sticks
4 small magnets (The new, ultra-stong kind work best)
Fine black marker pen
Strong craft glue
Chocolate fish as prizes
What to do:
Make the penguins' snowy landscape.
The first one third of the penguins' racing track is smooth snow. Then they run a slalom between lumps of ice for the middle one third. The last third is frozen sea. At the end, they dive down a hole into the ocean.
From stiff card, cut out 24 jagged shapes with tabs at their bases, to be the lumps of ice. Glue them onto the middle third of the box to make a slalom track for each of the two penguins.
Paint the inside of the lid and the ice lumps white. In the last one third, tinge the white with a little blue paint here and there, for frozen sea, and draw some cracks using a fine black marker pen.
Cut a round hole about 4cm in diameter in the centre of the frozen sea end. Draw black cracks around it.
Make the penguins
Make both birds 3cm high. Cut them from card, leaving a 1cm flap under each one. Paint them black and white. Give one a red and the other a yellow beak.
Glue a strong magnet to the base of the flap under each penguin.
Make the wands for racing the penguins.
Place a second magnet below the magnet glued to each penguin, and find out which way around it needs to be to stick to the first.
Glue the bottom magnet to the end of an iceblock stick so that you have the stick, then 2 magnets holding themselves together, then the penguin glued on top. Do this for both penguins. Leave until the glue is thouroughly dry.
Play the game:
Separate the magnets and place the penguins at the snowy end of their landscape, one on either side of the shoebox lid.
Put the wands underneath the box so that their magnets stick to the penguins' magnets through the box.
Someone needs to hold the lid up, while two kids stand one on either side, holding a wand each.
The peson holding the box shouts, "Go, penguins! Race to the sea!" The players must race their penguins to the hole at the other end, running a slalom through the blocks of ice. The first penguin through the hole into the ocean wins a chocolate fish!
