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This activity is sure to bring laughter to your kitchen table as you and your child explore the concept of how changing one small attribute on a face will generate an entirely different result. You will be collecting a set of pictures, cutting the pictures into thirds, and assembling them into a flip-style book. Flipping the picture pieces will allow you to display a part from another picture to ultimately create a totally new and funny twist on the original. You can decide on how personal you want to make the book. You can create a book using family photos, obtaining pictures from magazines, or creating your own pictures. Choose the option that best fits your time and available resources, follow the procedures, and enjoy the process!
Who's Who in Our Family?: This creative book will enable your child to see how he would look with Daddy's eyes, his own nose, and your wide smile. Find five to seven large pictures- 8x10s would work best. If necessary, you can get your pictures printed fairly inexpensively at your local drug or department store. You may even consider getting two copies of each picture. This will allow you to create two books. Using one book, you can create a silly picture and then see if your child can reproduce it using his book. The learning question: Can your child draw any conclusions on how his facial features might resemble yours or those of other family members?
The Funny People: Grab a stack of magazines and attempt to find five to seven large pictures of people. You want to make sure that the pictures are relatively the same size. You can choose head shots or full body shots. If you have a difficult time finding pictures that measure up, consider using a copy machine to enlarge or shrink pictures if needed. The learning question: Which combination is the strangest? What is so strange about it? What could you change to make it look less funny?
Create Your Own Funny People: Obtain five to seven sheets of plain white paper. Draw a large circle on one page. Divide the circle into three equal pieces by drawing two horizontal lines across the paper, which you will later cut. Do the same on the remaining pieces of paper. Together with your child draw eyes in the top third, a nose in the middle third, and a mouth on the bottom third of each circle. Be sure to draw creatively so that no two sets of eyes, noses, and mouths are alike. Add hair and other silly features to each head to make it unique. Consider emotions like shy, happy, sad, sneezing, etc. to spur on some creative looks. The learning question: Was your child able to think creatively enough to draw eyes in two different ways?
Procedure: To construct the book you will need construction paper, scissors, glue, and a stapler. Glue each picture onto a piece of construction paper leaving a larger margin on the left side than on the right for stapling purposes. Draw a vertical line two inches from the left edge of the paper on each page. After a few more steps, your book will be stapled within this two inch margin, but for now this line will be your guide for creating two horizontal lines. (If you created your own pictures, you can omit this step since your lines are already drawn.) Draw a horizontal line from the left line to the right edge of your paper so that it crosses through the neck. Then create another line in the same manner but this time draw a line at the knees. Do this for each page. Next, cut from right to left along each line. Be sure not to cut past the left vertical line or your pages will fall apart. Finally, you are ready to assemble the book. Use blank pieces of construction paper for the front and back covers and sandwich the picture pages between them. Staple the book along the left margin.
Ways to Enrich Your Child's Thinking: Duplicate the book and use the following list to explore a variety of other ways to maximize your funny flip book's potential. These are intended to get you started. Remember to use your child's reactions and comments as a springboard for other ideas, too. When you feel you have exhausted your idea bank, ask him if he can come up with another way to use his new book.- Create two identical books and play "Can you mimic me." Make a funny combination then see if he can create and match it to yours.
- Use two identical books and play "Guess who I am." Take three sticky notes. Place a sticky note on a set of eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Turn your book so the page is set to your specifications. Then hide the book so the other person can't see the picture. Give picture clues and encourage your child to recreate the picture in his book. This activity is a little trickier, but can be lots of fun for a family game of two kids against one adult.
- Make a copy of the pages. He can cut out the extra pages and recreate his favorite book pages by rearranging the pieces and pasting them down on a piece of construction paper. Laminate the construction paper and he now has a one-of-a-kind funny place mat.
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