Imagine Your Story: Unicorns or Dragons?
By Cheryl Burgess and Gelenda Norman | Youth Department, Central Library
The theme for our Virtual Summer Learning Program 2020 is “Imagine Your Story.” Truth be told, the imagination has had to work overtime to keep busy kids busy. There are only so many binge-watching marathons and video games and app challenges that a kid can take. Birmingham Public Library is encouraging kids to not only read this summer, but to “Imagine Your Story” by creating your own.
At the onset of COVID-19 in Jefferson County, many people swarmed to stores in search of toilet paper. Rolls of toilet paper equal to tons of cardboard toilet paper rolls . . . or not. BPL Central Youth Department wants you to hold on to a few of those cardboard rolls. Let’s re-imagine those rolls and venture into your imagination to create YOUR story and bring it to life.
Take a break from streaming videos and create your own fantasy character to bring to life. For Family Night, imagine a land of dragons and unicorns and knights and princes and princesses and wands and magical stones and . . . well, you get the picture. If you fancy taking your story from your imagination to the real world, we may have what you need.
Supply kits are available now, as supplies last, with everything you need to create a dragon or unicorn using those leftover toilet tissue rolls. (Packets will include craft toilet paper rolls.) Craft materials will be provided at Avondale, Five Points West, North Birmingham, and Springville Road Libraries. Kits are available at curbside pickup Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. Call to reserve your free kit; supplies are limited.
Follow us on Facebook and join our Facebook program on July 7 to get information and instructions on creating these fantastical creatures out of the ordinary. Don’t forget to name your unicorns and dragons! We hope you enjoy your new pets!
Grab and Go Craft: Create a Mythical Creature
Tuesday, July 7, 10:00 a.m.
Instructional video will be posted on Birmingham Public Library Facebook page
Unicorn Toilet Paper Craft
Materials
- toilet paper roll
- glue
- yarn for mane and tail
- yellow piece of construction paper for horn
- white piece of construction paper for ears
- Wrap the paper around the toilet paper tube and secure with glue. Glue or tape the smaller chunk of yarn inside the top of the toilet paper tube, leaving some of it hanging out and over the toilet paper tube.
- Glue or tape the larger chunk of yarn on the middle of the toilet paper tube in the back. This is the unicorn’s tail.
- Trim up the unicorn’s hair however you’d like.
- Cut a horn from the yellow cardstock and glue or tape it on top of the yarn hair.
- Cut ears from cardstock, pinch and the secure with a bit of glue. You can color the inside of the ears with a marker if you prefer. Glue the ears on top of the yarn hair. Dig the bottom of the ears into the hair so you don’t see any icky parts.
- Draw eyes onto the toilet paper tubes with any color marker. You can color some rosy cheek on to your unicorn.
Dragon Paper Roll Craft
Materials
- 1 paper roll
- 1 glue
- 2 google eyes
- 4 pom poms (2 large/2 small)
- 2 scraps of paper for fire
- 1 piece of construction paper for body
- Wrap the paper around the toilet paper tube and secure it with glue.
- Using a glue stick, attach a googly eye to the middle of one of the larger pom poms. Repeat for the second larger pom pom, adding the google eye to the center.
- Using the glue stick, attach one of the large pom poms with google eyes to one end of the paper roll. Repeat with other large pom pom. This will be your dragon’s eyes. (You should have two.)
- Using your glue stick, attach the two smaller pom poms toward the opposite end of the tube; this will be the nose of the dragon.
- Using a glue stick, attach the scraps of paper to the inside of the paper roll. This should be done on the same end as the nose. The majority of the scraps should be sticking out of the end of the paper roll. This will be your flames!
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