Bats are in the Air

C loves bats.  He loves them so much that when each of the children chose an animal to adopt for Christmas, he chose the vampire bat. So, this time of year, we definitely have to do at least one bat craft.  I'm planning to make the bat cupcakes we made last year too.

Our simple bat craft this year required very few materials:

• empty toilet paper roll
• black card stock or construction paper
• googly eyes
• black paint (we used acrylic paint, but it isn't necessary; I just like the way it covers so well)
• pipe cleaner (optional)

First, I folded one end of the toilet paper roll to make the ears.

Then, I folded the opposite end of the toilet paper roll in the same fashion, but perpendicular to the top fold.  This creates a great bat body.

This folding technique came from Filth Wizardry.

C and R painted their bats.  C painted his black, of course, but R insisted on painting hers purple!

Once the bats were dry, I cut some bat wings out of black card stock.  You can use construction paper, but I like the sturdiness of the card stock.  I just cut them out freehand, but DLTK has some bat wing templates if you need one.  We taped the wings onto the back of the bat body and then glued googly eyes on the front. 

C and R decided to tape a pipe cleaner onto the back of each of their bats so that they could fly them around the house.  Unfortunately, we didn't have any black pipe cleaners, but C was happy enough with purple.

The bats are happy to hang upside down (how else would bats hang?) in one of our trees when they are done flying!  The pipe cleaners came in handy for hanging.

We have a lot of favorite bat books, but here are a few that we are reading right now:

• Stellaluna by Janell Canon - a baby fruit bat is separated from her mother and taken in by a family of birds; she must try to live like a bat, but luckily she eventually finds bats just like her
• Bats at the Ballgame by Brian Lies - a group of bats have fun at the ball field
• Bats at the Beach by Brian Lies - a group of bats enjoy a summer night at the beach
• Bats at the Library by Brian Lies - a group of bats are thrilled when the librarian forgets to close the window and they can enjoy some great books
• Bat's Big Game by Eugenia Nobati - a great lesson about sticking with your team whether you are winning or losing can be found in this book about a bat who wants to win.  This also introduces a little science - is a bat an animal or a bird? 
• Five Little Bats Flying in the Night by Steve Metzger - a rhyming book that counts down from five, featuring five little bats getting into mischief

I am linking this to What My Child is Reading at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.