Craft for kids: WWF bear friends

April 19, 2012

Written by FunLab Crew

As announced several weeks ago, FunLab has recently started a collaboration with the WWF in their launching of the new Linea Baby. The Linea Baby transforms a gift to a small child into a donation which goes to support areas dedicated to saving wild and exotic animals. The components of the Linea Baby kit are a small stuffed panda bear, a coloring book, a decal for the car and a certificate.

While brainstorming on how to turn the collaboration between FunLab and the WWF into a meaningful experience for the FunLab gang, I came up with the idea of creating a day camp dedicated to the WWF mascot, the panda bear. Besides being really cute:), the panda is a great example of how donations to the WWF have been turned into a success story of increasing panda habitats and survival.

APRIL 30TH 2012 will be the FunLab PANDA BEAR CAMP. A mix of arts, crafts and a (little bit at least) of the story of the panda and the WWF!

The first component of the WWF Linea Baby kit is a stuffed panda bear. Obviously I needed a craft project in which each child would make their own bear to take home:) I am a lover of pipe cleaners and decided that we would make loads of pipe cleaner panda bears. Easier said than done. Unfortunately, my first attempt at making a panda bear was a disaster:( In order to avoid wasting lots of pipe cleaners and getting really frustrated, I decided to turn to the internet for help. After reading a dozen different post on making pipe cleaner animals, here is how I made my panda and a polar bear friend.

You will need:

Animal Chenille Kit
Black beads
Glue
A small piece of ribbon

Let’s get started:
Step 1: HEAD. Make a loop in the middle of the brown pipe cleaner. This loop is the head of your bear.

Step 2: FIRST ARM. Bend half of the pipe cleaner so that you have made a small arm that is around 2cm long. Fold the extra pipe cleaner down between the head and unused piece to create a shoulder.

Step 3: SECOND ARM. Bend the remaining half of the pipe cleaner so that you form another arm around the same size as the first one. Your left over pipe cleaner should sticking up between the head and first arm.

Step 4: LEGS. One leg has already been formed in step 2. To form the second leg, bend the extra piece of pipe cleaner down over the first arm. Fold up the legs towards the center of your bear so that they are little bit longer than the arms.

YOU HAVE MADE THE BODY!!!!

Step 5: TUMMY. Wrap the white pipe cleaner around the end of a pencil 4/5 times. Slip off of the pencil. Pass the legs of your bear though the spiral with the extra piece of stem pointing towards the head.

Step 6: EARS. Form two ears out of the white pipe cleaner. I added black beads at this step.

Step 7: FACE. Wrap the left over white pipe cleaner around the tip of a pencil to form another spiral. Remove the pencil and press into the shape of a face.