Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Bat: Cut and Tell

Following the owl draw and tell story, I have come up with a bat cut and tell rhyme for this summer's family story time featuring nocturnal animals.  Although I made up a rhyme, I might also just state the facts about bats.  It shall be interesting to see how quickly the children guess because, as I cut it out, I'm actually turning it upside down.

I am a creature of the night,  (Cut from 1 to 2)
Waiting until dark before I take flight.  (Cut from 2 to 3)
I eat mostly bugs but also fruit (Cut from 3 to 4) or the nectar 
     of flowers just like the bees (Cut from 4 to 5)
I live in caves but also burrows, flowers or leaves. 
     (Cut from 5 to 6)

What am I?

Below is a photo of the pattern along with the cutting sequence.  I have also scanned the pattern and put it up as a Google document here.  I simply traced the outline of a bat from clip art.  If you make your own template, always put it on the fold.  You are only tracing half of the bat.

Pattern

Normally I just place a piece of copy paper over the pattern and trace over the black lines.  Since I am using construction paper and textured paper this time, I had to make a template.


Template

Since I am just doing this for a single program, I purchased some craft paper to cut.  (This was suggested in the comments for this post.  Thanks Kristine.)  If I were to do this several times, I would just use black, gray or brown construction paper.  I also added some sticker eyes.  If you do, make sure to place them carefully.  It's a bit tricky placing them correctly on the inside of the folded paper because the cutting lines are on the outside.  Another much easier way to add eyes is to punch a hole in the folded paper.  The hole can be made beforehand. 

Pattern has been traced onto black construction paper.
(I used white paint so it would show in the photo.)

The back of the textured paper was white so it was easy to trace the pattern.


Below are photos of the cut out bats showing the fancy and plain versions.

Plain


Fancy

I am hosting this week's Flannel Friday Round-Up here.  Complete Flannel Friday information can be found here.


6 comments:

  1. Your bats are great! I'd love to know how you go about introducing the cut and tell story to your group.

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    1. If it is a guessing story, I usually just ask the children to guess what I am cutting out. I pause after each "clue" or cutting section. If someone guesses early, I say that it is probably the right guess so let's finish to find out. If it's a narrative story with no guessing, I just tell it like any other story cutting as I tell it.

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    2. I was looking for Mrs. Giggle Witch or the Orange House.cut and tell story. I would like to use The Bat cut and tell on my blog Thanks, apeaboutkidzbooks.blogspot.com

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    3. You are welcome to share the story on your blog. Just please credit your source or provide a link to the original post. I'm familiar with the Orange House but not Mrs. Wiggle Witch. Is that the same story? Years ago I heard someone telling it as Wacky, Wacky Witch and she tore it rather tha cut it.

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  2. Wow this is awesome. Have never done a cut n tell! Thankyou for sharing!

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  3. You're welcome! They are not that hard to do. I even put notes about the story on the back as well. Just make sure the audience doesn't see that side!

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