Travis’s craft challenge from Highlights this month was to make little animals using nothing more than acorns, wiggle eyes, and paint.

We collected a whole bunch of acorns (about 20) from oak trees nearby, which was no easy feat in 10 degree weather!

Inside, I asked him what colors he wanted to paint, thinking about what animals he might end up with. He opted for gray, so we mixed black and white together. Because he didn’t want to get his fingers messy on the small acorns, I held them while he painted.

For variety, we made a few pink acorns as well.

Once the paint dried, we glued together a few simple creatures. The stems on the acorn caps made us think of curly pig tails, so two pinkish acorns were glued together as pigs. Travis glued on the googly eyes, although the large size of the eyes made it hard for them to stick while the glue dried.

The gray acorns made us think of little owls, who also received eyes.

If Travis were older, I would have encouraged him to paint on little feathers, but I knew that sort of fine detail was too much for him. In sum, a cute project but not our favorite craft challenge to date.