There’s no time like October to embrace the glee of dress-up. Whether you’re planning out your actual Halloween costumes or just having fun around the house, kids seem to just morph when they are in costume, If you want, save this one (an adorable suggestion from Highlights High Five) for Halloween; it would be perfect for a parents and a child or for a group of siblings. Or just get silly like we did during a morning of play and use for creative costume play!

Travis thought the project was a delight from start to finish, intrigued right away by all the materials as we gathered them.

First up was making our hats – two yellow ducks for mom and dad, and a white goose for Travis. Buy solid color hats from a craft store, then trace the visors of the hats on orange felt, leaving an outer edge about 1/4-inch longer than the brim for the “beak.”

I cut them out, trimming slightly to make sure they fit the brim, and then glued on. You can have your child help you with regular glue, or use hot glue for slightly better adherence.

To make the eyes, draw black dots with marker on styrofoam balls. Travis had fun drawing one very wobbly eye, but then asked me to fill in the circles on the others.

Use Velcro dots to add the eyes to each hat. Neat, they stick!

To make our shirts, we made long lines of glue on the sleeves of plain t-shirts from the craft store – two yellow, one white – and stuck on feathers in the corresponding colors.

Travis thought this part was endlessly fun, so we covered the bellies of the shirts as well.

Let your costumes dry completely. While we waited, Travis gathered leftover feathers and pretended it was the duck’s nest! Leftover Styrofoam became the “eggs.”

 

The next day, it was time to play! I thought Travis might find the feathery shirt uncomfortable, but he was so excited to be a goose, instantly honking up a storm.

And insisting that Mommy Duck quack, of course, so here I am:

Even Daddy Duck got in on the action. We played many rounds of Duck, Duck, Goose of course, and Travis wanted to wear his shirt the rest of the morning. If you do opt for these costumes on Halloween, wear white or yellow rain boots to complete the look.