Activities

Fantastic Hats

Design and make a fabulous hat!

Materials

• Colored paper
• Scissors
• Tape
• Stapler
• Glue
• Paper clips
• Collage materials for decoration (crepe paper streamers, colored feathers, buttons, et cetera)
• Camera

Directions
Talk and read about hats (see Talk About It and Related Books), then make some fantastic hats of your own. A decorated plastic container or berry box, perhaps with a ribbon or elastic strap attached, can be a fine hat. So can a medium-size paper bag with the edges rolled up. Try folding a hat from newspaper (see directions below), or make a hat from strips of paper and assorted art materials. Use one strip of paper as the headband-staple, tape, or paper clip it to fit. Then let your imagination run wild! Strips of paper, attached to the headband at both ends, can loop up to form a crown. Paper cut into spirals can form hanging curls. A piece of colored acetate can become a visor. Crepe paper streamers, colored feathers, packing peanuts, plastic netting, buttons, and other found art materials will make wonderful additions. Be sure to take a photograph of your family wearing your fantastic all-original hats!

To make a newspaper hat:

1. Take a sheet of newspaper (two full pages)
2. Fold the newspaper in half, left to right, along the crease that's already there.
3. Turn the paper so that the fold is facing away from you.
4. Again, fold the paper in half, left to right, and then open it up again (this will make a vertical crease line in the center)
5. Taking the top right corner, pull it left and down, folding the corner over so that the top right edge of the paper lines up with the center crease.
6. Taking the top left corner, pull it right and down, folding the corner over so that the top left edge of the paper lines up with the center crease.
7. You should now have a point at the top, and the bottom should still be flat. (Note: if the bottom part of the newspaper is totally hidden by the two top-corner flaps, unfold them, make your newspaper less wide by cutting a bit off the left and right, and start again at step 5.)
8. Fold one of the bottom edges up. Then turn the paper over, and fold the other bottom edge up.
9. Open your hat at the bottom by pulling the two bottom edges apart from each other.
10. You should now have a pointy, triangular hat!

Talk About It
What sort of hats do people wear? With your child, think of the different things you have worn on your heads, or you have seen others wear, for example: baseball caps, scarves, cowboy hats, birthday crowns, bike helmets, hard hats, bathing caps, clown hats, et cetera. The book "Hats, Hats, Hats" by Ann Morris features wonderful photographs of hats worn around the world.

Related Books
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss
Hats, Hats, Hats by Ann Morris
The Hatseller and the Monkey by Baba Wagué Diakité

Next: Follow the Directions
Back to Activities Index

Age Range: 4-6

Skills/Subjects:

• Creative Expression (Art)
• Fine Motor

Related Episodes:

• #112: The Chap with Caps
• #122: Red Hat, Green Hat