Reindeers on a Red Carpet (by Marco A. Brazil)

Ever since I made my first creations using recycled toilet paper (TP) rolls, I fell in love with TP rolls and have been a big TP roll recycling fan. I am amazed how creative I can be with TP rolls. With TP rolls the possibilities are endless. That’s how big a fan I am.

Toilet Paper Rolls (or Toilet Paper Tubes, if that’s what you call them) can be reused and recycled in many different ways. And if you are teaching children, they can be used in many kid’s craft activities and for playing games as well. Yes – games!

Here is one of the many crafts that you can create using toilet paper rolls this Christmas season and a game that you can play with it that your kids will surely enjoy.

A Toilet Paper Roll Reindeer

Materials: TP roll (brown one is the best)
Scissors
Glue
Colored art balls
Round Label Stickers (white)
Rubber band

1. Find the center of your TP roll and use the rubber band as a marker or stopper to show where to cut.
2. Using scissors, cut into four (4) equal parts.
3. Decide which side will be the front (face) and the back of your Reindeer. Cut and remove two (2) of the four parts. The two remaining parts will be the antlers, while the removed parts will be the back of the reindeer.
4. For the antlers, make eight (8) diagonal cut as shown in the picture.
5. Alternating, bend or fold the cut parts forward.
6. For eyes, use the round label stickers (white) and using a black marker draw a circle in it. Stick them below the Reindeer’s antlers.
7. Now, remove the rubber band and glue the colored pom pom ball as the Reindeer’s nose.
8. Adjust the antlers to suit your style.

 

The Game: Reindeers On A Red Carpet

Materials: 3 or 4 sheets of red paper (A4 size)
marker
glue
dice

Preparation:
Glue 3 or 4 sheets of A4 size red colored paper to make your carpet. Using a marker, divide the red carpet horizontally into 16 equal parts. Draw lines to show the borders of each section. Write START in the first section, one of the letters for M-E-R-R-Y-C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S in each of the next 14 sections, and GOAL in the last section. Spread the carpet on a flat surface and start the game.

How to play
1. Determine the order of play using the game Rock Scissors Paper, saying “Merry Christmas” instead of “Rock Scissors Paper.”
2. The first player rolls the dice and moves his/her Reindeer according to the number shown in the dice. For example, if a player rolls 6, the player will move his/her reindeer from Start to “Y”. The player shouts the name of the letter he/she lands on.
3. Each player does the same in turn.
4. The aim is for players to reach the GOAL and shout MERRY CHRISTMAS at the end.

Note: For students with higher level English skills, you can have students say a Christmas-related word that starts with the letter they land on. For example, students landing on “C” could say candy cane, cake, or chimney; students landing on “H” could say holiday, holy, or happy; students landing on “R” could say Reindeer, Rudolf, or red, and so on.

I hope your students enjoy this craft and game as much as mine did! If you try it, please let me know. If you come up with a variation for the game, please share that, too.

Note: This article by Marco A. Brazil originally appeared on Teaching Village, and is licensed under a Creative Commons, Attribution-Non Commercial, No Derivatives 3.0 License. If you wish to share it you must re-publish it “as is”, and retain any credits, acknowledgements, and hyperlinks within it.