Eric Carle Birthday DIY Party Ideas - Making Animals

When my son turned one, I knew exactly what party theme to do. He was in love with the books "Polar Bear, Polar Bear what do you hear?" and "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, what do you see?", both written by Eric Carle. I would read them every day and he fell in love with pandas and polar bears. 

Eric Carle is known for his collage style children's books with fun rhymes. The Eric Carle website has his books and lots of other items available for purchase. There is also an Eric Carle museum where you can see his book art.

I decided to try and make everything based on those 2 books.  Unfortunately there weren't a lot of party ideas with those specific themes, but I was able to come up with some easy ideas that I wanted to share in case you have a little boy in love with pandas and polar bears too!

Making Animals

My first idea was to use his books and images to create the animals to place around his party area. I scanned in some images and printed them out. Then laminated them (optional), so they would keep as play things as well. It is such a waste to spend all this time making something and not have it last for another purpose. You could also always pass them on to another friend with a little one. I made 3 large ones so I could stick them on tables, walls, etc.

 (*Eric Carle images are copyrighted, so you can't sell them for commercial purposes)

I also made smaller ones and decided to attach popsicle sticks to them, so I could put them in bowls and such, as well as use them for puppets later!

I just taped the stick to the back.

They would be lots of fun with a little puppet theater!

Next I'll show you how I made masks for the little ones!......