Clank Cans

Long ago, my niece who was doing child care at the time, suggested I make a clank can and use it for story retelling.  I didn't know what a clank can was and to be honest, after she explained it to me I thought she was a little crazy.  Why would kids like them??

I ended up trying them and went on to design many.  Why??  Because for some reason kids love them!



Here is a version for a Brown Bear, Brown Bear clank can.

Here's how you make them.  Find a can that has a metal bottom.  Formula cans or some coffee cans work great for this.  Take off the label and cover the can with construction paper.  Cut a hole in the lid as shown.

Go to this page at Making Learning Fun and decided what version of the can you'd like to make.  There are many to choose from.  Print the pieces.

Collect frozen orange juice lids or lids that have been removed with a can opener that open cans by lifting the lids rather than cutting the lids like this one.


Pampered Chef New Smooth Edge Can Opener #2759

After the lids are clean attach the character pieces to the lids by gluing then covering with Clear Contact Paper,  Cut out and laminate the label.  Attach to your can with Velcro.  Then you can interchange the labels depending on which story version you are using.

Now the fun begins.  Sit in a circle with your kiddos or work one on one.  Lay the character pieces(lids) out on the floor.  Start retelling the story.  As there is action with each character, have the children drop that lid (character) into the can.  Kids love to hear the clank sound as they lids drop and hit the bottom of the can.

I know it sounds crazy that kids would like this but they truly do.  I had one little girl at childcare that would stack the lids on top of each other in order of the story.  I've made two sets of lids and the kids have played concentration with them.  It's a great activity to aid in story retelling...and it's super cheap to make.

Fun and cheap and educational??  You can't beat that!!

Pinterest and Puppets

Making Learning Fun is slowly finding it's way to Pinterest.  It has been an arduous job getting the website updated so that it will be Pinterest ready but slowly, it is happening.  You can find us on Pinterest here.

So many of the pages on Making Learning Fun were created long ago before I ever had a clue that the site would grow to what it is today.   I was a little organizationally and technically overwhelmed.  Over the summer I have been updating those older pages trying to make it more user friendly.  As I am doing that, I come across projects that I have forgotten about.  One of those projects were these cute toilet paper tube puppets that can go with the book Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?



Seeing those puppets brought me back to when I did in home childcare.  Summer time was such a great time for fun dramatic play.  One of our favorite things to do was to take a spring tension curtain rod with a curtain on it and put it in the door frame to make a wonderful little puppet stage.  We'd make puppets and put on "plays" and retell stories.  Why not give it a try with the Polar Bear, Polar Bear Puppets?

If you are looking for even more toilet paper tube puppets Making Learning Fun has many more that you can find here.