A Craft Project: Building an Extendable Pinocchio Nose for Children
With a few basic craft supplies, you can put together a nose that extends and retracts, letting your child act out the tale of Pinocchio. In that story, dishonesty causes the nose to lengthen, while honesty makes it return to normal, and it eventually becomes so long that it gets in the way of what he wants to do.
By Sage Campbell5 steps
An educational and fun craft is the perfect indoor activity.
You can build a Pinocchio nose that extends and retracts, giving your child something to play with throughout the house. Watching it grow and shrink will be a lot of fun for him. In the Pinocchio story, a lie makes his nose grow longer, and telling the truth makes it shrink back. At one point his nose becomes so long that it gets in the way of things he wants to do. He soon realizes that lying is not a good thing. If you talk about this with your child while the two of you work on the craft, the time you spend together becomes both meaningful and instructive.
Step 1
Start by asking your child whether he wants to decorate the construction paper before anything else. Doing so makes the project more enjoyable, and it also gives you an opening to talk about the story and the reason the nose grows.
Step 2
After he has decorated all three sheets of construction paper, roll them vertically. The first sheet should be rolled more loosely than the second, and the second more loosely than the third, so that they can slide inside one another. They should not fit together too loosely — you want a bit of resistance when you pull each one out. Use tape to hold each roll in place, which also lets you unroll it again if necessary.
Step 3
Extend each roll so they remain connected but form a long "nose." Since you probably don't want it that long, trim the end of each roll until it reaches the length you prefer.
Step 4
Attach Velcro to both ends of the rolls. Nest the rolls inside one another again and move them back and forth. The Velcro keeps each roll from pulling all the way out when your child makes the nose "grow."
Step 5
On the side where your child's nose will sit, use a pen to make a small hole, thread the string through it, and tie it off to secure it. Wrap the string around his head to measure. Then poke another small hole on the opposite side of the roll, pass the other end of the string through it, and tie a knot.
