Polar Bear Zoo Animal Toilet Paper Roll Crafts for Kids

Welcome to my mini zoo animal toilet paper roll crafts for kids series! Today’s featured animal is the, polar bear. Sweet Pea loves the polar bear, mostly because there is a very ferocious polar bear exhibit at our local zoo. Over the past year we have seen this fellow do all sorts of fun things. So, of course our zoo animal series would not be complete without including him! Read on to find out how we made him!

polar bear zoo animal toilet paper roll crafts for kids

Polar Bear Zoo Animal Toilet Paper Roll Crafts for Kids

Materials Needed

  • 1 toilet paper roll
  • 1 sheet white construction paper or cardstock* (tip: many craft stores sell ‘pre-wrapped’ paper rolls. Not every color is represented. However, white usually is.. especially at Christmas)
  • 1 white foam sheet
  • 1 piece (or a sheet) of bright pink foam
  • craft glue
  • glue gun and glue
  • black sharpie
  • hole punch
  • 1 medium-sized white pom pom
  • dog paw stamp
  • black stamping ink
  • 2 googly eyes
  • pink marker
  • scissors

How to Make Polar Bear Part One

  • In a perfect world, you would be able to find craft rolls at the store that are already rolled in the color you want. However, in my experience, the available colors are rather limited. No worries.. it is surprisingly easy to cover the toilet paper roll in the color of paper you want.
    • You don’t want too much excess paper. Line the toilet paper roll up with the bottom edge of the construction paper or cardstock and make a small pencil mark line to denote the length of the toilet paper roll. Move the roll a few inches down the paper and do the same thing. Take a ruler or straight edge and draw a cut line.
    • ‘Wrap’ the construction paper around the toilet paper roll to determine how much paper you will need to cover the roll, but not have too much overlap. Again, draw a rough cut line in pencil.
    • Cut out the toilet paper roll footprint. It should be a rectangular piece of paper.
  • Place the toilet paper roll at the end of the paper. Line it up so that the ends are aligned.
  • Apply a thin line of glue on the construction paper directly in front of the toilet paper roll, where the roll touches the paper. Gently ‘roll’ the toilet paper roll onto the glue so that the end if glued on. Then, squeeze glue, covering the rest of the construction paper. Tip: don’t use too much glue. You don’t want glue oozing out the sides and end of the toilet paper roll like a jelly donut. You just want enough glue to ensure the paper sticks to the toilet paper roll.
  • ‘Roll’ the rest of the construction paper around the toilet paper roll. Apply another thin layer of glue on the end of the paper in order to ensure the toilet paper roll is completely covered.
  • Trim excess paper as needed.

How to Make the Polar Bear Part Two

polar bear zoo animal toilet paper roll crafts for kids

  • Trace the polar bear head on the back side of the white foam. The easiest way to do this is to trace a wide circle (part oval, part circle). The add the ears (half circles) to the top of the wide circle. Remember.. it doesn’t really matter if there are tracing marks on the back of the tiger head. If you are concerned about not being able to see the trace marks, use pencil and then erase the marks after you cut out the head.
  • Cut out the polar bear head. Flip it over and trim the foam so that it looks symmetrical  (or at least the way you want it to look).
  • Cut out a smaller circle from the white foam for the polar bear snout.
  • Cut out two very small pieces of pink foam for the ears. Trim them so that they will fit inside the ‘ear print’ of the polar bear head.

polar bear zoo animal toilet paper roll crafts for kids

  • Stamp two dog paws onto the white foam. Use black permanent stamping ink and a dog paw stamp. (Mine is from Stampin’ Up, but paw stamps are very common). Cut the two paws out, close to the paw outline. Try to cut the paws in a half circle, so that there is a straight line at the bottom of the paw.
  • Glue the googly eyes, pink ear parts, and snout on with either craft glue or the glue gun. Note: My daughter did help with the googly eyes, but the eyes proved to be a little small for her to manipulate, so she lost interest quickly. The glue gun is much easier to work with if you are crafting by yourself or with older kids.
  • Use a glue gun to affix the polar bear head to the front of the toilet paper roll, and use the glue fun gun to affix the paws to the body of the toilet paper roll.
  • Draw two pink circles on the face for a ‘rosy cheek’ effect. Clearly, polar bears don’t have rosy cheeks. I just wanted to add an element of color flair for more fun.
  • For the tail, use the hot glue gun to affix the white pom pom to the bottom back edge of the toilet paper roll.

Voila! Polar Bear Zoo Animal Craft! Rarrr!

polar bear zoo animal toilet paper roll crafts for kids

One final note: Even though I wanted to make this craft with my daughter, I ended up making most of it on my own. My daughter is 2 years old and still working on all of her fine motor skills. She will love playing with this tiger, and all the other zoo animals I am making. However, her involvement in the creation of this craft was minimal. If your kids are older, they will easily be able to do more of the craft than my 2 year old did.

Thanks for stopping by and check back tomorrow to see our super cute monkey craft!
Sara

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