Stick Man is one of our favorite holiday books! This fun Stick Man activity will offer children the chance to retell the story and create an alternative adventure for Stick Man. Children will love unfreezing Stick Man to help him get back to the family tree for Christmas!
We LOVE Julia Donaldson books! Every fall, we look forward to reading and retelling Room on the Broom and winter is the perfect time for this Stick Man activity.
We read the book over and over again and love the animated version on Amazon Prime and Netflix. If you haven’t watched this video yet, I highly recommend it! The animations are captivating and children hang on to each and every adventure that Stick Man experiences in this classic holiday tale.
Since we love Stick Man so much, I knew I had to come up with a few fun activities for this story.
Here’s what you’ll need for my first Stick Man activity:
Supplies:
- Sticks- One needs to be a Y shaped stick and one straight stick.
- Brown pipe cleaner
- Hot Glue Gun
- Googly eyes
- Stick Man Book– We have this holiday edition and it’s a beautiful hardcover book
- Fine Motor Tools
- Paintbrushes
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RELATED: Looking for more winter book extension activities? Check out Pick a Pine Tree Nature Craft!
How to Make Stick Man:
Step 1:
Find sticks! Head outdoors and collect the perfect sticks to make Stick Man. You will need one stick that is Y shaped. This isn’t very difficult. You can snap off any extra twigs off the Y shaped stick. You will also need one small straight stick for the arms.
Step 2:
Attach Stick Man’s arms by wrapping a brown pipe cleaner around the straight stick and the Y shaped stick. You will need to make a criss cross shape to ensure the arms are secure.
Step 3:
Hot glue the googly eyes onto Stick Man.
Now for the Stick Man Activity:
Step 1:
Freeze Stick Man. Place him in a pan, add water, and put him in the freezer- sorry buddy!
Step 2:
Read the book together. You can make up a new line, “Stick Man fell out of the snowman and froze in a puddle on the ground. Help unfreeze him so he can get home to the family tree for Christmas.”
Step 3:
Set out fine motor tools, warm water, and frozen Stick Man.
I let the chunk of ice sit out for about 15 minutes before inviting my children over because his middle section was submerged under A LOT of ice.
Step 4:
Invite children to free Stick Man! I told my boys to be careful when trying to unfreeze him so he stays in one piece. It took us about an hour to free him!
They started with the fine motor tools. They squeezed warm water on him and made some good progress!
Then they moved on to the paintbrushes. This was a great way to gently free his arms.
About one hour and two snacks later, he was finally freed! There was definitely a victory dance and high fives all around:)
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I hope you give this fun Stick Man activity a try! I promise, your little nature lovers will love it as much as my boys.
∼Tara
Need more winter nature activities?! Check out:
Pinecone Nature Confetti Shakers for New Year’s Eve
Valentine’s Day Literacy Centers
