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When considering children's crafts, most parent's look at several things - how difficult it is, the mess that will be involved, whether or not it encourages the child to use their imagination and the cost of the materials. Making paper bag monsters gets top marks on all of them.

HOW DIFFICULT IS IT? Making a paper bag monster can be as simple or as complicated as you and your child want to make it. If you are dealing with a preschooler, you might want to stick to markers or crayons and a paper bag. Show the child how to stick his/her hand in the folded bag and curl their fingers around the folded bottom. Once they understand that this will be the monster's "head" and the rest of the bag is the body, let them go crazy with the crayons or markers. Most pre-schoolers will need little encouragement to scribble in eyes, a nose and a mouth. Some will forget to add the ears, but that's ok it's a monster, maybe it doesn't have any ears. Too many eyes or no nose? That's alright, too. Don't point out "mistakes" to your child the idea is to let them create a monster that looks right to THEM. For older children, encourage them to create a more advanced version of the monster. Provide them with old (clean) stockings or socks to stuff their monster's head. After placing the stuffing in the top of the bag, crimp the "neck" shut and use a rubber band, pipe cleaner or piece of string to hold the stuffing in place. Facial features can be drawn on the monster's head or your child may wish to glue eyes and teeth cut from magazines. All types of stickers and Googly Eyes can be purchased at most craft stores and there are enough in the package for make several monsters (unless your monster has dozens of eyes, of course). Hands and arms can be cut from construction paper or felt and glued to the bag. Material scraps can be made into costumes for their monster if you have scraps of fake fur bring it out! No fake fur? Get some yarn and show your children how to unravel it and tease it with a comb this could lead to a monster with fur of a different color, or several different colors. Lint from your dryer can also be used as monster fur. Monsters from outer space might have bodies fashioned from disposable pie plates or foil. Be sure to supervise children who are cutting or using disposable pie plates these can have sharp edges and cause serious injury.

HOW MESSY IS THIS PROJECT GOING TO BE? If you are just using paper bags and markers, make sure that your work area or table is covered

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