Today I am excited to share that I am participating in the “Get Creative with THE LORAX” blog tour in support of the movie DR SEUSS’ THE LORAX by Universal Pictures. The movie hits theaters on March 2! I am sure many of you have already seen the trailers already but can I just tell you that I am super excited to take the kids to see this movie as we love seeing animated movies with a great story line and I really adore the book and the wonderful message it shares about taking care of our environment.
The Lorax is the main character in the movie and I just love how they brought him to life and that he is voiced by Danny DeVito, could he play the grumpy Lorax any better? 🙂 I decided to make a Roll A Dice Lorax Game out of felt so that I could introduce the character to my kids as well as practice their numbers as two of my three children are in preschool.
Roll A Dice games are great for preschool and elementary aged children. How the game works is that each number on the dice represents a specific body part. When the child rolls the dice they count out which number it is and match the number on the dice with the body part from the game sheet. The child will get to place that specific part body on the Lorax’s body and their turn then ends. If the child rolls a number that corresponds to a body part that they already added they pass their turn. The winner is the child who completes their Lorax first. This game is great for practicing counting, number recognition and of course taking turns! You may want to make one Lorax for each child playing although that is not necessary.
Roll A Dice Lorax Game
2 x 3 foot piece of foam board
1 yard of grey felt
2 pieces of 8.5 x 11 inch orange felt
1 piece each of 8.5 x 11 inch green, yellow, white and black felt
Hot glue and gun
Felt glue (optional)
Scissors
Straight pins or disappearing ink pen
Permanent marker
The Lorax Body and Body Pieces templates (see below)
Game template (see below)
One dice
For this project you will need various colors of 8.5 x 11 inch felt pieces you can buy at the craft section of most fabric or hobby stores. You will also need a larger 1 yard piece of felt that you will need to cut from the bolt. You can find bolts of felt at JoAnns or similar fabric stores.
To make the felt board that the game pieces will stick to, you will need a 2 x 3 foot piece of foam board (I bought mine at the dollar store). Lay the foam board over top of the 1 yard of felt and cut so that you have about 2 inches of felt on all sides of the board. Cut a square piece of felt 2 x 2 inches from each of the four corners.
Working with one side of foam board at a time, hot glue the felt to the backside of the board about 1.5 inches from the edge (See above left picture). When you get to a corner, fold the felt over into a triangular shape, place hot glue near the corner and fold into place. This will give you nice mitered edges (see above right picture).
Your felt board should look like this from the front!
Next print out the Body Pieces Template by clicking on the image above and printing.
Print out the Body Template by clicking on the image above as well.
Once you have cut out your template pieces, grab the different colors of 8.5 x11 inch felt and either pin or trace the template pieces onto them and cut out with a pair of sharp scissors.
Here is a list for the corresponding felt color and template pieces:
orange = body, nose, two arms, two legs
yellow = eyebrows, mustache
white = two eyes
green = two eye colors
black = two eye pupils (or can just use a permanent marker!)
You should now have the body and all the body pieces of the Lorax cut out. For the eye pieces I hot glued the green onto the white and then took a black permanent marker to draw in the pupil. I used the marker to also make the nostrils of the Lorax’s nose!
All the felt pieces should stick nicely to the felt covered foam board. Which works as a wonderful display when playing with multiple children! When you are done playing the game just place all the pieces and the Game sheet in a ziploc bag for later.
Click on the image above to print out the Game Template.
When the Lorax’s body is complete it should look like this. Isn’t he cute!
I hope you enjoy making this fun, interactive learning game. It is great entertainment for small children!
Click Here if you would like to see the trailer to THE LORAX movie!
If you would like to see more crafty projects from the “Get Creative with THE LORAX” blog tour here is the complete list of participating bloggers:
This post is brought to you by Universal Pictures
XOXO,
This is so cute! It looks like you could probaby make it w/o the board and roll it up for a ‘to-go’ game! You’re so creative!
What a cute game.
I love this idea! Your Lorax is adorable!
loveyellowcloth@gmail.com
Cuteness. I love your lorax!!:)
What a great idea! You did such a good job with the Lorax pieces, too..
dot
This is so cute Maggie! My boys would love this.
What a great idea! This movie looks fun too! Just posted on Craft Gossip!
http://lessonplans.craftgossip.com/?p=5555
I love this! What a great idea.
so cute, i just bought some felt and was trying to figure out a reusable game or craft for my daughter. great idea!
http://www.sunbutterandjelly.com/
HI Maggie! I really love this!! I just might have to make it for my kinder babies during our Dr. Seuss week! I featured it yesterday on my blog. Come check it out and grab a button if you like! http://missloviecreations.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-favorite-things-thursday-not-on.html
This game would be perfect for my 5yr olds, they would absolutely love it. Great job.
Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU! I didn’t make the game, but I used your pattern pieces to make my son a Lorax birthday shirt for his 6th birthday party. The artwork was adorable and PERFECT! I blogged about it here:
http://craftingthisadventure.blogspot.com/2012/05/unless-someone-like-you-cares-whole.html
Thanks for the idea. I’m always on the look-out for something to add to our Dr. Seuss/Read Across America Day programming.
This is a cute game! Thank you for sharing 🙂
I made these for my son’s 1st birthday. I painted the eyes but did the rest per your instructions. It has been a huge hit for all of the kids! Thank you so much for this tutorial!
Thank you so much for letting me know, Mandy! I am so glad this was a useful game at your son’s party!!! Happy 1st birthday to him…and you!!!
xo,
Maggie