Milk Carton Bunny

Description

Make a cute Easter Bunny basket from a milk carton. Great centerpiece or classroom activity. You can use the small milk cartons from lunch to make baby bunnies for each child. We made the small ones, dyed eggs and each child took it home in their milk carton bunny.

Materials

1 half-gallon milk carton or juice carton rinsed and dried
1/2 bag of Cotton Balls
2-3 pipe cleaners
Elmer's Glue or Non toxic Craft Glue
Masking Tape or Packing Tape
Scissors with a sharp tip
Pair of Wiggly Eyes

Other Materials

Easter Grass or shredded colored paper
Easter Eggs or Candies

Steps

Take milk carton and push spout down flat against sides and tape down to form slope of nose for face. If you happen to get a cardboard carton that has a plastic spout on it, just cut it carefully off. When you fold the spout down it will cover the hole.
ADULT ONLY (Recommends doing this step out of sight of very young children) With the tip of a sharp scissors, carefully, make a small hole in the carton under the flaps folded. Gently twist the scissors so point makes a hole into the cardboard. Make a very small hole...the pipe cleaners should be tight in it.
Cut out ears along the side of the carton that has the flaps taped down. Bend ears up at the fold.
Take about a fourth of the bag of cottons and gently pull the cotton balls to make it spread out or pull into small pieces for your child.
Using glue, cover each side of the carton, the "face" and "ears" with cotton balls
Pull pipe cleaners through the hole and snip if you want it shorter. Bend at different angles. If you kept the hole small the whiskers will stay in place without further gluing unless you opt to.
Glue on pom pom nose.
Glue on a whole cotton ball for a tail in the back.
Glue on Wiggly Eyes.
Fill with Easter grass, shredded paper and colored eggs or candy.

Tips and Suggestions

This toddler activity is relatively simple. The only difficult part of this activity was to make the hole the whiskers. An exacto knife is not recommended since the blade could snap. Use a scissors with a sharp tip and be very careful. Slowly rotate scissors to make a very small hole. Once the hole is made it is easy to make larger so start small and test with the pipe cleaners for size.
By pulling the cotton, it looks more natural and you need half the amount or less than if you stick on whole cotton balls.

Other Material Suggestions

Use felt, foam, construction paper or other materials to make eyes, nose to get a variety of features. Make a handle if you wish to use for an Easter Egg event.

Educational Notes

Pet rabbits kept indoors are referred to as house rabbits. Rabbits can be trained to use a litter box and there are some that can even learn to come when called. However your house must be "rabbit proofed". Rabbits will chew electrical cords, wood and carpet. Some pet rabbits live outdoors in hutches if the weather is amenable. Due to their fragile nature, rabbits are best pets for children at least 10 years of age. Please consider if you will be able to give the proper care for a rabbit before getting one. Rabbits have a relatively long life span of 6-7 years or more. My pet rabbit lived for 10 years which is as long as many dogs!