Try It Tuesday: Packing Peanuts Monster

The inspiration for this project was a collaborative effort between my son and myself. It is part of our Preschool At Home Theme of Monsters, which I will share all of my ideas for that later. Earlier in the day my son asked me if we could do some projects and I asked what theme he would like to do (sometimes it's easier on the fly if I go with what inspires them and then tailor things around that.) He told me monsters. Then a package (for a review was delivered) and inside with the product was a bunch of these styrofoam packing peanuts (I sure wish more companies would switch over to the biodegradable ones!) and then it hit me that these might a fun texture for a monster. They were the typical S shaped packing peanuts that you can see below.

So, we got to work. I asked my son to paint a monster body on a piece of paper and told him we would be gluing other stuff on after. All the other pieces he glued on were leftover or re-used art supplies. He also had some ideas of his own. I think it was calming to him to break apart the styrofoam pieces and he suggested that be break them apart and make little bumps all over the monster. It was different than what I was thinking, but this was his project and I wanted him to enjoy making it. I cautioned him that he would have to break up a bunch and glue them on all over to do his idea, but he was not deterred. He was very calm about breaking them apart and I think he would have liked to break apart more of them if I would have let him. Sounds like I need to come up with another idea to re-purpose packing peanuts. Or maybe I should just ask him. :)