Benjamin Franklin Crafts and
Learning
Activities for Kids
Crafts and
Activities Relating to Ben Franklin
How to Make Crafts Relating to Benjamin Franklin Including: No-Sew Benjamin Franklin Paint Stick Puppet, Benjamin
Franklin Holding a Penny Craft, Candles, Soap, Dipped Candles, Quill Pen, Piggy Bank, Inventions Worksheet
No-Sew Benjamin Franklin Paint Stick Puppet
 This type of puppet is
fairly easy to make but does take some practice. The Styrofoam ball
head is attached to a paint stick. The clothes and tricorn hat are
made from felt.
What
you will need:
Head:
2 1/2" Styrofoam ball, paint stir stick (paint stir - you get
them free when you buy a gallon of paint or you can buy them very
cheap from a paint store.) Small glasses, flesh colored acrylic
paint, marker, googly eyes, and white or off-white yarn. (Optional
- I used fast drying clay to make a nose),
Hat:
black felt and 12" gold trim to go around the tricorn hat.
Body:
1 dark blue, 1 light blue, 1 tan, 1 white, 1 brown felt, 10"
of eyelet lace, tiny piece of white fabric, , 2 wooden spoons, hole punch, and black fun foam.
How to Make the Head:
1.
Press one end of the paint stick into Styrofoam ball, pull it back
out, and put some glue on the end of the stick. Put it back in.
This will keep the head from falling off.
2.
Add a nose - Make a small raindrop shape out of fast drying clay,
flatten out one side, put a little glue on the flat side and press
it onto the head. Use an eraser or something else to smooth out
the nose. Poke two holes in the bottom of the nose to make nose
holes. You can even add ears or other face features in the same
way if you would like.
3.
Paint the whole ball flesh color. You will need a lot of paint.
Use a hair dryer to speed up drying. You may need at least three
coats of paint. When the face is dry glue on yarn for hair. Ben
had long hair and was bald on top. Glue the yarn all the way around
the head at about nose level.
4.
Place the glasses on the head to see where the eyes should be glued
on. Remove the glasses and glue on the eyes. Place the glasses on
the face. You may need to bend them to make them stay on.
How to Make the Tricorn Hat:
1.
Print out the Pattern for the hat. (Printing Problems?)
2.
Cut the shape from black felt.
3.
Place glue on one side of the darts as shown in the pattern. Bring
side A over side B and press together. Bring side C over side D
and press together. Glue gold or white trim all the way around on
the edge of one side of the hat. (I used a stiff trim that had wire
in it. This helped to keep the hat shape.)
4.
Place the hat on top of the head making sure the front of the hat
faces forward. The trim should be facing down. Secure on the head
with a pin or glue it to the head. Fold up the two side of the hat
as shown in the picture. Glue them up in place. Fold up the back
of the hat and glue in place.
How
to Make the Body:
1.
Start by making the bottom part of the legs. Cut two 6" x 6"
pieces of white felt. Roll up the pieces and glue them closed down
the length of the pieces.
2.
To make the breeches cut two pieces of tan felt 6" x 5".
Place glue down the 6" side of one of the pieces; bring the
other side just overlapping the glued edge and press to secure.
Do this with the other piece also. Place a white leg into one tan
piece so that the tan piece covers about 2 1/2" of the white
leg. Glue the tan piece to the white leg pleating the felt as you
go around the leg. Do the same for the other two pieces. Cut two
small strips of tan felt and glue them around the pleated edges
of the felt at the knees. Glue the legs to the paint stick about
3" below the head. Glue them so that the breeches reach around
the sides of the paint stick.
3.
Use the shoe pattern (found on the tricorn hat pattern above) to
cut shapes from brown felt. Glue the strips around the bottom of
the legs so that the tongue of the shoe is in the front. Cut square
buckle shapes from gold paper and glue to the front of the shoe.
Cut two small circle shapes from the brown felt and glue them to
the bottom of the shoe. Cut them to fit.
4.
Print out the Vest Pattern and cut it from light blue felt. Glue the top of the vest around
the paint stick below the head. Glue the front closed. Punch little
circles from fun foam and glue them down the front of the vest. (Printing Problems?)
5.
Cut a strip of material from white fabric and glue it around the
neck. Cut two pieces of eyelet lace about 3/4" each. Glue one
to the front of the white collar and then glue the other one underneath
that one a little farther down.
6.
Print out the Coat Pattern and cut it from dark blue felt. Fold down the top edge about 1/2"
to make the collar. Place a dot of glue in the middle to hold the
collar down. Glue the coat over the vest at the neck. Punch out
more circles from the fun foam and glue to the coat. Cut out the
sleeve pattern (this is with the vest pattern) and cut two from
dark blue felt. Place glue down the long edge of the sleeves and
bring the other edge just over the glue and press to secure. Glue
them to the top of the coat underneath the collar at the neck. (Printing Problems?)
7.
To make the arms cut two pieces of white felt 3" x 3"
and roll them up. Glue them closed so they don't unroll. Glue some
eyelet lace around one edge on each roll. Stick the arms inside
the sleeve of the coat. Glue them so they don't fall out. To make
hands draw fingers on the wide end of the wooden spoon. Place some
glue on the thinner end and push them up into the arms.
How to Print or Copy these Instructions.
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Benjamin Franklin Holding a Penny Craft
  Benjamin holds a sign and a real penny
reminding children to save their money. The sign says, "A penny
saved is a penny earned."
The
Pattern for this craft is available to members only. Click here
to Become a Member.
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Inventions
and Achievements of Benjamin Franklin Worksheet and Color Sheet
 Print
Out Children circle or color the objects that remind them of something
Benjamin Franklin was famous for and then discuss what each picture
represents.
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Make Candles or Soap
When Ben was 10 years old he started
working in his father's candle and soap making shop. Ben did not
like working with hot wax and smelly soap, but candle and soap making
can be fun. Candles were made by dipping a wick into hot wax over
and over again or by pouring it into a mold. You can make both of
these types with very little equipment.
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Dipped Candles
(Caution: This project should only be done
with adult supervision.)
What
you will need:
To make dip candles you will need to buy some
candle wicks, a candy thermometer, and some wax. (If you don't
want to buy wax, you can melt down old candles to make new ones.
Try looking in thrift stores for cheep old candles.) If you would
like to add a color to your candle or a scent, you will also need
to buy those. The rest of the stuff you can find at home. You
will need a pan to heat the wax, a tin can to melt the wax in
and one to hold cold water. (The taller the can the taller you
can make your candle. Tall skinny cans are best because you will
need less wax.)
What
to do:
Chop up your wax if it is in a big chunk. Place the
pieces in a tin can. Cut up extra wax because the wax will melt
down. Place the can in a pan filled with about 3" of water.
Heat the water. As the water boils it will melt the wax. When
all the wax is melted and the temperature reaches 180 degrees,
you are ready to start dipping. (Do not
let the wax get over 200 degrees. It could burst in to flames
if it gets too hot.)First fill the other can with
cold water. Cut a wick about 5" longer than the can with
the melted wax. Dip the wick into the hot wax and then pull it
out. Let it cool a little and pull to straightened the wick. Keep
dipping the wick into the hot wax and pulling it out right away.
Do not touch the bottom of the can. Each time you pull out the
wick dunk it into the cold water. Keep doing this until the candle
is the size you would like it. Hang the candle to dry. Cut off
the bottom so it is flat.
Mold Candles (Caution: This project should only be done
with adult supervision.)
You can
use the bottom of a milk carton as a mold for your candle. Just
cut off the top to the height you would like your candle. Clean
and dry out the inside of the carton. Cut a piece of wick a
little longer than the mold. Tie the wick to a craft stick or
dowel and place the dowel or craft stick across the top of the
carton so that the wick hangs down into the middle of the carton.
You can fasten the wick down to the bottom of the carton with
a piece of tape.
Melt your
wax the same as you would for making dip candles. When it reaches
about 180 degrees you can add dye or scents. (Do
not let the wax get over 200 degrees. It could burst in to flames
if it gets too hot.)Carefully pour the hot wax into
your mold. Let it stand over night until it is completely hard.
In the morning peel off the carton. Your candle is ready to
use!
*Ice
candles are very pretty and easy to make. Follow the directions
for mold candles except before you pour the wax fill the carton
with small chunks of ice. Pour the wax over the ice until the
mold is completely filled. This candle only takes a few hours
to dry.
*Layered
candles - You can make more than one color of wax in separate
cans. Pour one color in first and let it set a little and then
pour another color over top of that. You can add as many layers
as you would like. You can even hold the can at different angle
as the wax dries for a different effect.
Use your candles
in the evening to read stories or write with your quill pen to
write a letter. Pretend you are living back in colonial times.
Discuss other things you would be doing if you lived in that time
period.
How to Print or Copy these Instructions.
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Make or Write with a Quill Pen
Benjamin Franklin loved to write.
He wrote letters to his friends, secretly wrote articles for his
brother's newspaper, and one of the most read almanacs at that time.
They didn't have pencils or the kinds of pens we have today. They
had to make their pens from the quills of ducks and other birds.
Go to http://www.regia.org/quills.htm for directions on how to make a quill pen. We bought big dyed feathers
and a bottle of India ink from the craft store and it worked great.
Don't worry too much about cutting the quill correctly. Just cutting
off the end at an angle works pretty well.
How to Print or Copy these Instructions.
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Make Up a Pen Name and Disguise Your Handwriting
Ben's brother
printed one of the earliest newspapers in America called the New
England Courant. Ben wanted to write for the paper, but he didn't
think his brother would publish his writings so he used a fake name
or pen name and disguised his handwriting so that his brother wouldn't
know who he was. Have children think up a pen name and write a story
trying to disguise their handwriting. Read the story and show them
the handwriting. Have the children guess who wrote the story.
How to Print or Copy these Instructions.
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Set Up a Colonial Print Shop
Benjamin Franklin was a printer. He owned his own newspaper and
printed things for other people also. They didn't have computers
or typewriters in colonial times. They had to set their type using
individual letters much like the rubber stamps we use today. They
were called fonts. Printers had several different styles of fonts
and had quit a few fonts of the same letters. They had to find the
correct fonts to spell out each word and place it upside down in
a tray. This was called typesetting. Once they had a page typeset
they would use it to run off many copies. Then they would remove
all the fonts and start on the next page. You can pretend you are
a typesetter by writing letters on small pieces of paper (your fonts).
Make several copies of each letter. Make capital and lower case
letters. Arrange the capital letters in a row and then the lower
case letters in a row below the capital letters. Printers called
the capital letters "upper case" letters because they
stored them in a case above the "lower case" letters.
Pretend to typeset one of Benjamin's famous sayings such as "There
is no gains without pains," or "Early to be and early
to rise, Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." Glue the
letters one by one on a sheet of paper to spell out the saying.
Keep track of how much time it takes you to finish the saying. Now
type the same thing on a computer and print it out. How much faster
did it take you to use the computer.
How to Print or Copy these Instructions.
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Piggy Bank Made from Recycled Plastic Container
 "A penny
saved is a penny earned."
See the Pig Crafts and Learning Activities Page for directions to this craft.
How to Print or Copy these instructions.
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Words of Wisdom
In colonial days all the printers published almanacs each year.
They featured a calendar, the phases of the moon, predicted the weather
and tides, told farmers the best time to plant. They also gave advice,
humor, recipes, and words of wisdom. Ben Franklin's almanac Poor
Richard's Almanack became the most popular almanac of his time.
He was famous for the sayings or proverbs he published in the almanac.
People still quote these proverbs today.
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Make Your Own Almanac
Print out a blank calendar from a publishing program.
Think up or use sayings from Poor Richard's Almanack to illustrate
the calendar. Add the moon phases, and other helpful information.
Here are a few you would want to miss. A penny saved is a penny earned.
Early to bed and early to rise, Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and
wise. There is no gains without pains. If you would be loved, love
and be loveable. He that cannot obey, cannot command. Never leave
that till tomorrow which you can do today. Little strokes fell great
oaks. The early bird gets the worm. Haste makes waste.
How to Print or Copy these Instructions.
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Illustrate Words of Wisdom or Color a "Words of Wisdom" Color Sheet
 Pick one the the sayings above or make up your own. Draw a picture
to go along with the saying or use the Pattern provided for "Early to rise and early to be makes a man healthy,
wealthy, and wise.
This pattern
is available to Members Only.
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