Masked Animal Craft: Make a Paper Racoon Puzzle

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Masked Animal Craft.
Make a paper racoon puzzle.
Why should kids be the only ones wearing masks?
Here’s an animal that wears one, too.

 

Did you know there’s an International Racoon Day?

Well, we missed it by a couple of weeks, but it’s on October 1 of every year.

So to honor racoons, let’s make a racoon puzzle!

 

 

Why have an International Racoon Day?

Do you see racoons where you live? Well, lots of people who live around racoons don’t like them very much.

They like to get into garbage cans and dig around looking for food, meanwhile chucking everything else out on the ground. They can make huge messes. And they look like bad guys, too, with their masked faces. Like bandits putting on masks to rob a bank!

Actually racoons do have a good side. They clean up roadkill, for one thing. No one likes to drive down a road and see a rat or gopher killed by a car’s wheels. Well, racoons eat “carrion” and the road is clean again. They’ll keep the live gopher and rat numbers down, too.

 

 

If you’ve watched a racoon, you’ll know they pick things up in their front paws. In fact, if they are near water, they wash their food before eating it. That’s how they got their name. “Racoon” means “one who picks everything up in its hands.” The Powhatan word is “aroughcun” which the English changed to racoon.

In 2002 a school girl in California wanted people to know that racoons weren’t just pests. And that they played an important part in the earth’s ecosystem. So she started the “Racoon Appreciation Day” which now covers all animals considered pests, like coyotes and gophers, too. Because every animal has its good place. Also, we need to be reminded that God created all the animals, and He created them for a purpose.

Just like He created every person for a purpose, and even the ones who bug us sometimes are important in His eyes!

 

 

What you need for your Masked Animal Craft:

Here’s what you need to make your racoon puzzle:

1. The pattern you can download and print by filling in the form at the end of the post.
2. Colored card stock: brown, black, white, red.
3. Scissors, glue, large googly eyes, or cut out of black paper. Optional: 2 black chenille stems for hands

 

 

How to make your Masked Animal Craft:

Follow these directions:

1. Cut out all the pieces of the pattern and label them.
2. Follow the directions for each piece and cut the cardstock as directed.
3. Now you have all the pieces and you can put your racoon puzzle together!
4. If you want to keep it as a puzzle to put together over and over, place the pieces in a plastic zipper bag. Make a label and tape it on the bag.
5. Another option is to glue all the pieces onto a big piece of cardstock and hang it on the wall as racoon art. You can title it using ideas from the information about racoons. Like “Racoons are valuable animals” or “God made rascally racoons. too!”
6. Optional step: Shape the chenille stems into arms/hands and poke through the body and tape to the back.
7. Make paper “food” for the racoon to hold in his hands.

 

 

Have fun playing with your masked bandit.
Write a story about his adventures
and put it in the comments below!

 

PS: Read more fun info about racoons here.