Woodland Animals

As it was a nice weekend, the teddy bears' pals, Oscar and Alfred, decided to go for a walk down a nearby lane to see if there was anything interesting around. They had only taken a few steps when they happened upon some acorns on the ground under an oak tree. Oscar decided that he wanted to take some home so he collected as many as he could in his paws.

Alfred came across some conkers which had fallen from the horse chestnut tree which he stood under. He wanted to take some of them home but his paws were too small to carry many, so Oscar, whose paws were slightly bigger, let Alfred carry the acorns and he carried the conkers.

When they got them home and put them on the table they scratched their heads trying to decide what to do with them. Then Alfred came up with a brilliant idea - he decided they could make some animals out of them - but he needed a few more things.

Once he had collected everything together he had acorns, conkers, twigs, matches and a felt tip pen (that was for drawing faces on the animals).

First of all they needed four legs so Oscar took four matches out of the matchbox (these should be used matches and if they are not, an adult could cut off the match heads before use, or you can buy matchstick-sized pieces of wood from your local craft shop).

The matches Oscar took from the box had already been used so it was full speed ahead. Oscar pushed the first match into the underside of one of the conkers and then Alfred put the other three in. He had to make sure that the legs were of equal length so that it wouldn't fall over.

Then he put a match into the long side of an acorn and then put the other end into the conker - this made the neck and head. He drew on two eyes and a nose to make a face. Then he used a small twig (or it could be a piece of stem) pushed in to make a tail.

Oscar and Alfred were very pleased with what they had made, but they had some acorns and conkers left. They decided to make another animal, this time using small pieces of matches for ears.

Oscar thought they could also perhaps make a snail from one of the large conkers (for the body) and a smaller one (for the head). They used small pieces of matches with the ends painted with blobs of paint to make the feelers and eyes! Creepy!

Well done to Oscar and Alfred, what a super idea! So next time you are out walking anywhere there are oak trees or horse chestnut trees, why don't you collect some acorns or conkers off the ground and make your own Woodland Animals, either like the ones in our pictures or make up some strange animals of your own. Have a great time!