Dressing up Tails

These quirky tails are super quick for all ages to make and will provide lots of dressing up fun.

You will need: Coloured paper or card, wool or ribbon, scissors, hole punch, glue, pens or crayons any decorative bits and bobs.

To make: Choose a tail from the template/ideas sheet. The length of your tail will depend on the age and height of your child. For my under 5’s workshops I use tails approximately 40cm long. Draw your tail onto some cardboard and cut it out with scissors. Thinner cardboard is better as it more flexible and less likely to break when the child sits down.

Using a hole punch make two holes at the top of the tail. Cut a piece of wool or ribbon so that its long enough to go comfortably around the child’s waist and be tied in a bow. Thread the wool/ribbon through the two holes as shown in the picture.

Let the children decorate their tails with whatever bits and bobs you have. The glue you use will depending on what you are sticking. PVA is always a winner but takes a bit longer to dry. If you know your child will want to wear their tail straight away use a Pritt Stick type glue and lots of different colour papers. Some ideas for decoration include: shiny paper, glitter, stickers, cotton wool, sequins, buttons, Cherrios, pasta, wool, tin foil, bottle tops etc.

Older children might like to select their own decorations by cutting out pictures, shapes or patterns from magazines or bits of old wrapping paper.

Once your tail is decorated and dry, tie it around your child’s waist and let their imaginations run wild. Will you be a mermaid, dinosaur, Lion, fox, dragon, dog or peacock?