Build Animal Piggy Banks!

What You Need:

• empty coffee can or baby formula can
• knife
• scissors
• markers
• paintbrush
• pencil
• wiggly eyes
• 4 egg carton cups
• hot glue gun
• newspapers
• Elmer’s Glue

Pig Bank

• pink foam sheet
• 1 pink pipe cleaner
• pink acrylic paint

Lion Bank

• yellow foam sheet
• yarn for the mane  
• yellow acrylic paint
• 1 yellow pipe cleaner

Sheep Bank

• white foam sheet
• cotton balls

What You Do:

1. Spread newspapers on the table. Take off the lid and paint the can the desired color for your animal. Paint the 4 egg carton cups for the legs. Allow these to dry. For the sheep, you do not need to paint your can. Just smear glue on the can and add cotton balls.
2. Using a pencil, trace the lid two times on the foam sheet. One circle is for the head, and one is for the animal’s backside. Cut these two circles out. If you’re making the pig, trace a smaller circle on the pink foam for the snout. Perhaps you can trace the bottom of the acrylic paint bottle. Cut this out. Snip off two small triangles for the pig’s ears. For the lion, cut two semicircles for the ears on the yellow foam sheet. For the sheep, cut long, skinny triangles for the ears.
3. Have a parent hot glue the wiggly eyes and ears on one circle. For the pig, hot glue the smaller circle or snout below the eyes.
4. Using markers, make two dots on the snout of the pig. For the lion and sheep, draw the nose, mouth, freckles, and outline the ears. Then put Elmer’s glue around the edge of the lion’s face. Cut small pieces of yarn for the mane and stick on.
5. Next, an adult can cut a slit in the foam face and lid for the mouth. This is where the money will be inserted into the bank. Hot glue the face onto the lid by lining up the mouth holes.
6. To make the tail for the pig, cut the pink pipe cleaner in half. Wrap it around a pencil to make a curl. Using scissors, cut a small slit in the middle of the foam circle. Insert part of the curly pipe cleaner and twist it to secure. The curly part should stick out for the piggy tail. For the lion’s tail, cut a slit in the middle of the foam circle. Insert a yellow pipe cleaner and bend it to look like a tail. For the sheep, glue on a cotton ball. Have an adult hot glue these circles to the bottom of the can.
7. A parent can hot glue the legs to the bottom of the can. Now your bank animal is complete!
8. Lay your coins on the table. Point to a coin and say its name. If correct, you may feed your animal bank. Try saying its value and feed your animal. Keep feeding your animal to save your money for something special!