Crafts & Activities / 18 October, 2022 / Nanny Anita

Nanny Anita’s Monster Grabber

During breakfast one morning my 4-year-old charge asked why I wanted to keep an empty cereal box, I replied I wanted to make a monster grabber with it. This of course sounded like a lot of fun to him, as like most 4-year-olds he believes in monsters under the bed. This activity is a spin on a claw machine I had seen on Pinterest, but what better way to scare of monsters than with a machine that can catch them and throw them out.

Make sure you follow my junk modelling board on Pinterest for more ideas.  Don’t forget to save the pin for later.

To make your own monster grabber you will need:

• A cereal box
• Scissors
• Split pins
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Paints or felt tip pens
• Glue

Cut your cereal box down one of the seams to open it up.

Cut of all the taps and cut down all the seams. You will need to keep the front, back and 2 sides. You can make 2 grabbers from one standard box.

On the front and back pieces draw vertical lines that are a ruler width apart. You should end up with 5 strips and 1 smaller strip.

Cut these strips up; you will only need 4 per grabber.

Fold each strip in half and glue them shut, then using a pin poke 3 holes into it. You need 1 at either end and one in the middle. You can do one strip then place it on top of the other ones so that all the holes are in the same place.

Line up the strips and use the split pins to join them together. When it is put together put it to the side.

Cut side pieces from the box into rectangles that are as long as the fold strip – this will form the jaws.

With the rectangle cut a zig-zag line the whole way across to make a teeth effect, then using the split pins attach them to the end of the grabber.

You can either leave it like that or decorate it.

If you enjoyed this craft take a look at our design your own monster busy bag.

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