Hobby Horse

Make an adorable hobby horse

Skill Level: Moderate

Time Needed: 45 minutes

Age(s): 8 to 11

Appropriate For: Birthday

Supplies Needed:

Project Rating:

Stuff a white tube sock with cotton balls up to the heel. Insert a dowel rod and continue stuffing the sock with cotton balls until there is about 3 or 4 inches of the cuff left unstuffed.
Tie a piece of string tightly around the cuff to hold the rod in place.
Pull up the sock near the heel to make the horse's two ears. Wrap a rubber band at the base of each ear to hold it in place.
Create eyes, a nose, and a mouth using a marker and Elmer's 3D Washable Paint Pens™. Let the paint dry completely.
To make the horse's mane, lay a short piece of yarn across the cardboard square. Then, take about seven yards of yarn and wrap the yarn around the cardboard in the opposite direction of the short piece of yarn.
Tie the wrapped yarn with the short piece of yarn. Cut the wrapped yarn at the bottom under the cardboard, not where it is tied.
Repeat steps 5 and 6 to make a second mane.
Glue the first mane to the sock in front of the ears so that the yarn falls down around the horse's eyes and ears. Glue the second mane behind the first. Let the glue dry completely.
Have fun playing with your home-made hobby horse!

Teaching Tips:

Have students research and collect facts about real horses. Give each student a note card on which to write interesting facts. Then, ask each student to share one or two new facts that they discovered with the rest of the class.
Ask students to write an acrostic poem using the word horse. The first word in each line of the acrostic poem should begin with the letters of the word horse. For example: Has a long tail Outside animal Really fast Soft hair on its mane Enjoys standing in the sun.
Horses help humans in many ways. Have students brainstorm a list of the different ways that horses help people. Some examples include police horses, draft horses, and miniature horses that act as service animals for individuals with disabilities.