{ Mexican Sarape / Poncho Craft }

I have been slacking a bit with our Around the World series as of late. Believe it or not, it’s not easy to pick different parts of a culture and present it into a fun activity… especially if you’ve been completely ignorant of said culture up until now! I really want our studies to be authentic and involved. My husband reminded me a couple of days ago that I’m teaching a five-year-old, and to just touch on the basics and keep it simple. I’m trying! =)

I’ve had this sarape/poncho craft idea in my head for a while now. Unfortunately, our grocery store only had medium-small brown grocery bags, so I had to make do. Instead of doing the blanket type sarape that wraps around her like a shaw, we did a sarape poncho hybrid — those actually exist! It turned out really cute (if a bit small) and was really easy to do.

Materials:
Paper Grocery Bag
Scissors
Stapler
Paint

What to do:

• Lay your paper grocery bag flat on the table. Cut around the outside of it, snipping off the folds. See picture above for an example.
• Keep only the front and back of the bag and discard the rest. Note: You might have to cut the back piece down to be the same size as the front. The bottom fold of the bag on ours made it extra long. Just trim it down!
• Cut the neck hole by layering the two sections together. Test it on your child’s head to make sure it’s big enough.
• Next, staple area where the two bags meet at the shoulder.
• Last, decorate!! We just used red, green, and yellow paint. Check out this sarape store for pattern ideas!
• Allow to dry, then wear!

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