Disney did a fantastic job of creating this movie true to it's literary form. The world that the BFG inhabits is wonderful to marvel at and it was easy to come up with crafts for kids to do along with the movie. We made giant ears to give us a bit of a giant-look, dream jars to capture our dreams and Frobscottle (a green fuzzy drink where bubbles go down, instead of up). Want to have a "The BFG" party? It comes out on November 29th.
Giant Ears
For the giant's ears, we used pink dessert paper plates, headbands, hot glue and scissors. The kids cut the ears by simply creating a strip in the middle and cutting off the excess.
I hot glued the paper plates onto the headband. Regular glue doesn't hold very well so I wouldn't suggest it. You could use staples instead of hot glue. Our partygoers got quite the giggles when seeing each other in the ears.
Frobscottle
Frobscottle is a green fizzy drink where the bubbles go down, not up. Sadly, I cannot outwit physics so I can't make bubbles go down but I can make a fizzy green drink with bubbles that go up! For this science experiment you need Ginger Ale, green food coloring (if you want it green) and Pop Rocks. Simply mix the combination together and listen to the pop, pip, pop. The kids thought it was delicious and giggled at the sound. In the book, Frobscottle causes Whizzpopers (farts) and there is a hilarious scene in the movie with them and some British nobility.
Dream Jars
Everyone's favorite activity was making dream jars. Usually, you would see these listed as "Calm Down Jars" where a child watches the glitter slowly fall and hopefully calms down. We made them and called them Dream Jars as an ode to the dreams that the BFG blows into the bedrooms of children. For these, you need a jar, Elmer's glue, glitter, dish soap and hot water.
I think are probably thousands of recipes for these jars. For ours, we mixed 1 Tablespoon of glue, 1/2 Tablespoon of glitter (who doesn't love glitter), 3-4 drops of dish soap, and hot water into our mason jar. The more glue that you add, the more opaque the liquid will become. One child wanted a "clear" jar so we didn't add regular glue, only glitter glue and not very much. Another kid wanted every shade of glitter. Their jar "calms down" quickly because there is so much glitter in the jar. We made dream jars in every color: blue, pink, green and rainbow. You need the dish soap to be the barrier at the top of the jar but you don't need much. They all adored making them and watching the glitter slowly fall down. It is mesmerizing. I want to make one for myself!
Our last craft was a group Dream Jar where each child put in a different dream and we read them aloud. I made small scrolls for each kid to write on and we put them inside to keep our dream safe. It was so sweet to watch each child think about what their dream would be for the jar.
"The BFG" comes out on Tuesday, November 29th and these crafts are easy to make and really fun!
