One of the stories I read today for my live storytime was called The Littlest Matryoshka by Corinne Demas Bliss and illustrated by Kathryn Brown. This story about wooden nesting dolls inspired me to try to make a paper version of stacking or nesting dolls. I searched YouTube and found this helpful instructional video:
How to make Paper Doll | Easy nested doll for kids
Supplies:
- Square pieces of paper, each one smaller by 1 inch than the previous square.
- Scissors
- Colored pencils, markers, or crayons
- Round objects to trace circles for the faces (smaller circles for the smaller dolls)
My daughter and I decided to make 6 nesting dolls like the story. I made more traditional dolls while she decided to make nesting space characters. Other suggestions for nesting dolls: pets, zoo animals, anime or comic book characters, undersea creatures, space aliens. So many options!
One of the things we noticed was that our nesting dolls would not stand up straight, so we decided to snip the corners of each doll to help eliminate the rocking back and forth. This made them more stable.
Here are our finished nesting dolls:
Here are videos of us unstacking our finished dolls:
Miss Liz
KCKPL Main Library