Elevator Pitch
The Motley Kids are putting on their masks and venturing back in time! We’re going to make some adorable plague doctors to keep an eye out for disease.
This Craft Makes:
Hundreds of years ago during outbreaks of the bubonic plague, plague doctors would take care of sick people. Because they believed that disease was spread through “bad air”, plague doctors wore long pointy masks that they filled with herbs to prevent disease. They also wore long coats and big hats to protect them from disease.
We know a lot more about medicine now, but doctors still wear clothing to protect them when they take care of sick people. In today’s craft-along we’re going to make plague doctors of our very own!
Supplies:
You will need:
- A ruler or straight edge
- Scissors
- Tape or glue
- A pencil to mark your circles
- A toilet paper tube
- A round object (like a cup) about twice as big across as your toilet paper tube
- Construction paper or cardstock in 2 colors (we will be using dark grey and white, but you can use whatever you have)
- 2 small buttons or pony beads for goggles
- A stick about 1/8 to 1/4″ thick and 4-6″ long (find one outside) for a cane
You may also want:
- A hot glue gun (makes things easy)
Steps to Make It
- Use your tube and straight edge to cut a strip across the short side of the construction paper just its height.
- Glue the strip of construction paper around the tube (it will wrap more than one full time, that’s okay).
- Use your cup to draw three circles on the remaining construction paper, then cut them out.
- Glue two circles together to make a hat brim (adds sturdiness)
- Take the third circle and fold it in half.
- Roll it into a cone with just a little overlap of the ends and glue in place.
- Cut of the top 1/3 or so of the cone (pointy end) with a curved cut. Discard the point.
- If you need to, even out the edges of the cut so they’re flat.
- If you have a button for the top, move to the next step. Otherwise, put your hat small hole down on a scrap of construction paper and draw a circle around the inside of the hole. Cut out a circle a little bigger than the one you drew.
- Glue your hat crown onto your hat brim.
- If you have a button the size of the hole, glue it on as the top of the hat. Otherwise, glue your paper circle on.
- Draw a circle for your mask (we use a contrasting color) and cut it out.
- Cut the circle in half.
- Roll the half circle into a cone, overlapping the edges about halfway.
- Gently flatten the cone and cut from one corner to the other in a straight line across the curved bottom edge. When you open it up you should see an inward curve to the edge with two points.
- Glue your mask onto the plague doctor body a little less than an inch down from one edge, with the points going side to side. I suggest going opposite the seam unless you want the seam to show for decorations later.
- Glue your beads or buttons onto the tube just above the mask. These are your plague doctor’s goggles.
- Glue the hat on top of the tube.
- Glue your stick to one side at an angle so your plague doctor doesn’t have to touch their patients.