Puppy Dog Ears Craft Inspired By “When Billy Was A Dog”

Are you looking for a great craft to make with your children for Book Week? These puppy dog ears were inspired by one of this year’s CBCA shortlisted Early Childhood books, “When Billy Was a Dog,” written by Kirsty Murray and illustrated by Karen Blair.

If you can’t have a puppy, maybe the next best thing is to be a puppy.

‘Can I please, please, please have a dog?’ asked Billy.
‘Would you walk it every day and wash it if it got dirty?’
‘I would, I promise!’ said Billy.

Billy wants a dog. He really really really wants one.
Billy’s parents aren’t so sure. So one morning, Billy takes matters into his own paws.

In this delightful story Billy decides to be a puppy for a day, exploring his neighbourhood and getting up to mischief with the dog next door. My little girl is just like Billy and loves to pretend to be a puppy. Today we are going to make our own puppy dog ears, so pretend play can be a little more fun!

To make our puppy dog ears you will need the following craft supplies:

Supplies

• Puppy Dog Ears template
• Colour paper
• Scissors
• Glue
• Colour pencils or felt tip pens

Step 1

Download the puppy dog ear templates. You have a choice of making puppy dog ears from colour paper or using white paper and colouring in the template. We will go through the colour paper ears first. The colour paper ears have two templates to download. Print these templates on two different coloured pieces of A4 paper.

Step 2

Now it is time to cut out the pieces of the the template. The long strips will create the head band and the two rounded rectangles will create the ears. The small triangular shape is the marking above the dog’s nose.

Step 3

Glue the smaller rounded rectangle to the inside of the larger one, once it has dried cut the rectangles in half to create two ears. Glue the triangular shape to the centre of one of the long strips.

Step 4

Join the two strips of paper together by gluing the ends. You might like to wrap them around your child’s head first to make sure they fit.

Step 5

Glue the ears to the sides of the head band at a slight angle. The inside of the ear should face out. They will look a bit like bunny ears.

Step 6

Now fold over your ears. You can either roll them or make gentle folds in them.

And here is the final result. Some cute little puppy dog ears all ready for some pretend play!

My little girl loved playing with hers! She does make a cute puppy.

It’s also lots of fun to colour in and decorate your puppy dog ears. Let’s download the template and get started!

Step 1

Colour in your puppy dog ears. I prefer to colour in templates first, it makes it a little easier to hold the paper still. Make sure you colour in the back of the ears too!

Step 2

Time to cut out your template. The two long strips creates the head band and the rounded rectangle creates the ears. Make sure you cut the ears in half too!

Here’s what the pieces look like after they have been cut out. Now it’s time to start gluing our pieces together.

Step 3

Join the two strips of paper together by gluing the ends. You might like to wrap them around your child’s head first to make sure they fit.

Step 4

Glue the ears to the sides of the head band at a slight angle. The inside of the ear should face out. They will look a bit like bunny ears.

Step 7

Now fold over your ears. You can either roll them or make gentle folds in them.

And now it’s time to play! I hope you enjoy making this craft with your little puppies.

Looking for more Book Week 2020 crafts? Take a look here: | Birdhouse Treasure Box Inspired by “Tilly” | Hot Air Balloon Craft Inspired by “Nop”

Or if you would like some Book Week display inspiration, take a look here: | Curious Creatures, Wild Minds Book Week Display 2020