River's Halloween Craft Adventure

River's school assignment asked what his teachers should be for Halloween. He picked a Wilderness Explorer from Up for Mrs. Brown and Forky from Toy Story 4 for Madame Elaine. Naturally, we had to make it happen.

The finished page: Mrs. Brown in her Wilderness Explorer uniform and Madame Elaine as Forky, in felt, pom-poms, googly eyes and pipe cleaners.

We dressed their printed cartoon outlines with felt, paper, colourful pom-poms, googly eyes and pipe cleaners. Mrs. Brown got a yellow scout outfit, an orange neckerchief and a sash full of pom-pom badges. Madame Elaine got a white spork costume, mismatched eyes, red bendy arms, a blue smile and little brown feet. Their own faces stayed visible, which made the costumes even better.

The supply list

In case you want to try this at your kitchen table, here is everything that went on the page.

Felt: yellow for the shirt and hat, orange for the neckerchief, dark brown for the shorts, sash and hiking boots.
Pom-poms: a whole rainbow of them for the merit badges on the sash.
Craft foam: white for the spork, plus a little green tree badge on the hat.
Googly eyes: one big, one small. Forky's eyes never match, and that is the point.
Pipe cleaners: red for the arms and the unibrow, blue bent into a smile.
Brown paper: cut and drawn on to look like wooden craft-stick feet.
Glue: more than you think.

The designs came to life

Clarus helped turn our finished crafts into two 56-second animated stories:

Riv's Great Craft Adventure: An English version with captions and original music. The teachers wake up, follow a balloon into a paper forest and rescue it together. Madame Elaine discovers that her unusual arms are exactly what the adventure needs.
La grande aventure de Riv: The same adventure with French titles and simple French captions for River, who attends the French Immersion programme at Gillis Elementary.

Riv's Great Craft Adventure, in English. 56 seconds, sound on.

La grande aventure de Riv, en français. 56 secondes, avec le son.

Scene by scene, in both languages

Each film has seven scenes of eight seconds. The words are the same story in two languages, so the English can help with the French. Watch the French one first and see how much you can follow, then check here.

0:00. A little magic / Un peu de magie. Riv made two costumes, then tucked them in for the night. Riv a fabriqué deux costumes. Puis il leur a souhaité bonne nuit. When the moon rose, the paper teachers woke up! À la lumière de la lune, les maîtresses en papier se sont réveillées !
0:08. Adventure calls / L'aventure nous attend. Mrs. Brown: "A balloon! Let's follow it!" « Un ballon ! Suivons-le ! » Madame Elaine: "On these funny feet? Oh, all right!" « Avec ces drôles de pieds ? Bon, d'accord ! »
0:16. The paper forest / La forêt de papier. They tiptoed past tall trees and fluttering paper leaves. Elles marchent doucement entre les grands arbres et les feuilles de papier qui dansent. Then the balloon snagged on a branch across the stream. Mais le ballon se coince dans une branche de l'autre côté du ruisseau.
0:24. A very bendy idea / Une idée très souple. Madame Elaine: "I'm only paper and pipe cleaners." « Je suis faite de papier et de cure-pipes. » Mrs. Brown: "You're also the friend with the perfect reach!" « Et tes longs bras peuvent nous aider ! »
0:32. Teamwork saves the day / Ensemble, on réussit ! Mrs. Brown held steady. Madame Elaine stretched... Madame Brown la tient bien. Madame Elaine tend le bras... POP! The string came free. "We did it together!" Hop ! Le fil se libère. « On a réussi ensemble ! »
0:40. A badge for a friend / Un badge pour une amie. Mrs. Brown: "You've earned the Helping Friend badge!" « Tu as gagné le badge de la bonne amie ! » Madame Elaine: "Being me is rather useful after all." « Finalement, c'est bien d'être moi ! »
0:48. Back before breakfast / De retour avant le petit-déjeuner. By morning, they were back on Riv's worksheet. Au matin, elles sont de retour sur la feuille de Riv. Two homemade heroes. One very big adventure. Deux héroïnes faites à la main. Une très grande aventure !

A few French words from the film

La maîtresse: the teacher (at elementary school). Two of them here: les maîtresses.
Le ballon: the balloon.
La forêt: the forest.
Le ruisseau: the stream.
La branche: the branch.
Les bras: the arms. Madame Elaine's are very long.
Les pieds: the feet. Hers are very funny.
Le cure-pipe: the pipe cleaner.
Ensemble: together.
Fait à la main: handmade.

Why being River's dad is so much fun

I love that a simple homework assignment can become all of this. River picks two characters he loves, and suddenly we're making tiny costumes and watching his teachers go on an adventure. I get to help turn what's in his imagination into something he can hold, and then something he can watch.

The costumes are fun. The videos are fun. But getting to share that excitement with him is my favourite part of being his dad.

Try it

Try this yourself

A prompt like the one I used. Paste it into any AI chat and fill in the brackets.

Here is a photo of a craft my [age] year old made: [attach the photo]. It shows [who or what is on it].

Turn it into a short animated story, about one minute long, using the craft itself as the characters so it still looks handmade. Give it a simple plot with a beginning, a problem and a happy ending, where each character's odd feature turns out to be what saves the day. Add short captions a young reader can follow. Then make a second version with the same pictures and captions in [French, Spanish, another language], written simply for a child learning it.

The craft is River's, with a little help from his dad. Claude put this page together and added the scene guide, the word list and the supply list.