Reinforce the heart shape while teaching children about raccoons with this art project. Cut out one large and two medium-sized hearts from light gray construction paper, a medium-sized heart from white construction paper, two medium-sized hearts and one small heart from black construction paper. Instruct children to glue the large heart upside down on a piece of paper -- this will be the head of the raccoon. Show them how to glue the medium gray hearts upside down on top of the humps of the large heart, creating ears for the animal. Instruct them to glue the white heart with the humps pointing up in the center of the raccoon's head -- this will be the mouth of the animal. For the eyes, the two black hearts should be glued on their sides with their bottoms touching, just above the mouth. Have kids glue two googly eyes inside the black hearts and glue the small black heart at the bottom of the white heart for a nose.
Create hand-print bats. Have children press their hands in black finger paint, excluding their thumbs. Instruct them to press their hand prints onto a piece of white paper with their palms of their hands overlapping and their fingers pointing out. Once the paint dries, have them glue googly eyes on the center of the bats. Let them make as many bat prints as they'd like.
Turn a brown paper lunch bag into an owl puppet. Put a lunch bag upside down on a flat surface with the flap pointing out. Have kids cut a triangle out of light brown paper and glue it upside down on the flap of the bag. Cut out two white circles and glue them on either side of the flap for eyes -- instruct children to color the center of the eyes yellow. Cut a larger circle from white paper and glue it to the center of the bag. Children can use the completed puppets during dramatic play.
Create cat masks from paper plates. Have children color the back of a paper plate black, brown or orange. Cut eye holes out of the paper plates. Instruct children to cut two triangles out of a colored construction paper that matches the color they have chosen for their plates. Have them glue the triangles upside down to either side of the top of the paper plate for ears. From pink paper, have them cut out a small triangle and glue it upside down on the center of the plate for a nose. Three black pipe cleaners glued to either side of the nose serve as whiskers. Have children draw a smile on the cat with a crayon. Glue a craft stick to the bottom of the plates, which children can use to hold their masks on their faces.