Mister Rogers’ Sweater Snack Baggies - Garden Ideas & Outdoor Decor

Today (March 20th) is Mr. Rogers’ birthday, and there’s no better way to celebrate than to think about your neighbors! Neighbors can be both people who live near your home or people you know and love in your community. Do your children have a favorite librarian, or is there a faculty member in your child’s school who always goes the extra mile? You can easily make a Mr. Rogers’ sweater bag (designed to look like his trademark zipper sweater) and fill it with a fun surprise, cookies or a healthy snack. The best part is that you probably have most of these supplies in your house right now!

Our favorite neighbor is in her seventies and she loves oranges, so we’ve made a special bag for her (and other people we appreciate) and filled them with treats. Would you like to make some bags too? Great! Let’s begin.

Materials:

construction paper
a “zipper” type plastic bag (such as the zipper-seal one that Ziploc makes)
kid-safe scissors
pencil

clear packing tape (packing tape works best, but you can also use regular invisible tape)
treats to tuck inside bags (fruit, cookies, handmade gifts by the kids)

Instructions

NOTE: You can complete the first step one of two ways (your choice), and either works well. You can draw half of a sweater shape on a piece of construction paper, then place it on top of another and cut along the lines and through both pieces of paper to form two sweater halves. Or you can draw the outline shape of an entire sweater, cut it out, then cut it straight down the middle to form two sweater halves.

After you cut out your sweater halves, cut a piece of packing tape the exact length of the sweater (or a bit shorter), then tape it (sticky side facing up) to the back side of one sweater half (where the zipper would go). Stick one side of the zipper bag opening to the tape. Put another piece of tape on the back of the other half of the sweater, then stick on the other side of the zipper bag. The zipper of your plastic bag acts as the “zipper” of your sweater!

Now you can stuff your bag with fun treats, then zip it (and your sweater) closed. Give to friends and neighbors, then celebrate Mr. Rogers’ birthday!