Idiom Hat Costume - It's Raining Cats and Dogs!
Calling all parents of elementary school kids! If you're feeling the pressure of finding a special costume for school on top of their Halloween outfit, I've got you covered. Let me share what we did for idiom day this year - it's a real winner!
It seems like a new trend at the previous couple schools we have attended to have a “themed” day on Halloween instead of allowing kids to wear their costume.
Two years ago we got to do a book report, create a shirt for a t-shirt parade, and a a synopsis of the book. We (my mom and Parker) went all out that year with the Dragons Love Tacos book shirt for storybook character day. It was adorable, but last year, being pregnant and in the middle of a move, we had to tone it down.😂 We found an old Jack Skellington jacket and he brought in a Nightmare Before Christmas book for storybook day.
*there are affiliate links in this blog post in which I earn a small commission if you use my links. I appreciate you!
This year, his grade was tasked with dressing up as an idiom. My son wanted to dress up as the idiom "it's raining cats and dogs". Initially, I had all these hilarious ideas, but he was dead set on his choice. I mean, who am I to argue with a determined third grade boy?
Instead of sending him to school with an umbrella (which seemed like a disaster waiting to happen), we came up with a fantastic alternative. We created a hat that looked like fluffy clouds raining cats and dogs. Easy peasy!
Here's what you'll need:
Plastic hat - this was cheapest at Party City. Amazon is charging an arm and a leg!
Blue yarn
Hole punch
Scissors
Pictures of cats and dogs
Glue
Pencil
Once you have all your materials, it's smooth sailing. My son had a blast creating his hat.
Step 1 - Hole Punching& Attaching Yarn
Start by punching holes around the hat's brim for the yarn to attach. I didn’t have any set pattern, but I did try to zig zag the holes so the yarn would offset once wearing the hat and look a little more interesting.
Don’t forget to leave a space at the front so you can easily see! We tested it to make sure the yarn didn't obstruct his face, and tied knots in the strings nice and long, just as he wanted.
Step 2 - Adhesive Spray & Polyester Fill
Next, we sprayed sections of the hat with adhesive tacky spray and attached the polyester fill. My son took the reins on this step, once I knew how much spray to use, and he had a great time. He sprayed the glue and placed the polyester fill until the cloud shape looked perfect to him. Make sure to go in small sections and build up!
Step 3 - Drawing, Cutting, & Gluing
Next came the cats and dogs. We cut out various sizes and shapes to make it more interesting.
For the raindrops, we took the cat and dog cutouts we had and drew a raindrop around them on the foam sheets then cut out each raindrop.
Once you have all your raindrops glued the cats and dogs to one side of the foam sheet. We then glued two foam sheets together, leaving the top of the raindrop unglued to hang. We did have one side of the foam sheet blank and the other with the cat or dog, but you could have a cat and dog on either side as well.
We even added a giant raindrop-shaped cat hanging on the back of the hat for added drama😂.
Step 4 - Hang the Raindrops & Adjust
Once everything was put together, my son tried it on and we adjusted the lengths of the raindrops. He loved how long they were, but you can always shorten them if you prefer. This project is not only easy and affordable, but it's also a great way to bring an idiom to life.
So go ahead, embrace your inner craftiness, and make your child's costume the talk of the school. You've got this!
