The First Kids To Work At The Census/Rowan and the 3 Sloths

Illustration by Camilla Franklin

Creator Club Activities

"The First Kids to Work at the Census," by a 7-year-old named Wiliam, got us thinking about the questions asked on the real census. What if the census could ask weirder questions to find out other facts about people? Scroll down for an Activity Guide to help your creators ask their own questions!

Listen to the episode then scroll down for the Creator Club exclusive activity and coloring page!

Creator Club Coloring

Our incredible designer, Camilla Franklin, illustrates one of the stories from each podcast episode. This week, we wanted to provide Creator Club members with a coloring activity based on her illustration for "The First Kids to Work at the Census." Hopefully, this will provide a fun bonus activity for your creators to enjoy while listening to the episode! 

Making the Census WEIRD

In the story "The First Kids to Work at the Census," by a kid named William from California, the main characters dream of working for the census. Census workers are people who ask everyone in the whole country a few facts about themselves, to help count how many people there are. We started wondering, what if census workers could ask other, weirder questions, to find out unusual facts about people? For example, what if you wanted to find out everyone in your family's favorite kind of ice cream? What other census questions would you like to ask your friends and family? Download the Activity Guide for some question ideas, and submit questions and answers from your family and friends or questions for Lee to answer on Story Pirates Radio below!

Download the activity sheet for instructions. And then...grownups can share your creations with us using the form below. We want to see what you come up with!

Jumping Bean Jack and Bouncing Bailey/Betsy’s Grand Slam

Illustration by Camilla Franklin

Creator Club Bonus

In "Jumping Bean Jack and Bouncing Bailey" from the new episode, the characters jump on a trampoline. We thought it would be fun for this week's podcast Activity Guide to show you how to draw characters in action. Scroll down for the activity sheet and to submit creations!

Listen to the episode then scroll down for the Creator Club exclusive activity and coloring page!

Creator Club Coloring

Our incredible designer, Camilla Franklin, illustrates one of the stories from each podcast episode. This week, we wanted to provide Creator Club members with a coloring activity based on her illustration for "Betsy’s Grand Slam." Hopefully, this will provide a fun bonus activity for your creators to enjoy while listening to the episode! 

If You Like Action, Make it Action!

In the story "Jumping Bean Jack and Bouncing Bailey", by a kid from New York named Bridget, the characters jump on a trampoline. If you're illustrating a story, one way to create exciting action poses like jumping or leaping is to use motion lines. It helps to start with simple shapes, so we're going to talk about how to draw motion lines...using an actual jumping bean character!

Download the activity sheet for instructions. And then...grownups can share your creations with us using the form below. We want to see what you come up with!

The Case of the Musical Cinnamon Buns/Attack of the Stuff (feat. Alysha Deslorieux)

Illustration by Camilla Franklin

Creator Club Bonus

In the story “The Case of the Musical Cinnamon Buns,” by a 12-year-old named Hannah, some cinnamon buns come to life. This got us thinking: what delicious treats could WE bring to life?? So, this week’s activity involves bringing sugar cookies to life!

Listen to the episode then scroll down for the Creator Club exclusive activity and coloring page!

Creator Club Coloring

Our incredible designer, Camilla Franklin, illustrates one of the stories from each podcast episode. This week, we wanted to provide Creator Club members with a coloring activity based on her illustration for "The Case of the Musical Cinnamon Buns!" Hopefully, this will provide a fun bonus activity for your creators to enjoy while listening to the episode! 

Cookie Face!

In the story "The Case of the Musical Cinnamon Buns," by a kid from New Jersey named Hannah, some cinnamon buns come to life (and sing). This got us thinking: what delicious treats could WE bring to life??

The only problem with cinnamon buns is that baking them is pretty complicated. So we decided to bake some cinnamon sugar cookies instead! Get a grownup to help, and download our recipe to bake your own cookies at home (see above for where to download).

Once you make the cookies, and apply some icing, next you can stick on some decorations to bring the cookies to life. Get some fruit, or sprinkles, or little pieces of candy, or any other toppings you want, and give each cookie a face. Make some happy cookies! Silly cookies! Singing cookies! Make some cookie people! Cookie animals! Cookie aliens!

And then...grownups can share your creations with us using the form below. We want to see what you come up with!

The Monkey and the Ice Skates/Tissues (feat. Paul Scheer)

Illustration by Camilla Franklin

Creator Club Bonus

The story “Tissues” is based on a poem by an 8-year-old named Noah from Massachusetts. Writing a poem is fun because you can get extremely weird and creative about how you use words. In this week’s bonus activity, creators can write their own poems and describe something in an unexpected way.

Listen to the episode then scroll down for Creator Club exclusive activities!

Creator Club Coloring

Our incredible designer, Camilla Franklin, illustrates one of the stories from each podcast episode. This week, we wanted to provide Creator Club members with a coloring activity based on her illustration for "Tissues!" Hopefully, this will provide a fun bonus activity for your creators to enjoy while listening to the episode! 

Beautiful Trash

The story “Tissues” is based on a poem by an 8-year-old named Noah from Massachusetts (Click the picture of the original poem to view the full-size image). Writing a poem is fun because you can get extremely weird and creative about how you use words. In Noah's poem, there is a character (a tissue) who loves something that most people find gross: the trash! As Noah wrote: "I want to be in the beautiful trash."

"Beautiful trash!" That's the kind of unexpected word combo that poems were made for! In this week's activity, creators can write their own poems and describe something in an unexpected way.

Grownups, scroll down to share your creators’ poems via the form below!

Fun Crazy Weird Hair Store/The Mountain Fart (feat. Robin Lord Taylor)

Illustration by Camilla Franklin

Creator Club Bonus

“Fun Crazy Weird Hair Store” is a song about silly options for hairstyles adapted from a story by 9-year-old Sylvia from New Jersey. We want Creator Club Members to help us picture what these hairstyles look like!

Listen to the episode then scroll down for Creator Club exclusive activities!

Creator Club Coloring

Our incredible designer, Camilla Franklin, illustrates one of the stories from each podcast episode. This week, we wanted to provide Creator Club members with a coloring activity based on her illustration for "Fun Crazy Weird Hair Store!" Hopefully, this will provide a fun bonus activity for your creators to enjoy while listening to the episode! 

Word Salon Menu

In the song “Fun Crazy Weird Hair Store,” based on a story by a kid named Sylvia from New Jersey, there is a salon with a menu of options for hairstyles that are all super silly. It sounds like a place we definitely want to go, but we can’t picture what the hairstyles look like! Download the activity sheet to help us be even more descriptive with a Word Salon Menu! Grownups can share wacky hairstyle creations via the form below!

Humming/ Time Trap

Creator Club Bonus

In “Humming/Time Trap,” the Story Pirates adapted two new stories: “Humming,” a song about a simple habit that snowballs into a worldwide trend, by Emily, an 11 year old from Texas, and “Time Trap,” a story about two siblings who travel to some very surprising epochs, by an 8 year old from Oregon named Jaeger.

Listen to the episode then scroll down for Creator Club exclusive activities based on the stories!

Creator Club Coloring

Our incredible designer, Camilla Franklin, illustrates one of the stories from each podcast episode. This week, we wanted to provide Creator Club members with a coloring activity based on her illustration for "Humming!" Hopefully, this will provide a fun bonus activity for your creators to enjoy while listening to the episode! 

Invent a Time Machine

In the story "Time Trap," by Jaeger, two kids discover a time portal in their closet, and use it to travel to the past and the future.

If you could travel through time, how do YOU imagine it would happen? Would you find something mysterious and unexpected, like a portal in a closet? Would you invent a vehicle to travel in, that looks a like a car, or a spaceship? Maybe you'd invent a big machine with lots of dials and levers and gadgets attached? Or would you prefer something extremely weird that nobody has thought of before? Could it be an animal, or plant, or imaginary creature that helps you travel through time? Could it be a donut???

When you get an idea, draw it and label the most important features! Find an example in the activity sheet, and parents can submit creations in the form below!