How to Make a Salt Box Piggy Bank

Looking for a fun and inexpensive--and perhaps educational--craft activity for you to share with your child? Consider teaching your child about economics--by building a salt box piggy bank! It's easy, it's enjoyable, and it just may be the first step toward teaching your child how to save and manage money. Here's how it's done.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Circular (cylinder-shaped) salt box
• Scissors
• Pink wrapping paper
• Glue
• Pipe cleaner
• 5 corks
• Black marker
• 2 brass fasteners
• String or rubber band

How to Make a Salt Box Piggy Bank

1. Take a circular (cylinder-shaped) salt box and remove the plastic or metal pouring spout.

2. Cut a slit in the side of the box that is large enough for coins to easily pass through. This is your piggy bank's coin slot. The slit also marks the very top of your piggy bank.

3. Wrap the salt box up in pink wrapping paper (or construction paper, if desired), as you would a gift of the same shape. Find the depression where the slit from Step 2 is located and cut an additional slit in the wrapping paper there, so that a coin might still be easily dropped in.

4. Cut two piece of pink paper into triangles, then lightly fold the tips on one corner of each triangle down. These are your piggy's ears. Glue the straight side of the triangles to one of the flat sides of the salt box so that more than half of the "ears" poke up above the rim of the box.

5. Poke a pipe cleaner through the back of the piggy--the flat side of the salt box opposite the side on which the ears are attached. Twist the pipe cleaner to make a twisty piggy tail.

6. Glue four corks to the bottom of the box. These are your piggy's legs. They should all be glued on the circular portion of the box, two at the back end and two at the front end. Glue a fifth cork just below the middle of the flat, face side of the box. This is your piggy's snout. Use a black marker to draw two circles in the middle of your piggy's snout--nostrils, of course.

7. Using the same marker, color in two spots for eyes above the snout, beneath the ears.

8. Cut a small door about two-thirds of an inch below the pipe cleaner tail, creating a flap. This is how you will extract money from the piggy bank after it has been deposited through the top slot. To keep closed, attach two brass fasteners--one on the flap and one on the box outside the flap--then loop a bit of string or a rubber band around them. Your piggy bank is complete. Start saving those pennies!

Tips & Warnings

• You can be as creative as you like! Use construction paper, fabric, sparkle, or other materials to doll up your piggy--or create an entirely different animal!
• Once your piggy bank is complete, it will still be somewhat fragile, so handle with care.