Backyard fun for kids - Animated Giraffe - Circus for Kids

The Giraffe is one of the rarest of animals, and very few are to be found in captivity. So if you make a giraffe, which is not difficult to do, you will have a feature in your show that none but the very largest combines can afford. The animal's head should be drawn the shape of Fig. 272 on a board, and then cut out with the aid of a saw and draw-knife. The jaw, ears, and horns should be cut out separately, the shape of Figs. 273, 274, and 275.
Bore two holes in the head at A, slanting them toward one another, and fit in them the pegs cut for the horns. The jaw should be pivoted with a small nail at B on one side of the head, and an ear should be likewise fastened at C on each side of the head. When these portions of the giraffe's anatomy have been put in place, stretch a rubber band from a tack driven in the top of the jaw to another tack driven into the neck (see Fig. 272), and attach another rubber band similarly to each of the ears. These rubber bands will act as springs, causing the ears to wag and the jaw to open and close when the giraffe moves his head.
Paint the head, making the features as nearly like those of a giraffe as possible, and, when the paint is dry, mount the head on the end of a six-foot pole.

Figs. 272-276.—Details of Giraffe.

The covering for the body is made out of a large piece of tan cloth with brown spots marked upon it, as shown in Fig. 276. It is not necessary to give a pattern for this, as the illustration clearly shows how it should fit over the two boys who form the body, and hang from the headpiece.

Fig. 277.—The Giraffe's Tail.
The neck should be stuffed out with excelsior. A short and a long stick should be nailed together, as shown in Fig. 277, and cloth should be sewed to the end of the short stick for the animal's tail. Stuff the tail with excelsior and fasten unravelled rope to the end, as shown in the drawings. The long stick should be held by the boy who forms the rear of the animal, so that by means of it he can manipulate the tail (see Fig. 276). As shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 276, the boy in the front portion of the animal holds the end of the pole supporting the animal's head.

Excerpt from the book - THE BOY CRAFTSMAN
Practical and Profitable Ideas for a Boy's Leisure Hours
BY A. Neely Hall
With more than four hundred illustrations by the author and Norman P. Hall
BOSTON
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
Published, August, 1905.