Set Up

1. Clear your work area.
2. Gather all your materials: three cereal or cracker boxes, scissors, white, red, yellow and blue papers, tape and white glue.

 Tips

• Don’t worry about cereal boxes being too flimsy. They will be harder to break than you might think.
• Use regular colored paper or butcher paper. You can print the titles of the book on regular paper but then you have to piece the paper together on the box.

The Process for Making a School Pinata

1. Fill the largest box with candy. This box will be on the bottom.  
2. Tape the empty boxes shut with masking tape.

Tips

• If making a pull and yank pinata, wait to fill the box until after the trap door has been made.

How to Decorate the School Pinata

1. Draw many brown lines on white paper to create the look of the pages of the book. Then tape these lined papers around three sides of each box. You may need a piece of paper for each side.
2. Cover the smallest box with red paper.
3. Cover the middle box with yellow paper.
4. Cover the largest box with blue paper.
5. Apply the titles to each book. Either print the title on matching paper or stencil the titles on the books. The red book is “Reading,” the yellow book is “Writing,” and the blue book is “Arithmetic.”
6. Wrap the books with a belt. In the days of a single room school house that’s how some kids carried their books to school.

Tips

• Cut butcher paper about an inch wider than the width of the box and fold the edges under to help it look more like book binding.

Tips

• Use curling ribbon or craft ribbon that coordinate with the colors of the pinata.
• The ribbon to open the trap door needs to be placed opposite the hinge so it can pull it open.
• If the ribbon attached to the trap door is not at the edge of the pinata, use small bits of scotch tape to hold it to the edge of the pinata. The false bottom will cover it up.