Cool Mushroom Project

If you visit this site: http://dougrhodehamel.wordpress.com/category/z4-spore/ you will see the full tutorial for the mushrooms I prepared for a church event. I did not use hot glue or rubber bands for my mushrooms because they held together just fine without them. Mine have added caterpillars.

To make the caterpillars I wrapped 2 pipe cleaners around a dowel. I left an inch unwrapped, twisted the last bit together and stuck it into the top of the mushroom. The goal for this project was no glue, no paint. The spots on the mushrooms were stamp pad finger prints! You can stick them in the ground or a potted plant.

OMGoodness Wednesday

Today was arctic animals day at school so that means bread dough. See my tutorial on how to make said dough:

http://karenmakesstuff.com/2010/02/bread-glue.html

Me and an aide helped 60 kids to make either a seal, polar bear or arctic fox.

We had to work fast which is not natural for most of the kids.

They are sooooo cute!

I'm beat.

Kids Take Home Moss Terrarium

Whether you're doing a DVBS, classroom, birthday party or fair, this is a nice project for you to do with the kids.

Here are the items you'll need:

small SOLO clear cups with lids (paper goods store)
activated charcoal (pet store)
live moss (preferably from your yard)
dry moss (craft store)
potting soil
small rocks (pet store)
plastic teaspoons
2 med. containers (storing live moss & charcoal)
3 extra large containers (holding rocks, soil & dry moss)
squirt bottle

#1 layer of rocks
#2 sprinkle of charcoal

#3 layer of dirt

#4 live moss plant

#5 couple pieces of dry moss for holding moisture

#6 several good squirts

Watch it grow.

Bread + Glue = ?

How about a neat project to do with the kids. The second graders love this one. Each year the kids learn about the Arctic and its animals. This air dry dough is easy and inexpensive. Plus the kids make it themselves!

Fox, hare, polar bear and weasel.

Not a long ingredient list but don't get out the washable school glue for this one. One slice of white bread per project with a slice set aside in case you're heavy handed with the glue. It's more mess free if you use a disposable plastic cup and popsicle stick but you can use a regular cup and spoon.

Take the brown crust off the bread and rip the white part into pieces and put these in the cup. The kids always ask me if they can eat the crust. I tell them if they eat it as they take it off they can. You don't want them eating it with glue on their hands!

We have our bread pieces in our cup. I'd say a tablespoon of glue to start. Of course I eye ball it. It's gonna look like you just made tuna fish.

Again, to be mess free, once you've mixed your bread and glue to that moist tuna fish consistency you'll want to put it right in your hand. If when you roll it, it forms a ball, ya done good. If it smushes all over your hands, you'll need a little more bread.

I have a trusted technique for getting the dough smooth. Roll the ball into a log, fold the log in half, roll a new log and repeat until smooth.

With a couple beads for eyes we can make our animal. I recommend with this dough not pulling it apart to make legs, head and tail. It's best to pinch these things out of the dough. I start with the legs and then the head. Pinch out the tail and ears. Push in your beads and let him air dry for a couple of days. I love this stuff!