I find it difficult to plan for after a two week break.
What will the children be interested in especially after a holiday like Christmas?
But this year several children were showing an interest in dinosaurs
so I decided to do a little prep with the children before
our holiday started.
We made a volcano with papier mache.
If you've ever used papier mache you know that it is very sticky.
I was curious if the children would try it.
Would they be willing to stick their hands in a white, sticky mess?
Would they figure out how to dip the strip of paper to get it all wet
then move it over to the sculpture?
I remember with my own children that it took a few tries for them
to enjoy the texture and the process.
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I was thrilled to see that a fair number of children were happy to try
and we were successful in our creating.
We covered the the crumpled newspaper with strips of newspaper first.
Then a second layer of paper towel.
This will be a working volcano that has a glass bottle inside.
Finally we painted it with diluted glue
and added tissue paper for a finish.
We used a couple of shades of brown
which I think turned out really well.
This took us two days then it had two weeks to dry completely.
This morning was our first day back from holidays.
I added rocks, trees and dinosaurs for the children to discover.
I also moved one of the sensory tables beside it which holds sand.
I'm curious how the two will work together over time.