Building a Volcano

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.