Homeschooling Assignment #6

First, you need supplies, so put this on your grocery or “gather” list so you’ll be ready to have a good time!

Ice cream sandwiches made of clay, look good enough to eat!

Supply List

1—plastic
(plastic $1 tablecloth or old vinyl tablecloth or plastic placemats–not your best ones)

2—colored clay

Sculpey clay or any playdough or clay that hardens when it bakes or dries is best. Make sure your clay is the kind that dries or can be baked to hardness. What fun is it to spend your time creating something wonderful just to smash it when you are done? If it is soft clay, even if you try to preserve it by not touching, it just doesn’t hold its shape that well, especially when bumped! If you don’t like collecting too much stuff, your child can give it their creations to someone as a little gift with a little card or scripture verse done in their best handwriting!

3—tools
Garlic press, toothpicks, rolling pin, fat pencil to serve as a mini rolling pin, tweezers, kitchen utensils, chop stick, pizza cutter, fork, etc. The more the merrier, as this is where you can really get creative and expressive. A garlic press is hard to clean. If you can find a cheapy one and use it just for clay, you’ll be happier to sculpt more often! But it makes such great hair or fur that you really can’t deny yourself of the pleasure of squeezing clay through a garlic press!

4—ideas
Pick up an idea book at the library or get out some children’s coloring books that simplify objects and animals to black line drawings. These ice cream sandwiches are made from clay!  You’ll find lots more fun in this book: Clay Charms.

Let’s Sculpt!!

Lay out a cheap vinyl tablecloth so you can have fun without making a cleaning job for yourself before lunch. You can fold it up and re-use it next time you play clay. If you feel more creative with classical music, put that on too! Start with a newborn in blanket. This will get everyone sculpting and ideas brewing. Think “small”. You only need a golf ball size of clay to create something charming! Remember, this activity is for Mom and teenage boys and middle sized girls and little babies and everyone.

Here’s how to make a Newborn in Blanket: 

Step 1
Take a marble sized ball of clay to roll the head. You can use white with a little pink blended in, or white with a little brown blended in or straight dark brown (depending on skin tones of your baby). Roll this into a ball and set aside.

Step 2
Get another marble-size piece of colored clay. In our sample, we mixed white with blue and green flecks of clay. When we rolled it out thin it looked like a blanket. Use a rolling pin or a pencil to roll out the clay very thin. Use a pizza cutter to cut a 3″ square shape.

Step 3
Scratch the back surface of the baby’s head ball to rough it. Scratch the inside upper corner of the blanket on the surface and then press the head on.

Step 4
Fold the blanket up from the bottom until the point touches the baby’s chin. Fold in the side of the blankets.

Step 5
Roll a little pinch of brown, black or blonde colored clay into a little curlicue. Poke a toothpick down to make a hole in the top of the baby’s head. Stick the piece of “hair” into the hold and pinch inside the hole with the end of a toothpick.

Step 6
Make a little teeny ball for a nose and adhere it just like the hair.

Step 7
Using the end of a pencil or other tool, make a poke for the eyes and mouth of the baby. You can enlarge the mouth into a big crying mouth by wiggling the pencil around to make the hole bigger.

Bake your baby to permanence and you’ll have a little creation that makes everyone who sees it go, “Ooooh, how cute!”.

Now, try this!

Instructions for Sculpting a Pig 

You will need:
A small marble-size ball of pink clay
Scraps of pink and black
Toothpick or paperclip

Step 1
Roll clay into a ball

Step 2
Make the face parts:
Triangle ears
Round eyes
Nose: a flattened ball with toothpick-drawn nostrils
Curly tail (wrap around a toothpick or wire)

Step 3
Bake 30 min at 275 degF/135 degC

Now, when your creativity is spent, lay your objects carefully on a cookie sheet to bake or dry. FUN!

Your kids are going to be asking when you are sculpting next! Friday afternoon sculpting sessions can become a nice reward for a week of schoolwork done!

Let’s go to Homeschooling Assignment #7.