The Chiva Bus Parade

Chivas come from Columbia, South America.

        These fifth grade students studied the brightly colored buses, Chivas, of Latin America. This transportation is unique to the culture of people who live south of our Mexican boarders. Students shaped clay into basic bus shapes and then attached animals, ladders, and people to the outside of their buses before painting them in bright, bold acrylic paints.

These artisan rustic buses are adapted to rural transport.

Chivas must carry passengers, luggage, and sometimes even domestic animals over mountainous terrain.

These buses are built tough and can plow through

 just about anything, including mud!

See more Chivas or Caminones at pinterest

Shape a Draped Ghost for All Hallows Eve!

A draped, pinch-pot ghost.

       This simple clay project is made with four sculpture methods: rolling a slab, pinching a pot, scoring a surface and draping a pot. All four are required methods for primary school sculpture standards. 

       Make sure to leave a large enough opening in the ghost's back for a tiny battery operated light. You would need to make the same project with high-fire clay in order to safely burn a candle in the figure.

 Supply List:

• newspaper
• acrylic white paint
• small soft brush
• shallow dish of water
• air dry clay or paper clay
• acrylic varnish
• tiny lights or battery operated votive candle
• flower cookie cutter
• paper bowl
• plastic fork for scoring
• plastic butter knife for cutting into the clay

Step-by-Step Directions:

1. Shape this Halloween ghost first by rolling a ball between the palms of your hands.
2. Now insert your thumb and position your five other fingers outside the surface of the ball.
3. Pinch and turn the ball clockwise. Soon the clay will open up to shape a small pinch pot. Set aside.
4. Roll out more clay and use a flower shaped cookie cutter to make the base of the ghostly figure. This base should be 1/2 inch thick or more.
5. Score the bottom of the pinch pot and drizzle a little water in these scores to help them attach to the flower base.
6. Now position your pinch pot over the flower shaped base. Pinch and pull the ghost's walls to fit the flower cut base. (see below)
7. Cut a mouth hole and two eye holes into the front of the ghost's head.
8. Cut a large hole into the backside of the ghost's body so that you may insert twinkle lights or a battery operated votive inside the ghostly figure after it dries.
9. Smooth the holes of the face and the rippled walls of the ghost's sheet with a bit of water on your finger tips.
10. Let the ghost dry.
11. Paint the ghost with white paint.
12. Varnish the draped ghost figure with clear acrylic.

Use a large flower shaped cookie cutter to press a base shape for your ghost.

Placing the ghost into a paper bowl allows the student to move the project around without damaging it.

Shape a pinch pot acorn

Finished pinch pot acorn made with paper clay.

       Shape a few small acorns for fall this year. Bring in some real examples for your little students to examine before beginning the craft.

Supply List:

• newspaper
• acrylic or watercolor paints
• small soft brush
• shallow dish of water
• air dry clay or paper clay
• scoring tool - plastic fork
• acrylic varnish
• nail or screw for making marks into the acorn cap

Step-by-Step Directions:

1. Shape the nut part of the acorn first by rolling a ball between the palms of your hands.
2. Now insert your thumb and position your five other fingers outside the surface of the ball.
3. Pinch and turn the ball clockwise. Soon the clay will open up to shape a small pot.
4. Pinch the solid, outside end of the pot into a tiny peak.
5. Next, shape the acorn's cap be the same process. 
6. Use the nail or screw to press a printed surface into the cap.
7. Score the outside edges of both the nut and the cap.
8. Trickle a little water into the score lines.
9. Press the cap and nut scored edges together gently. 
10. Students may wish to dip their fingers into water and smooth the surface of their acorns a bit before finishing.
11. Let the acorn dry completely before applying paint. This will most likely take a day at the very least. 
12. Choose several browns and greens to alternate in thin washes of color over the surface of your pinch pot acorn.
13. Varnish and let dry.

Shape the pinch pot into an acorn by adding a pinched end.

Make sure you shape the cap to a smaller size and add a little stem too.

Print the acorns cap with a nail or screw.

Shape a coiled snake to hold your crayons!

Craft a Coil Snake.

       This simple sculpture would be a good "warm up" project prior to crafting a more complicated lesson like a coil pot. 

       Young children can learn how to roll basic coils with the palms of their hands. Give them a mat, newspaper, or an old piece of cardboard to roll out the clay for this cute little assignment. Let them play with the coils for a while and encourage them to repeat the process over and over before finally finishing the snake pencil holder. They may need to wet their hands while working with the clay to prevent their coil from cracking and drying out.

       Their snake coil should be about 3/4 inch thick at it's widest point. Children may also score the surfaces to add texture or print. Make sure that one of the snake's ends is rounded and fat enough for a head and that the other end tapers off gradually. It doesn't really matter where the head or tail ends up in the end. Each one of these little reptiles is adorable when children are allowed to give them unique knots and twists.

Supply List:

• newspaper
• acrylic or watercolor paints
• red embroidery floss
• white glue
• air dry clay or paper clay
• small paint brush
• acrylic varnish 
• printing or scoring tools like a plastic fork
• shallow dish with water

Step-by-Step Directions:

1. Roll out a very long coil of clay.
2. Lift and form the coil into a tall container.
3. Leave enough space between the simple stacked coil for pencils, crayons, markers etc...
4. Poke a small hole with the tip of a pencil where the mouth of the snake should be.
5. Let the snake dry overnight or longer.
6. Paint the snake with a strip, spots, or any other patterns you like.
7. Glue a long strand of red embroidery floss coming from the snake's mouth, (hole) to mimic it's tongue.
8. Give your snake eyes with the tip of your paint brush too.
9. Seal the snake with a thin coat of clear varnish.

The shape of a coil snake pencil holder.

A friendly snake clutches a child's crayons.

Play-Doh Mats for Early Learners

 I selected the free teddy bear coloring page from this website for my project.

        I made these Play-Doh mats by first printing a child's coloring page onto different shades of brown construction papers. Then I cut out each teddy bear and pasted bright green bow ties under their chins and bright colored numbers cut from construction paper onto their bellies. After this, I used a laminator to cover each Play-Doh mat with a protective layer of plastic. Now my young students can use these teaching aids over and over again. 

Three year old students shape Play-Doh to form numbers 0 - 9 on top of these adorable teddy bear number mats.

Original canister of Playdough

      Play-Doh is a modeling compound used by young children for art and craft projects at home and in school. Composed of flour, water, salt, boric acid, and mineral oil, the product was first manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S., as a wallpaper cleaner in the 1930s. When a classroom of children began using the wallpaper cleaner as a modeling compound, the product was reworked and marketed to Cincinnati schools in the mid-1950s. Play-Doh was demonstrated at an educational convention in 1956 and prominent department stores opened retail accounts. Advertisements promoting Play-Doh on influential children's television shows in 1957 furthered the product's sales. Since its launch on the toy market in the mid-1950s, Play-Doh has generated a considerable amount of ancillary merchandise such as The Fun Factory. In 2003, the Toy Industry Association named Play-Doh in its "Century of Toys List".

      The non-toxic, non-staining, reusable modeling compound that came to be known as "Play-Doh" was originally a pliable, putty-like substance concocted by Noah McVicker of Cincinnati-based soap manufacturer Kutol Products; it was devised at the request of Krogers Grocery, which wanted a product that could clean coal residue from wallpaper. Following World War II, with the transition from coal-based home heating to natural gas and the resulting decrease in internal soot, and the introduction of washable vinyl-based wallpaper, the market for wallpaper cleaning putty decreased substantially. McVicker's nephew, Joe McVicker, joined Kutol with the remit to save the company from bankruptcy; he subsequently discovered that the wallpaper cleaner was being used by nursery school children to make Christmas ornaments. Read more...

• Hasbro: About Play-Doh
• Play-Doh began as wall cleaner | Our History
• Playmakers Part II: Play-Doh

Download and Print Your Own Playdough Mats for Free:

1. People Play Dough Mats by picklebums
2. Play Dough Learning Mats for Literacy and Numeracy Development by the imagination tree
3. Farm Yard Play Dough Counting Mats by PreKinders  and also a Cherry Pie Play Dough Mat and Math Mats,
4. Wishy Washy Play Dough Mats by MakingLearningFun.com
5. Number Playdough Mats from Homeschool Creations
6. Free Playdough Mats by busylittlebugs
7. Alphabet Playdough Mats by This Reading Mama are marvelous plus even more here: Christmas and Winter, Spring Themes, Summer Mats
8. ABC Play Doug Mats by 1plus1plus1equals1.net
9. Busy Bag Swap: Playdough Mat Book by Planet of the Apels
10. Free Shape Playdough Mats from 3 Dinosaurs
11. Playdough Mats: Alphabet Letters from A to Z by 123homeschool4me.com
12. Cookie Mat Play Dough Mat Busy Bag by coffecupsandcrayons.com
13. Playdough Numbers Game Cards
14. Playdough Activity Mats by sparklebox.co.uk
15. Printable Playdough Mats by learncreatelove.com
16. Free Easter Mat Printables for Playdough from Modern Parents Messy Kids
17. Apple Tree Play Dough Maths by Learning4Kids
18. Gingerbread Man Playdough Mat by busylittlebugs.com.au
19. Transportation Playdough Mats from Teach Love Grow
20. Dinosaur Play Dough Mats by craftulate.com
21. Fall Playdough Mats by momshavequestionstoo.com
22. Free Flower Playdough Mat by learnwithplayathome.com
23. Printable Playdough Mats from Sing A Story
24. 10 Free Playdough Mats by Tutus&teaparties
25. American Flag Playdough Mat from totschooling.net
26. Playdough Mats by kidsparkz.com