Here are a few more photos from this quarter - it was so much fun!
Shrinky Dink Circle Charms
The kids got to experiment with Shrinky Dinks this week - some had used them before, but for others this was a new (magical!) experience. They began by drawing on 4" circles of special plastic with markers and colored pencils.
Then we put the plastic circles on baking trays, made sure none of them were touching, and put them in the oven for three minutes. 
We watched through the oven window as the circles curled up, shrank, and flattened in the heat. Then we took them out, let them cool, and marveled at how quickly they shrank from 4 inches to 1 inch! They also became very think and sturdy.
Once cool, we made them into key chains, necklaces, bracelets, and "special charms" to keep or give to loved ones.
Animal Pinch Pots
This week we got to play with clay!
We made animal pinch pots and learned all about how to make a sturdy bowl, attach clay pieces to each other, and add textures.
A sea turtle in progress:
A froggy in progress:
Adding textures:
They will take a few days to completely dry, then I will load them in the kiln!
Recycled Masks
Our paper mache masks came to life this week! Look at all the different ways the students chose to paint them:
Paper Mache Masks!
This week we got started on a very exciting, multi-week project - creating our own, unique, paper mache masks using found materials! Here are some of the recycled items I brought for the kids to use:
Each student got a heavy-duty paper plate to use as the foundation of their mask. Then they played around with the materials and brainstormed how they'd like their mask to look.
Some students chose to make "human" masks, while others did animals, robots, and monsters!
Here is one mask with all it's features attached, right before we started the paper mache step - this one is "a surprised alien":
Once the features were securely attached with masking tape, we mixed up our paper mache paste (3 cups of water and three cups of flour) and started to get messy! We covered our masks with strips of newspaper dipped in the paste! Here is a mask with an eye that opens and closes!
And here is a robot with a crazy-cool "electric eye" (made from a colored popsicle stick and a test tube):
They will dry and harden until next week, when we will paint them.
I can't wait to see the finished products!
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