Thursday, March 24, 2011

Salt Clay Bird's Nest Craft


We had two stories to go along with our stART (story + ART) project, this week. The first was Constantine Georgiou's The Nest...


...a simple, old fashion sort of picture book, about a robin building her nest, strong and secure, and filling it with soft bits of fluff, to make it a warm, and safe place for her eggs. And...


Our Nest by Reeve Lindbergh, that expands out from a child in bed, to a bird in its nest in the tree, to the deer sleeping in a grassy nest in the field, clear to the fish cradled by the earth in the watery nest of the ocean, and ultimately into space to see the earth in the nest of the universe, and then zooming back in to the child in bed, and the safety of his mother's arms.

"We're here in the nest of creation

With the earth and the stars above.

And you're here, safe and warm, in the nest of my arms,

When I wrap them around you with love."


It's a very cozy, bedtime story for little ones.


I was going to just have the younger children work at making play dough nests, while I read to them. But, I decided to mix up a quick batch of salt dough (1 cup salt, 2 cups flour, 1 cup water), which is not as much fun to work with, but will dry nicely, giving us a project to paint, later today.

But first, for the nests:

The girls started by pressing small globs of dough, down into bowl shapes.


They used a garlic press to create long strands of noodle-like dough...


...which they broke apart, and pressed onto the bowl, all the way around, and inside (an idea from create-kids-crafts.com)...


...to give the impression of twigs, and bits of straw.


Making the noodles with the garlic press was fun, and so they ended up with more than they needed for their nests, so they rolled the left over bits into small egg shapes, to dry with their nests. We left them on the counter to air dry over night, and hopefully they'll be dry enough to paint by this afternoon.



Click the link below, for more story themed arts, and crafts projects for children.



It's great to be a homeschooler.

13 comments:

Christy Killoran said...

Very neat craft. My story hour theme for this month is birds. I would love to do this craft, but I'm not sure it would be feasible with 15-20 preschoolers! I'll have to try it at home though.

Phyllis said...

They are so cute. The use of the garlic press was brilliant!

Polly @ Pieces by Polly said...

What a fun project! Love the texture the garlic press adds.

Unknown said...

A GARLIC PRESS for the little branches! What a great idea...thank you for bringing this to my attention...

Ticia said...

I'd never thought to use a garlic press with play dough or the like. BRILLIANT!

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

Very nice project! I love creative use of a garlic press.

Brimful Curiosities said...

Neat craft. I've been meaning to make spaghetti and meatballs sometime soon so we can turn our food into nest/bird art. The garlic press twigs remind me of spaghetti noodles!

Sue Elvis said...

You are so creative! I'm feeling inspired to make a mess and have some fun.

Joyful Learner said...

We own a playdough pasta maker but no garlic press! I would imagine it being more fun with real tools!

Debbie said...

I really love the idea of using the garlic press to add texture to your clay nest.

Toodlebugz said...

I have been reading your blog daily now that I found it and I have to say you are the coolest mom ever! I read your links
(thank you) and have been looking into unit study/ unschool. I think unit study might fit us better because I feel a little better with having some control. I know you do not fall into the category of a total unschooler after reading many posts and seeing that you direct (or tempt) them somewhat and see if they will take the bait, so to speak. They usually do it seems and then natural learning happens. I was wondering how you do this with older ones? My oldest is 13 and almost in highschool. I do not want to do textbooks if we can help it but am wondering how science and history for highschool in an unschool/unit study approach will look? Any ideas? It seems by your photos that your children are similar in age to mine.Thanks soooo much for the great posts. And who would of thunk you could use a garlic press for dough?
blessings,
Joy

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Toodlebugz - History is one of the most natural subjects to unschool, because it comes up in almost every subject - there are always interesting historical avenues to go down - and they can be found in movies, books, and just general discussion. Science really depends on your children's interest. We do a lot of hands on experiments, and then Internet research to fill in the hows, and whys - but when they are really interested in a particluar topic, sometimes the depth of a textbook, can be helpful.

Miss said...

This is such a cute project. I tried it with a clay class I teach and they all turned out great! Thanks for sharing!