Make-it Monday

Another week of Summer Dreamers drew to a close earlier today - I'm quietly cheering, having stood on concrete block floor four hours straight. Attendance was down today, way down, and several of my more... delightful students were among the missing, making class run a whole lot smoother. We were finishing up our papier machet project, which was going to be a pinata for the chilluns to take home, fill with candy and club to death. Then self said "Be realistic - none of these parents are going to do that for their child." I don't think I'd be terribly excited as a mom if my kid showed up with a pinata from school. Of course, I would be the mom who'd make it with my kids, but that's another story.

So we're making hot air balloons instead! It took me 20 minutes to explain this concept - I'd say:
"We're making hot air balloons with a plastic bottle bottom for the basket, and the papier machet form as the balloon!"
"What's a hot air balloon?"
"It's a vehicle for transportation - a bag made of silk or nylon with a heat source to keep the air in the balloon warm - because hot air rises - with a basket attached for people to ride in."
"How's it work?"
"The heat source makes the air hot in the bag and it rises - no hot air, no rise-y. We're just going to make a model of a hot air balloon - these won't actually work."
"Miss Zara, Miss Zara!"
"Yes?"
"What are we making today?"
*headdesk*

I don't have any pictures from today due to the flour + water + salt = mess all over Miss Zara's hands and clothes and apron. The process is pretty simple though. Blow up a party balloon, start applying strips of newspaper dampened in papier machet solution in an organized manner, making sure the strips overlap each other slightly. More layers = stronger side walls. Allow to dry over night. Decorate in what ever manner you see fit. Since we had problems with children and paint, the coordinator and I decided to get tissue paper and let the kids glue it on the sides instead [yay, modge podge!]. I need to rustle up some pictures of hot air balloons, knowing none of them have likely seen one, especially any that are food related. This is Captain Cook's Clay Kitchen after all.

*These pictures were taken after the event in question

On display at the gallery crawl, we cut off the bottom of
plastic bottles and punched holes in them for the baskets