Cunning Creations - Part 3

 This will be my last post about Summer Enrichment classes.  I am beginning to feel like summer vacation has finally started - and then it rained today.  That's pretty unusual for this part of the country.  It reminded me of when I lived in the Midwest.  It was easy to smell the rain before we even knew it was raining.

Thursday in our summer classes we made bubbles and sidewalk chalk.  The bubbles were easy.  Here is what you need for that.  Bubble Blowing Solution:    *1 c. water   *1/3 c. Joy dishwashing liquid   *2 tbsp. light corn syrup.  Mix and allow to sit for 1 hour before using. I had made some earlier so we could blow bubbles immediately.  We made blowers out of pipe cleaners and wire, but everyone preferred to use their fingers held in circles.  They seemed to make bigger bubbles.


I thought the sidewalk chalk would be easy to make with tempera paint and plaster of Paris.  Silly me - tempera paint can be expensive now, and I had to look all over to find plaster of Paris (which I found at Ace Hardware).  I decided to buy the primary colors of blue, yellow, and red.  I would let the kids mix the colors to get green, orange, and purple.  We had to work quickly with the plaster or it would set fast especially since it was hot that week.   Sidewalk Chalk  *1 cup Plaster of Paris   *1/2 cup Cool water   *tempera paints.  Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and then pour into molds, such as baking cups. We used small paper drinking cups. When it dried, we peeled the paper off.   


Friday found us meeting challenges with candy sculptures.  In the first challenge, students were given a bag with 2 large marshmallows, 7 small marshmallows, and 6 thin pretzel sticks.  They could have 5 gummy bears in a variety of colors.  Toothpicks were available to use in their sculptures.  After I took a picture of their creations, they could eat what they made.  The second challenge was a baggie full of candy like Dum-Dums, red licorice, bubble gum, and jar breakers.  They could build on the marshmallow challenge.  They had access to Popsicle sticks, googlie eyes, toothpicks, and pipe cleaners.  After I got a picture of their interesting creations, they were allowed to eat the sculpture.  By the third challenge, it didn't really matter what kind of candy was in the bag.  I think we had lost the essence of the creative element, since all anyone really wanted to do was to eat the candy.  We sure did go through a bunch of gummy bears.  For some reason, the green bears were the favorite.
Here are some pictures of our creations. 

Lovely aren't they?

 Here's an interesting question for you.  Have you ever passed someone driving a car and could have sworn it was a dog driving?  That happened to me today, and we were passing a dog park when it happened.  I grew up watching The Shaggy Dog, but it wasn't that kind of dog, but it really did look like a dog with long droopy ears.  I suppose there could be a story in that somewhere.

Thanks for the fun Summer Enrichment classes!

Mrs. Watson