amma

If you take the shredded paper from your shredder, or run newspaper through it, and tightly fill an empty milk jug with them (with the top portion cut off.) Add just enough water to it to lightly dampen the paper, and tossing the shreds to let the water soak in. Add a 2oz bottle of white school glue and let the kids mix it up well with their hands. You can shape this like clay... We made little bowls out of this, stuck rocks in the side and sealed it with cheap bottle of Delta's Creamcoat Varnish. The kids LOVED making them and if you do several layers of varnish, the bowls are water proof. We used them as plant saucers. The newspaper looks like cement when dry. The colored flecks in the bowl in the picture is from using cartoon. The slick advertisement paper does not work well.

You can make animal shapes with these, and when they are fully dried, you can even paint and seal them.

To make the bowls, wrap a bowl on the outside with aluminum foil. Turn it upside down and add the newspaper to the bottom and up the sides. Let it dry for 3 days, take it off and let the inside keep drying. If you set them near a wood stove, they may dry even quicker. The smaller the piece, the quicker they will dry ofcourse. Little yougurt cups work well, for smaller bowl shapes.

I get the school glue 2/$1 at the Dollar Tree

amma

These end up being super light weight, even after adding the rocks to the outsides.

Rhonda

I can see Rachel adding bright beads to hers! LOL
I wonder if you could add food coloring or paint to your mix as a base color. Would it still dry? It should.

amma

It wouldn't be a problem at all, I would use paint so that it easily washes out.... However it could be fun sending the kids home with rainbow hands LMBO

amma

Let me Edit this.................
If you want to make colors...shred up copy paper...the newspaper ink turns the paper a dark grey, so to dye it would be more difficult. But the copy paper would turn out very bright and pretty :D:D:D

amma

My son would have put the little green army guys in his LMBO
I say just turn the kids loose and see what happens :D:D:D

Rhonda

I went to an early childhood conference when I worked in day care.One of the things I came home with was how to make clean mud. Sara reminded me to tell you about it.

You shred toilet paper a cheap one of course into a deep bin. Shave soap into the paper and add water to make it like mud. The kids have a ball doing this!

Another idea is to make a wooden box or use a large somewhat shallow bin for a sensory table. You can fill it with sand and give them cars to make roads in / or if you are using a plastic bin -water play with boats etc / fill it with unpopped popcorn and let them play in it like sand.

I give them straws and kid scissors and they cut to their hearts content/

An old fashioned idea I saw my grandson doing was to cut out a person from a picture - He printed off his favorite cartoon character and cut around the hands and feet so they are movable. I would glue or staple them to a popsicle stick for paper dolls!

You can have the kids act out plays or stories. We did the 3 little pigs once. You could use the popsicle stick people to act out plays also