Penguin Ornaments

Every year, Boogs gets Grandmaman a new ornament for her Christmas tree. This year, we decided to make ornaments out of polymer clay.

I first took out this package of Creative Paperclay. It was a crumbly mess. Hmmmm... it has been in my craft room stash of stuff for a looong time. On the back of the package, it said it expired in June 2002. Whoops!

Next, I took out this Sculpey Clay to try again. I've had this package since before Boogs was born. It was perfectly fine.

We had to knead and warm up the clay a little to get it to cooperate.

Step 1: Roll the black clay into a round ball. This was about half an ounce of clay.

Step 2: Flatten the ball into a circle.

Step 3: Shape the flattened ball. We were making different looking penguins. I made mine into a pear shape, Boogs was more rounded.

Step 4: Roll a small amount of white clay into a ball. Then shape it to fit the bottom third to half of your penguin.

Step 5: Take a small pinch of orange clay to make a beak.

Step 6: Add eyes. I had a package of black sequins in one of my craft bins, so we decided to use those for eyes. I added white around the sequin. Boogs pushed his sequin directly into his penguin's head.

Step 7: Add accessories. I put a Santa hat, flippers, a candy cane, and feet on my penguin. Boogs decided to put ear muffs on his penguins. He rolled small pieces of red clay into balls and attached them to his penguins heads.

We used red Stampin' Up Wire Works wire to connect the ear muffs.

 Boogs added a little heart on the belly of each of his penguins.

 Look at that smile!

 These were ready to put in the oven.

Step 8: Twist a piece of wire into a loop and attach to back of penguin.

Step 9: Place clay artwork on an oven safe glass dish. Put in a 275 degree F oven for 15 minutes (or whatever your package of clay recommends).

Step 10: Take out of oven and let cool. Attach string to loop for hanging ornament on a Christmas tree.

I think these turned out so cute. You do have to be a little bit careful with them. I accidentally dropped my phone on my penguin when I was trying to take this picture. Oops!

My phone broke off one of my penguin's flipper arms and one foot. I pulled off the second foot and I think it still looks okay.

Boogs and I enjoyed working on these today. What kinds of Christmas crafting have you started doing?

                                                  

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STEAM Shop 3rd, 4th, 5th Grades

Part of my job this year is to run the STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Art Mathematics) Shop at an elementary school on Mondays and Tuesdays. During September and October, I worked with 1st and 2nd graders. See THIS post for those activities. I am working with 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders during November and December. My students come to my room in groups of 8 to 16 throughout the day. The stations are based on the TEKS - Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, which outline what students are to learn in each grade.

3rd Graders begin in the sink/float or landforms station.

4th Graders begin in the simple machines station.

5th Graders begin in the Mix It Up/Filtering station.

After completing their primary station, students use question cards to discuss with their classmates: ways to improve design, frustrations, discoveries, how it applies to the real world, etc.

If they have any extra time beyond their primary station, students are encouraged to visit and work on the other stations in the room. Click on bold words for resource links.

Snap Circuits, Density Experiment,

Solid/Liquid/Gas Sort, Create a Food Web

Food Web video with mini quiz

Using Snap Circuits to experiment with the flow of energy to create light, sound, movement.

Sealing the canister before trying to make the ping pong ball and the ball bearing trade places in the density experiment.

Using picture cards and a dry erase marker on a shower curtain to show energy flow through a food web.

Simple Machines - Escaped Zoo Animals,

Simple Machine sort, slideshow with mini quiz

Students used the supplies to help the zoo animals return to the zoo. Pictured are: wheel and axle going up an inclined plane, pulley, slingshot lever (rubber band and plastic spoon), and multiple inclined planes.

Create and identify landforms

Working with a partner, students created landforms for their partner to identify. We used laminated blue paper for water.

Mix it up - solutions & mixtures, filtering

Mixture video and mini quiz

Testing substances at the Mix It Up station.

Mayflower Challenge - design a sailboat, consider buoyancy

with added cargo, test for sink/float and speed.

Mayflower Challenge resources HERE and HERE.

Creating boats.

Testing boat on the "ocean".

The 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders seem to enjoy their exploration time in the STEAM Shop. So far, we have only had one catastrophe - someone accidentally stepped on our ocean and knocked the container over. It is amazing how quickly 2.5 gallons of water can spread across the carpet.

I will have the 1st and 2nd graders again in January. I guess I better start working on their next set of activities.  What STEAM activities would you recommend for a 40 minute class period? I only see the students once per semester. I can't have any on-going activities that require more than one class period. I don't have a budget, my supplies are things I can gather or get donated to my room.

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