Paper Roll Squirrel

A few weeks ago I had to come up with a craft for my son's Beaver's troop fast. They were discussing squirrels and it had to involve a nut.



As with most Beaver crafts it had to be fast and doable for boys aged 5 to 7. These turned out to be such a hit I thought I'd post it.



I know I promised the project with the Halloween candy boxes and it's almost ready...I put a sneak peek at the end of this post so stayed tuned.

Materials Required:



walnuts

paper rolls

1/2 a piece of paper towel

2 googly eyes

1 small pom pom

some felt

squirrel leg template

fun fur scraps

acorn cap

glue









Take the paper roll and cut it down to a 3 inch length.



Take the 1/2 of paper towel and stuff it into the roll.



You could paint the paper roll if you want but we left ours natural.






Make sure it is even with the top of the roll and put some glue on top.








Place the walnut on top of the glue. make sure the walnut is on it's side so you have the seam of the nut running down the middle of the head...this will also give you a pointy end for your nose.








Glue on your eyes and the nose.








With some scraps of felt cut out 2 ears and glue into place.





We painted our acorn cap so our squirrel had a fancy hat but you can leave it natural. Glue into place on top of head.





Using the leg template cut out 2 legs. We used brown paper but you could also cut these from felt.



Glue into place.





Cut your fun fur into a 2 inch strip about 1/2 an inch wide.



Glue into place.











Take some felt and cut two strips. Round the edges on one end. Glue into place for arms.





And that's it. Pretty simple but the boys had a great time and I received lots of positive comments from the parents.







My son added a felt piece for the belly of his squirrel who is now proudly called "Nutty".


Jenny from Plant City, Florida sent me this photo of the Fall Trees her 4th Graders did. They added a Fall Poem and have been getting wonderful compliments on their display.

I decided to add an Art Project Gallery component to this blog . If you send me a photo of your work using the lessons on this blog I'll put it in the gallery. Just email me...click on my profile at the top to direct you to my email.

Thanks Jenny..they look terrific!!

Here is a sneak peek of the upcoming project.


We'll see you next time.

A Tale of Two Turkeys: Turkey #2 Salt Dough

Here is Turkey #2. A lot quicker than clay and just as charming.

These are salt dough turkeys that Grade 4 completed.

Materials Required:

salt dough, see recipe at end of materials list

paper clip

rolling pin

dull knife

water

whole cloves (optional)

oven

acrylic paint

Mod Podge

skewer

Salt Dough Recipe

4 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 1/2 - 2 cups water

Combine ingredients to make a soft dough, knead in some extra flour if required. This dough will keep for quite a while in the refrigerator.

This is enough dough for 6 turkeys.

Roll out the dough to about 1/2 and inch thickness and cut out a round about 3 and 1/2 to 4 inches in diameter.


I'm using a tomato can...I have one of those can openers that leave no sharp edges...perfect for crafting.

Take your paper clip and insert it into the top of the round for a hanger.

Take some more dough and roll out a rectangular shape.

Cut some strips about the width of your finger.

Using a skewer make some indentations that look like feather marks.

Cut to size and using water glue into place.

It should look like this but feel free to alter as you wish.

Roll out some more dough and cut a small round about 1 and 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter.

I'm using a tomato paste can.

Glue into place with a little water.

Now you need to make the head/neck. Roll a little sausage shape.

Glue into place with a little water.

Make a triangular beak.....

Glue into place.

For eyes you can use two whole cloves or make some out of little balls of dough.

You should end up with something like this.

Here is one of the trays from Grade 4.

Bake at 300 degrees for about 3 hours or until hard.

Let cool.

With acrylic paint add some color to your turkey. The easiest way to paint it is to start with the bottom round and paint your way up just like the way you put your turkey together.

When the paint has dried you can give it a coat of glossy Mod Podge and add a ribbon for hanging.

That's it.

Here is the display of squirrels Grade 1 made. I described how to make these in an earlier post here.

Great job Grade 1!!

See you next time.

A Tale of Two Turkeys: Turkey #1 Clay Plates

We have been really busy at school. Thanksgiving is in 10 days so we are trying to get all our seasonal arts and crafts projects finished.

Grade 1 did these adorable Turkey plates this year. I will give the how to.....if you don't have access to a kiln stay tuned for the next post...Grade 4 made salt dough turkeys and I'll be posting that tutorial on Monday.

Materials Required:

clay

small chinet plates

plastic cling wrap

water

rolling pin

skewer or dull knife

glazes in a variety of colors
kiln

Before you get started wrap your chinet plate in cling wrap.

Cut off a slice from your clay and roll out to 1/2 an inch thick.

Turn the plate onto the clay and cut around it with a skewer or dull knife.

Take away the excess leaving your round.

You can place this into your cling wrapped plate for the moment. For Grade 1 I did the prep for them up to this point.

When the student was ready with an art smock on we took the round out of the plate and had them press their hand into the clay as hard as they could.

I then made the impression deeper following the outline of their hand print.

Place the round back into the cling wrapped plate.

I then got them to roll a small ball of clay and smoosh it flat.

We attached this to the palm area with some scratching and water to fuse it to the main plate.

I then had them make two eye balls and a beak as well as to scratch in their name and I put in the year.

I also had them put some decorative stamping along the rim of the plate.

Leave plates loosely draped to dry. After 5 days remove the drape. Carefully turn out each plate, remove the cling wrap and then put clay plate back into the chinet plate for further drying.


When the clay is no longer cold to the touch bisque fire in kiln.

When the plates had cooled the students glazed their plates. I asked them to paint each of the the feathers (fingers) a different color.

Give them a 2nd and 3rd coat if you can.

Let the glaze dry and then glaze fire in the kiln.

We did pretty good..... we had one plate break but it's a clean break and I will glue it together.

That's it. My goal this year is to do ceramics with every kid in the school. So we are off to a good start.

I think the plates turned out adorable and a good effort from Grade 1.

Stay tuned for Turkey #2 on Monday. Made from salt dough it can be completed faster than this project and does not require a kiln.

see you then