Penguin Egg Dissection
I made a paper mache water balloon this week to use for a family home evening lesson, and I thought while I was at it I would make these paper mache penguin eggs! I didn't know how they'd come together, but they ended up being a HUGE hit with my boys while learning about our Penguin Theme this week. Here's what you'll need:
- Small Toy Penguins
- Small Balloons
- Flour
- Water
- Paper (I used paper towels)
Note: The way I learned paper mache you need to cut up a lot of strips newspaper and paste each one on a balloon. I didn't want to spend the time on that, so I dipped one paper towel in the flour/water mixture and wrapped it around my balloon. The prep time making six eggs from start to finish took me around 15 minutes. However, paper towels will take a while to dry. These sat on my fridge for a week or so until they were dried, hard and ready to be played with. If you're looking for something to dry quicker, you could try using newspaper. Here's what to do!
1) The hardest part about making these is getting the penguin to fit inside you balloon. Stretch the balloon neck out as wide as you can and push the penguin inside your balloon. Once the penguin is inside the balloon, blow up the balloon and tie it. My balloon was about the size of my palm.
2) Add flour and water into a pan to make a thick paste. I didn't measure how much flour and water I used, but I filled our container half way up with flour and added water and mixed it until it was similar to thick pancake batter. Dip your paper towel in the paste and wrap it around the balloon, leaving the tie of the balloon open. See picture below.
3) Place the balloon on a baking sheet and repeat step two with the remaining balloons. Once you're done, it should look something like this picture below . It looks like I could've used a little less water in my paste :) Again, these sat on my fridge for about a week. You'll know they're ready to be played with when they're dried and hard. Once they're ready, you can cut off the top of the balloon (the rest of our balloons stayed in the egg) and get ready to play!
3) Set up your work station. We had some friends over to play! Each person got a tray, penguin egg, and tools to open up their eggs. We used plastic knives, play tools from our tool set, play drills, tweezers, etc. The eggs are hard enough it will take some time and motor skills to open them up! I had a mommy and daddy penguin waiting for the kids to open their eggs!
Here's a quick look at our play:
My boys were so excited when they got their penguins out! We had some extra time today, so we made some magic snow for our penguins to play in. Really, this was such a fun science and sensory activity. My boys loved watching the magic snow "grow" over and over again! Watch this video of the magic snow growing:
Our cute friend was writing letters in the snow.
Lots of dumping, scooping and imaginative play.
