It’s magic!

our theme for January was Fairy Tales. Last week, we made magic wands. It was an entire week’s activity. Gather your supplies:

The blue on the left is Bristol board, the bowl is a flour-water paper mache paste. Roll the Bristol board up into wand-size cylinders. Secure with duct tape.

Add the cardboard disk to the top.

I made a couple of slits in the top of the handle to insert the disk, but I doubt it was really necessary. You have to secure it with duct tape, anyway.

Cover it all with paper mache. I did two layers of paper and paste one evening after work, so that the wands would be sturdy. The next day, the kids got to put on a third layer. That way it could be all about process and fun for them, and no one would have to be worrying too much about whether it would actually, you know, work.

Dry overnight…

…in a place where your puppy can’t reach them. I figure we’re lucky we had any left at all. Paper, flour, and water is YUMMY!!! Happily, it’s also easy to fix.

We did one coat of white on all of them, before they chose their final colours. Daniel chose turquoise…

Grace chose red. Then we decorated! Stickers, glitter, ribbons, beads… (On another evening, I sealed them all with a couple of coats of Podgy before we commenced to ribbons and beads, so as to seal in the glitter. I rather like glitter, sparkling up my house. I understand this feeling isn’t universal…)

Grace focussed for a looooong time, putting star-shaped beads on the ribbon. Beading is a most excellent activity for developing fine-motor control.

Ta-dah!! We were so busy playing with them I forgot to take pictures, and only remembered to snap one picture of the last one before it left the house. We had two reds, two purples, and one turquoise, all of them beautiful!