Little Paper Bowls Made by Little Hands!

We are just about at the end of our Science unit "Wood and Paper" (FOSS).
This week the investigations are about changing paper. We have done the paper mache investigation before, but I used the larger bowls that came with the kit. This time I had a bunch of saved up little plastic fruit cup bowls. They were SO much better than the large bowls! Much easier for little hands to work with, and also a better fit for short attention spans. I liked it because we needed far less paper strips and wheat paste. They had so much fun and were so thrilled to take their bowls out of the molds this morning. My plan is to have them lightly paint and decorate them andsave them for Easter baskets..... stay tuned for updates and more pictures!

Here are the directions for making the

Mini Paper Mache Bowls

Materials:
molds for each student, I used fruit cups, you could use any small plastic container
newspaper ( one was enough) cut into 1" x 4" strips
4 cups plain ol' white flour
4 cups water
large spoon
large bowl
a few smaller bowls for dipping newspaper strips into
Pam cooking spray
extra newspaper and or butcher paper for covering tables and creating a drying spot

Directions:
Mix water and flour together, it will be kind of lumpy like pancake batter.
Seperate mixture into a few smaller bowls for the work station. 
I layed the bowls upside down on butcher paper and sprayed them with Pam spray for easier
removal after dry. Then you just dip the newspaper strips into the wheat paste one strip at a time,
removing any excess before it is placed on the bowl. This is repeated many times until the bowl is covered and smoothed. Some students needed very little help while others needed much more assistance. I modeled quite a bit before we started, and did not do it whole group. It is a great small group activity. After the bowls were covered, smoothed and excess wheat paste was removed, I placed them on butcher paper with names written on it for their bowls to dry overnight. They were very easy to remove the next day although some needed to dry a bit more. 

I hope you try it! The kids loved it and it is such a great tactile experience for them, not to mention all of the great science and art discussions that came out of it, can't wait to decorate!

-Update-

The bowls came out so cute! They had several paint colors to choose from ( we used acrylic),
and they were so proud of their beautiful little bowls. I love that the newsprint shows through so that you can really tell what the bowls are made of. I filled each bowl with grass and a bit of Easter candy for them to take home today. It was a good Good Friday :o)