Evidently my days of messy crafts are not quite over

We are moving into our study of biomes which we are doing in conjunction with geology. For the rest of the year we will learn about nine different biomes while adding in the bits of geology that we still have yet to cover. During my summer planning, I thought it sounded like fun for everyone to make papier-mache globes on which they will paint each biome as we learn about it. 

In theory it still sounded like fun, and since it was a high of 21 degrees today, it would pass a good chunk of the day as well. 

There is a lot of preparation which has to happen for a project like this. First, I realized that I was missing a key raw material... newspaper. This never used to be a problem when we actually had a newspaper delivered, but now? Newspaper was hard to find. Until, that is, someone suggested I ask at the library. You all know I'm in the library multiple times a week, so that was easy. And, the librarians had a whole stack of old newspapers that they were willing to give me. The balloons came from Party City, where I was able to buy 24 inch round (as opposed to oval) balloons. Oval globes didn't seem as though they would be as useful. I also got three foil pans to mix the glue in, not wanting to chance that I wouldn't be able to get the glue mixture out of my real baking dishes.

Some people really loved the process because it was so messy and tactile, others really didn't love the process for the very same reasons. We also discovered that very round balloons do not stay put while you are trying to wrap them in strips of gluey newspaper. I asked K. to dash upstairs and create cardboard stands so that the balloons would stop rolling. Fifteen minutes later, her came down with lovely globe stands, which are going to prove extremely helpful even after the glue dries.

This was messy!! Some children were messier than others, and I was extremely glad I decided to cover the table even though this table has been through so much it is not something I usually do. Note the pools of glue in the picture below. It took a while to get it all cleaned up. Possibly as long as it took to actually make the globes.

And here they are... five globes drying and waiting for the next step which will be the paint. At first I was stumped as to where these would sit to dry since we did need the dining room table. But over the past month we have done a little room rearranging and now it is only R. and H. in a fairly large room. It is large enough that they can have a table set up for puzzles in their room instead of downstairs in the living room. (This is very, very nice.) We still had the old puzzle table set-up in the living room, though, and for now it is going to be globe storage. Well, it will be until I need this space to start seedlings for the garden. I'll cross the bridge of where the globes will live after that later.

You'll also note that there are only five globes. R. was having a hard afternoon and was in no shape to join us much less attempt a messy craft. I'll figure out what to do about her participation in the globe/biome painting project at a later point as well.

Finally, I just have to give a sneak peak of what will be my next weaving project because I'm kind of excited about it. I'm sure I'll have more to share on Monday.