To finish off our latest topic, Misty Mountains, we set the children the ambitious task of creating their own 3D papier-mache mountains. They put themselves into groups of 3 and were fantastic at bringing in the materials that we asked for. The projects probably took about 3-4 full afternoons altogether but we are all so incredibly proud of the results. It's a shame we didn't have them finished in time for the parents' book look, but they'll make quite an impression when they get taken home later this week!
Equipment
Cardboard for the base of the mountain
Newspaper
Tin foil
Masking tape
Water, flour and salt mixed for the papier-mache paste
Paint
Extra decorations
1. The groups cut out their large square/rectangular base for the mountain
2. Using scrunched up pieces of newspaper, they made rough mountainous shapes by taping these pieces down to the base and layering them on top of each other. They could make any kind of interesting shape they wanted to provide a support for the next layers.
3. Once they were happy with their rough newspaper shape, tin foil was cut up and stuck over the top of the whole mountain shape. The foil could be given a shape that held itself together much better.
4. After being full covered in foil, the mountain was then completely covered in masking tape strips to hold it all together and to make a better surface for the papier mache solution.
5. We tore up a huge amount of newspaper strips and learnt about tearing along the grain of the paper to get neat tears. Water, flour and salt was then mixed to make a paste. The newspaper strips were then layered on top of the structure. This was left to dry overnight and harden.
6. We did a rough base coat layer. Some groups chose grey, brown and some went for a gradation of greys.
7. Once dry, each group was given blue, green, white and black paint. With these they could add extra details to their terrain and mix a range of different blues/greens by adding black/white which they understood because of their recent work on value.
8. Any final decorations were added. Some groups sprinkled over glitter to act as snow, others crumbled up polystyrene foam to act as the snowy part. Some groups added pebbles to act as boulders and rock formations, some added blue ribbon and beads for their water. A clever trick that some groups opted for was picking evergreen leaves. They then pricked a small hole in the surface using a pencil and glued to leaf into the hole to make it look like a tree. Very effective!
I'm so pleased with these results and wish there was a good way of storing them all in the class so we could continue to admire them. We are more than likely going to share these in part of our assembly which I'm sure the rest of the school will enjoy. Massive congratulations, 4B! Here are the results:
DB.
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