Dinosaur eggs

We recently went to the Western musuem which exhibits fossils. Of course, I had to have a craft and something fun to tie it in with what they learned. I decided we would try making a paper mache egg. Then the bright thought of maybe stuffing it with a toy dinosaur to actually hatch. It worked with a lot of fumbling. This is time intense so it will take a few days to allow for drying.

What you need:

Mache mixture 1 part flour 5 parts water cooked to paste.

shredded newspaper

balloons

plastic dinosaurs

grey paint

shaving cream

First I had to try to squeeze a dino into a balloon without poking a hole. Then I blew up the ballon and knotted the end. The kids then painted the glue around the balloon and began placing strips of newspaper around the balloon. When they were done we let this dry for about a day.

The next day the seemed relatively dry so they began to paint. I wanted to create a texture for the eggs so I mixed equal shaving cream to paint to get a thick pastey paint and the kids painted over there eggs. DO NOT LET THESE DRY NEXT TO EACH OTHER. I had one resting on a bowl and the other two became a little contorted. So we used the two as our newly hatched eggs. I poked a hole in the ballon and it was pretty neat. You could hear a cracking as the mold began to crack and break open as the balloon let out its air and pulled away from the side. When we waited another day to crack the other egg it wasnt as neat to watch we had to help crack the egg. I think it was because it was drier than the other when the ballon whipped away from the edges. Well I hope you like this or can use this craft.....