Making a Globe

Making a Globe

The three boys have been working on their papier mache globe for over a week now.  I got the idea from the book, A Child's Geography: Explore His Earth by Ann Voskamp.  We started this endeavor after T-Man had such interest in the world map.  Of course, the older boys had to join in because it was too messy and fun to not be involved.  And don't forget that it wouldn't "be fair"!.  

The setup was pretty straightforward.  It consisted of 3 tasks.

1. Rip strips of newspaper.  How many you ask?  A TON.  Every free moment they had, they were ripping newspapers into strips.  Just a tip, have them do this outside!  You wouldn't believe the mess that newspaper makes from black hands to random pieces of newspaper strewn from one side of the room to the other.  The strips should be about an inch wide and about 6-8 inches long.  Although the length doesn't really matter.  

2.  Make the paper mache dough.  Mix one cup flour with one cup water.  Then add 4 cups of boiling water and voila!  A super duper sticky mess.  I propose that you make this in advance because it will need to cool for some time.  The kids can't dip their strips into a boiling hot dough.  Now, I have to admit that this was the first time I have ever made paper mache dough.  It sounded straightforward.  I mean how hard could it really be?  Well.......apparently for me it can be tricky.  My first batch ended up being a clumpy mess once it cooled.  We were still able to maneuver around with it, but I'm pretty sure it is supposed to be clump free.  If anyone has had good luck with it, please leave me a comment below.  I know this won't be our last effort with paper mache.  

3.  Blow up your balloons.    The boys did this themselves thankfully.  We did have to end up doing a few extra for the young girls who now wanted them to play with and of course, inevitably, one of the boys popped before we even got started!

Alright.  Everything is a go.  The boys are putting their first strips on.  We found it very tricky to hold the balloon and do the strips at the same time.  It was helpful for one person to hold the balloon while the other person placed the strips.

Bubs dominated and found a way to do it one handed.

Almost done......

The first layer is complete.  Now it needs to be completely dry before a new coat is added.  The balloons need three coats before they can be painted.

This is what the second coat looks like.

The third coat is finally finished!

Ok, so by the end of the week (which is how long it took for all of the layers to go on and dry), the balloons had seen better treatment.  Some of the boys decided to use their balloons as soccer balls, weapons, etc. and now they look a bit like a tattered pinata.  This was Nito's balloon.  They painted the entire balloon blue for the oceans.  Then they started drawing the continents.  This was to be Australia.

After the outlines were made, they began to paint the globes.  They followed the colors from the original world map puzzle.  (See that presentation here.)

T-Man's is coming along. 

Once the paint dried, they labeled each continent.

Nito was very proud of his.  I refrained from telling him it looked quite interesting with a big hole in his Earth.  T-Man used his as a soccer ball.

Bubs displayed his on the hutch for all to see! Ha.

Good luck to anyone who tries to make a globe.  I hope you have success!