I need to build a paper mache model of Mt. Rushmore on Friday...

[JenniferL]

So Friday we're having a President's Day themed Payoff at school.  The homeroom competition is to create a model of our favorite US president. My girls, being sort of insane and indecisive, decided they want to build Mount Rushmore. You know, because then we don't have to leave anyone out. I didn't have the heart to tell them we've had more than four presidents.

 

Above, Mount Rushmore. Not pictured, good sense, sanity.

 

So we've blown up our balloons which we will somehow anchor to a box. My assistant principal will provide us with the paste. We started shredding newspapers this morning and will continue it tomorrow.

 

What else should we do? There is a tangible, eatable reward at stake and we never win the homeroom competitions. Though that may be because we usually spend our project time taking off our shoes and dancing to Bonnie Tyler instead of working.

[Wayward_fool]

I'm thinking you should buy those kidna phantom of the opera masks... at leas the ones with full faces and use that as a mould for the faces. Because unless we're talking michaelangelo level sculptors, it's NOT gonna be easy.

 

[Majsju]

Maybe it's just me,  but doesn't the second bloke from the right look a bit like Stalin? *chuckles*

[Raeyn]

Heh, he does a bit.

 

Reminds me of a story we made up in junior high for Odyssey of the Mind, and how the faces in Mt. Rushmore were actually formed by giants getting stuck in the mountain... good times, that :)  Lots of paper mache <3

[JenniferL]

I was thinking last night of printing off pictures of the faces and having the girls attach them to the "mountain".  Because yeah, sculpting faces is going to be hella hard.

[Raeyn]

I believe we took a beach ball and paper-mached around that, cut the mold in half, and then painted faces on ;)

[Corki]

I remember making a paper mache crab at school once as part of studies of the British coast.

[JenniferL]

Well, we have a truckload of shredded newspaper ready to go! We went nuts this morning in AM homeroom. After we're done writing our checks this afternoon we'll shred some more.  I'll take pictures of the finished project.

 

I need bowls to mix paste in!

[Guest nephitess]

*sends Kath bowls with paste already in them* :)

 

I think pasting the faces on will be the easiest *nods*

 

Good luck Mumsy!

[twinflower]

sand buckets or empty coffee cans work well as bowls too...the cans especially..you can put a lid on them to use the paste again later...or you can just throw them away without losing a dish!

 

The masks are a great idea..so is the pictures...if you use the pictures though..you could add wiggle eyes for the eyes, and if you want the "rock" look..use stones for the eyes, and when the basic form is done..pat sand on them.  If you arn't going for the real rock of mt. rushmore type thing...you can add things to make textures..like strings and fur for the hair and mustaches...colors to the lips, shape bendy wire to be the glasses...

 

mm sorry just realized it IS friday morning and its a little late for making suggestions..sorry mumsy.

 

GOOD LUCK!

[Reile]

Well, I looked in my list of schooling stuff and couldn' find much to help you this round.  But this site is so cool for artsy stuff that maybe you can find something useful for your next competition:

 

http://www.hitentertainment.com/artattack/menu_artattacks.html

[JenniferL]

Oooh....I forgot about our horrible, horrible crime against democracy last week.

 

I teach at a school for kids with mild to moderate learning disabilities, right? So this is their big reward. We've been prepping for it all week, you know? Really hyping it to the kids. We spent all our free time in homeroom shredding newspaper, until we had a giant, fluffy pile that we could roll in. In fact, we did just that.  Unfortunately I can't post the pictures. But it was awesome.

 

Then we mix up the paste and tape our balloons to the box. Our mold is now ready! We start slapping paper mache all over. Uh oh. The paper mache is so heavy its pulling the balloons off the box. No worries! We quickly engineer supports using disposable cups. Yikes! We're getting paste all over the floor. Oh well, its just flour and water right? that'll come out of the carpet easily. Ha ha ha.

 

After about ten minutes, my room is a sticky mess and most of my girls are complaining that the paste "feels weird" and that they are getting too messy.  So me and my only non-wussy girl finish the project just minutes before lunch.  We carefully paste pictures of the presidents to the balloons and step back to admire our work.  It looks like balloons and paper cups haphazardly paper mached to a box.  No worries!  There's a prize for creativity, right? And I bet everyone else's looks just as awful!

 

Sigh. No they don't. And the prize for creativity goes to a bust of Herbert Hoover.

 

Herbert. Hoover.

 

We took no pictures.  There will be no record of this shame. None but the goddamn flour still staining my rug.

[Guest nephitess]

OMG...that is so sad!! *shakes head*

[JenniferL]

Eh, my girls aren't nearly as competitive as I am.  They were just happy that they got to roll in the newspaper fluff we created.

 

Oh, and we buried someone in it. That was fun.

[Guest nephitess]

Drowning by newpaper...sounds like fun!! LOL.

 

Well at least you guys did it and hopefully the girl learned some team work. *nods*

[JenniferL]

Yeah, they're good girls. We have a levels system at my school. Think "novice", "Accepted" and "Aes Sedai". The kids earn promotions based on behavior and each level has different privileges associated with it.  Right now I'm tied for the homeroom with the most "Aes Sedai" level kids. I've got one that's at "accepted" level and will probably be "Aes Sedai" in a few weeks.  So then everyone will be at the highest level except this one girl who seems stubbornly stuck at "novice".  Sigh.  If only she'd come to school on time.

[Reile]

I am a dork and didn't look at that dates.  It sounds like they had fun.  That was the point, right?  LOL

[Guest nephitess]

Wow...well it looks like there is progress mostly. thats good. Your doing a great job then!! *nods*

 

anything else interesting going on at school?? i'm interested because i like stories and because i want to work with special needs kids.

[JenniferL]

I didn't think that they could come up with a crazier payoff idea than "paper mache". I was wrong.

 

Today we went roller skating.  Most of our kids aren't very coordinated. They frustrate easily and get bored even faster. Let's put them on wheels! Yes!

 

For liability reasons, every time a child falls, we have to fill an incident reports. We had so many today we actually ran out of sheets and the secretary had to make more for us. Most weren't serious, but there was a girl who twisted her leg pretty badly. We had to call her dad to come and get her.

[Guest nephitess]

LOL...yeah that was smart... *rolls eyes* Well hopefully they had fun!