Homework project!!!

[Dingle]

Help, DD's homework for the next few weeks is to make a model of an animal. It has to be at least 1m tall and be able to withstand "living" in the climate of....the school playground!!

She hasn't 100% decided what she wants to make yet,but a giraffe looks the likely candidate!

Any ideas please. I was thinking of bending wire coathangers to form the "skeleton", then roll up balls of newspaper before trying to define the shape with paper mache!! Would this work.....would a standard exterior varnish protect it enough?

Any other ideas would be much apprecaited please!

Tell me she isn't 5 or anything???

I would think a few coats of outside varnish would do it. Have you considered using the stuff they do casts with for broken limbs. I think it's called Mod Rock and is basically bandage strips with plaster in them. I remember using it on my foundation course (wistful).

mod rock is great because it sets so fast and you can paint nicely on top - we made some Christmas decorations with it once. Chicken wire would make a good skeleton I think...sounds a great project !

Could the school get a load in bulk for you all is it's expensive?

LOL...."Tell me she isn't 5 or anything???"

No she is 6!!!! Has Down Syndrome and in Y1 of mainstream!! Guess who will be doing most of the making!!!

How expensive is that mod rock?

I thought of chicken wire but was worried she would catch her hands on it!

don't know I'm afraid - the school provided the stuff we used. Papier mache is still v good though.

Love the idea of beaded wire...very funky...BUT it has got to be as realistic as possible!

ooh,look - there's crafty stuff on GLTC ad here>>>>
a giraffe too - spooky !

At long last we started on the giraffe this evening!!

You can see what little progress we have made here

Thank you-She was obsessed with a few bottle tops I had put in the junk modelling box...she kept on telling us they were his eyes.....she didn't seem to care that it hadn't even got a head yet!!LOL

I hope to make up a little book for her so that she can take it into school with the giraffe and use it as a sort of visual prompt of how we made it!!! I was actually going to use the bottle caps for knobbly knees!! LOL...haven't told DD that yet though!

LOL...I read it online somewhere but goodness knows how it will look, it just seemed a good idea at the time to try to give the cardboard tubes a bit of "leg-like" shape!!!

I am going to try to get the head made later!

The giraffe now has a head...paper mache starts tonight...or tomorrow. I was hoping for a good weekend so we could get out in the garden, but it doesn't look very hopeful does it!!

Didn't mange to get outside in the garden so we set up paper mache camp in the middle of the kitchen.....it's still got a long way to go but it's getting there ....slowly!!!