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Hi all, New to this board but what a find!!
I'm a Spanish Language and Culture teacher for grades PreK-8 at our local progressive education school.
I am going to be teaching the kids (ages 9-13) about the Christmas Pinata and we are going to construct individual smaller size pinatas. We have class periods of 45 minutes each, twice a week. I'd like to complete the project in 2 class periods, one to construct and one to decorate. But we could roll over to the next period the next week.
My questions are:
1) Should I use liquid starch or the usual flour/water mix. The key here is the amount of flour/water mix I would need to make versus the time saved by just buying the big jugs of starch. Does it hold as well as the flour/water mix?
2) The Christmas pinata consists of a round ball surrounded by five cone shapes. I use a balloon for the ball and rolled up newspaper for the cones. Is it better to attach the cones to the balloon and if so how? or is it better to attach them to the PM strip layered ball while still wet?
I've done a sample project with the flour/water and attaching the cones after the PM strip layers. It was challenging to attach the cones with the strips so any helpful hints would be welcome.
Thank you for your help!
Cheers,
Christina
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I would use the jugs of liquid starch. I think it holds better than the average flour/water mix. You might even want to dilute it with water, maybe down to a raw-egg-white consistency. The thicker the starch, the longer it will take to dry.
I would have the kids apply 2 or 3 layers of paper to the balloon first.
I would make the cones out of construction paper, if possible. Make them longer than you want, and cut 4 slits around the base and fold those flaps outward, then glue the flaps onto the existing layers of PM, anchoring with more strips of PM. When you're making the cones, make the first one the size you want, then roll the others around that one, to make them all the same size. To keep the cones from collapsing when moist, stuff them with crumpled newspaper to keep them solid.
I know that the popular method of applying paper strips to a form says to immerse the strips in the adhesive, but getting them that soggy really doesn't work too well, esp with the time restrictions you've got. If you have access to brushes, I would suggest that you have each kid work on a thick mat of newspaper, and brush the starch just onto one side of the paper, and not too heavily. If you don't have brushes, they could run the goopy strips between their fingers (scissorslike) to get rid of the excess starch.
Good luck, and have fun!
Sue
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Thank you so much for the relpy. The first step went great and we are doing more tomorrow.
Thanks again!
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