We've Got TWO Worlds In Our Hands!

We're almost ready to move from our intro to geography and start learning about different countries, but first, we had a BIG project to finish! I had been promising that we would make some papier-mâché globes, but had to track down some balloons.

(Yes, I know, they are easy to come by, but I didn't want a ton left over that would eventually become a chewy "treat" for Willie. Believe me, you don't want to see where balloons end up if he swallows one! ICK! I did end up buying some, but they are under lock and key so that the furry one doesn't get them!)

Anyway... on Wednesday, we jumped into this project and finally finished it up today (Friday), with fantastic results!

First...we got messy!

I know that there are many different recipes out there for the paste, but I used the tried and true flour and water. It was nice and thick, but so messy!

It was fun to get our hands dirty..Megan didn't last as long with it though. Maybe our little "princess" didn't like the gooey pasty stuff that much? :)

We put a few layers of newspaper and paste on our balloons and eventually decided it was time to let them dry.








Of course, the best place to let them dry is the clothes line! We left them outside all night and they were ready to go the next morning!

Thankfully it didn't rain that night!

Our globes weren't very round, but we found out that the earth isn't officially a perfect sphere anyway! According to our local Geography Professor/Celebrity from Church, it's an oblate spheroid and there's an equatorial bulge not to mention the undulating surface. 

Okay then...we'll mention this when we learn about Christopher Columbus next Monday and talk about the Earth being FLAT! hehe


NEXT, it was time to add the water. Actually PAINT the water. We cut off the pointed parts and made that the bottom...Antarctica.


Not much more to say except that we painted and painted until it was all blue! Our globe was blue, our hands were blue, Ryan's shirt was blue, the table was blue...you get the idea...

They kinda look like Blue Man heads...don't they? (By the way...when I was looking for the right link for Blue Man, I saw that they have actually started a "lab school" - a different approach to education. Interesting...I'll definitely be checking it out! http://www.theblueschool.org/)

FINALLY, time to add the land. For Ryan, I drew outlines of the continents that he could paint with green. Of course they were perfectly to scale (HA!) He did such a great job painting in the lines to make his globe look like a real one.

Megan just added land wherever she wanted to. It's her world, right?

We had a lot of fun with this project. It was fun for Dad to come home and see the progress. I have one more little thing to do with the kids to put things into perspective. More on that later!