Evolution of a project

The making and developing of a 6th grade project.  They had to make a model of Sam's mountain or treehouse from the book "My Side of the Mountain".  Fun.  1st step, besides cutting the foam-board, is to gather a bunch of newspaper and crumple it up in the basic form.  She also used some duck tape to hold it in place while adding more.

Piling newspaper up as the mountain

Then we add strips of plaster-of-paris material dipped in water, over the newspaper.  Stroke down the seams and make any dips or other "features" you want while this is wet - it soon hardens like a rock.

Here is the covered mountain form.  We had to have a spring, a canyon, a sloping meadow and a creek or two.

When it's totally dry, then comes the painting.  Use a mixture of greens and browns to make it more realistic.

These throw-away plastic bottle holders from work are wonderful for mixing and holding paint!

You can keep painting as needed.

When the paint is dry, you can add "grass", models of animals and other extras.  They encouraged the children to use real things too, such as sticks, stones and little branches. Sam seems to be sunning himself on the hillside.

A close-up of Sam's treehouse, pile of firewood etc.

Some other projects at school.  DD was relieved to see hers wasn't the biggest!