Air Dry Clay

As soon as I picked Fiesta for a camp theme I knew I wanted to make clay pots.  But I did not want to make homemade clay that was not 100% sure to work or to dry within the 4 day camp.

I checked out my options at the craft stores and found this:  Air Dry Clay.  The name says it all.  I was still a bit leary since there were not any real instructions included.  This was definitely a project that needed to be tested.

 I divided the 10 pound box into 1/2 pound sections and sealed them each in a ziploc bag.

Little S got one to test.  It was easy to work with, easy to clean up and easy enough to rework as she changed her mind.  She made 3D shapes, rolled and cut with cookie cutters, and added holes for hanging with straws and toothpicks.  It was about the same messiness as PlayDoh or maybe even less.

We left it out on a styrofoam plate to dry.  Within 36 hours it was completely dry.  The box had said it would dry white and it did.

Since this was a brand new activity we only had the 4- and 5-year-olds do it.  It turned out that the 1/2 pound sections were plenty big for the camp kids to make a little pinch pot. 

One class pushed gems and jewels into their pots and those came out amazing.  The other class painted theirs.    Also, super successful.

During the school year we traditionally use Model Magic during dinosaur week.  That is truly as anticlimatic as a project can get.  Model Magic is about $1 per child and it is very difficult to manipulate.  I can definitely see us using the Air Dry Clay in the future.  Much cheaper - $10 before the coupon, which turned out to about 25 cents per child and the kids could actually use it.  Since I had gotten a second box once I knew it worked, we do have some leftover to start with.  I sealed the individually wrapped clay in an additional zip bag and according to the box that should keep it fresh or just add a bit of water to moisten it up again.

My only regret is that I did not get photos of the finished camps products since it was not in my classroom and not on my radar.  These photos are from the web and pretty accurately represent what we made.

I can see us using this to make Christmas ornaments at home and at school.  I'm also thinking Shark ornaments for Middle E's high school swim team.  The possibilities are endless.