Black opal mining

This morning we studied Australia with our one-morning-a-week preschool friends. Aside from the anticipated "G'day, mate!" greetings, Kookaburra singing, and kangaroo races, we mined for black opals. Although it was mentioned, mining certainly wasn't a prevalent theme in our reading, which is one reason I thought it would be fun to try an activity related to it. You know, it can't be kangaroos for two hours.
Here's the lowdown.
Since I didn't want to send the kids home with a project that needed to be baked, and since I wanted them to have the mining experience, I created our "gems" at home prior to our meeting.
First, I rolled several balls (little bigger than rounded teaspoons, I think) of black or blue Sculpey. Then I pinched off tiny, thin pieces (odd rough-edged shapes, dots, snakes, etc.), of varying bright colors and pressed them to the balls.
Alternatively, you could sandwich your colors together. I used both methods.

Next, I rolled the balls in the palm of my hands, adding more bits of Sculpey if I thought it was needed, and formed each ball into a unique shape, suitable to be worn as a pendant or bead on a necklace.

I didn't want to bother drilling holes through the baked Sculpey, so I created holes, through which I could later string cord or ribbon, in each gem with a toothpick. Finally, I baked them in the oven at 275 degrees for about 20 minutes. (Follow Sculpey's box instructions if you do this at home).
That part of the project was relaxing and fun for me. I, sadly, don't have pictures of the kids' fun part, but here's what we did.
I filled a very large bowl with a mixture of soil, stones, and, since the soil came out of my friend's yard, some bits of weeds and a bonus worm. I tossed in a few of our black opals. The kids took turns sifting through the mixture with toy trowels, garden forks, and sieves.
After unearthing all the opals, we set them in our little beach sieve and took turns washing them in the sink. Each child chose their opal to "polish" with a washcloth or paper towel. Lastly, we strung our gems on ribbon and proudly wore them around our necks.
The kids really enjoyed this activity and, of course, the pretty take-home prize.

Mobiles

I made a mobile. This is the first mobile I have ever made that I can remember. I wanted to go ahead and post pictures even though it's dark and stormy today, so I may be back with better pics later.
I used a combination of new and used materials. Everything hangs from a flea market yardstick, cut in three pieces. I drilled tiny holes to install screw eyes for stringing up the objects. The objects include: buttons from my mom's stash, twigs (some painted), tin can lids, plastic milk caps, rocks, washers, shapes molded from Sculpey (which we've enjoyed using in the past), cardboard roll flowers, drinking straws, cardboard food packaging, and other random plastic packaging.
The challenging part now will be finding a place to hang it!

If you're interested in constructing a mobile, here are a few places to look for inspiration:
Found object mobile at Bookhou Craft Projects.
Fabric bird and branch mobile at Spool.
Felt and wire mobile at Soozs.
Modern baby shower mobile (doesn't really have anything to do with babies, just bright-colored circles) and Ribbon mobile at Martha Stewart.

Nature Sculpture

The kids and I just made these great little nature sculptures I found at The Artful Parent (she found them at Write, Mama, Write!) I love this project for it's many varied steps. First the outdoor exercise-hunting and gathering objects of nature while pushing a doll stroller around the block. Then the indoor exercises-organizing your nature objects, molding and imprinting the clay sculptures, baking them and (optionally) painting them. One of my children was more interested in making worms and mustaches with the clay than with sculpting it, but that didn't detract from the fun or the success of the project. In fact, it helped give the grown-ups time to roll the clay.
We bought our Sculpey modeling clay at Target, but you may be more likely to find it in an art/craft supply store. It's very easy to use. First, you soften it by kneading it a bit, then roll it in golf ball or larger-sized balls, press it on your found objects (to a little less than 1/2" thick), peel objects off, place imprinted clay on baking sheets and bake at 275 degrees for about 20 minutes to harden them (See directions on box, as well). We haven't painted ours yet, but that leaves us an activity we can pull out when we need something new to do.
Try it!