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New ideas for play are great, but sometimes the oldies are just as good!

Here are our Hairy Harry’s that we have been busy working on over the last couple of weeks.  I’ve seen lots of different versions of these over the years – yoghurt pots, tights etc.

When we were making our Easter nests a couple of weeks ago, the children were really keen to continue working with the clay, so we made some simple pots.

(we used air dry clay that you can get in craft stores)

We rolled and cut out a circle for the base.

Then rolled long sausage shaped pieces…..

…made small marks in them (to make them attach better)…

…wet the base of the pot….

…and attached the first ring…..

We repeated this process, building up the rings to form the sides of the pot.

I did think the children might get bored as it was quite a long process, but they were very focused and intent on finishing their pots (I did help out rolling some sausages for them!)

Almost done!

Once they were finished, they smoothed over the outside edge

(this was a bit tricky and they needed some help with this part).

We then left them until they were nice and hard….

… and the children painted them in their chosen colours.

We used acrylic paints from the pound shop but I’m pretty sure normal tempera paint would work too.

Adding a face to their pots!

Once the paint was dry the children filled their pots with soil….

…and added as many grass seeds as they could squash on the top.

Last thing to do was give them a good water.

And this is where things started to go a bit wrong.  Air drying clay does not stay dry or hard when it comes into contact with water.  I sort of had a inkling this might be the case but I wanted the children to finish them so they would grow over the weekend, so let them carry on!

After they had gone home, the pots were all sat on the window in the kitchen when I noticed they were starting to crack, argh!!

How was I going to explain to the children that instead of their grass seeds growing, their pots had disintegrated!!

Modge Podge I thought might save them!!

I quickly coated each pot in a layer and kept my fingers crossed!

Disaster averted, it did the trick! (pva glue would probably have worked just as well)

The pots are best not handled after the grass seeds have been watered as they go a bit soft, but harden up again:-)

And here they are 12 days on!

Check back to see the make-over they received at the hands of the children today!