Hedgehog Pencil Holder

Since I don't have access to a kiln at the moment, I used this recipe for an air drying clay.

I found 1 batch made two hedgehogs.

Baking Soda Clay Recipe (courtesy of Mudworks, by MaryAnn F. Kohl, who calls it Play Clay)

1. mix 1 cup baking soda and 1/2 cup cornstarch in a saucepan

2. add 2/3 cup warm water and stir until smooth

3. over medium heat, boil and stir until it is the consistency of mashed potatoes

4. put on a board to cool some, knead it and play away!

5. modeled figures will air dry very quickly and are pure white in color.

Hedgehog Pencil Holders

I added brown color to my dough, but when it dried the color didn't come out well. Therefore, we ended up painting  over them.

Short pencils work best.  At first I bought regular pencils and cut them in half.  That was a lot of work cutting and sharpening all those pencils!  We made over 22 hedgehogs and each one contained 6 pencils.  Eventually, I got lazy and splurged and bought short pencils.  

So. Much. Easier.

Poke the pencils through and let it dry with the pencils in place.  (Also a perfect time to sneak in some one-to-one correspondence and basic math!) 

I took the colored pencils out the following day, so that they would dry more thoroughly.  Also, keep in mind that the holes may shrink a little.  Wiggling them a little to make the holes slightly bigger helps.

Then paint!  We added our eyes on afterwards, using black beans.

Cute!