Our kids love Model Magic. I love Model Magic. The way it feels in our hand when we squish it, squeeze it, stretch it, mold and create things with it. It can work as a stress reliever, fidget toy, creative prompt and can work for developing fine motor skills. You can read why I have this in bulk at home at all times! The only thing I would love to see is for them to work on their packaging, as I don’t believe it’s recyclable plastic with the individual packs.
We needed more pretend food in our pretend kitchen, so we decided to make some. Well, mostly it was me, who felt we needed more pretend food (shhh!). We have the basics of bread, fruit and veggies, but nothing we really cook a lot of at home. We ended up making some fish, shrimp, broccoli and donuts; it was a team effort with all of us, me included. We had a blast!
Olivia started creating and ended up making a sculpture that looked like a goose to her, so she worked with that and added even the details of the feathers. 
Ayla knew immediately she wanted to make Minnie Mouse. We’ve been making and seeing a lot of Minnie Mouse lately with all our everyday eats: Cheerios, mini pancakes, banana slices and etc. They saw and made them out of everything they could find that involved three circles! When she saw her sister’s goose, she became inspired to make her own!
Esme was making Minnie Mouse too. She too, have been obsessed with anything with three circles that can be tuned into Minnie or Mickey Mouses . She made cookies as well, but was more into exploring the texture. She helped me with the texture of the broccoli here.
I asked Olivia for permission to add an orange beak and make eyes for her goose.
After all our creations were done, we had a quick snack and set out to paint them. They had so much fun with the colors and made “rainbow fish, tie-dye fish, rainbow broccoli” and the list goes on. This one activity, eventually turned into a whole day of painting! Hence, the title of this post hah!
The kids still wanted more to paint after painting their Model Magic, so I gave them their drawing books and let them squeeze out more of the neon paint to work with. They started out with paintings, but after seeing Esme squirt all the paint out, it created a domino effect and all of them started to do the same. It’s like a stress reliever in itself to just squeeze and watch in awe as the paint dribbles down the way it does. There’s just something pleasing in watching the paints puddle up on the paper and one layer of color after another drizzle and swirl as you mix them, which led to the 3rd activity for the day.
I hate washing away so much of the still perfect paint from the painting trays. Paint can get pricey! I cut up pieces of squares from lightweight cardboards that I save from packaging inserts such as from t-shirt cardboards or onigiri seaweed packaging. The worked perfectly for dipping and laying down flat the paper on top the excess paint and pulling it directly off for a somewhat marbeling effect. Does anyone know what this technique is called? I believe I saw this technique somewhere on my Facebook feed. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook to tune in on what we decide to do with these fun and colorful prints!
How often do you sit and create alongside with your kids? Let your creativity soar and model confidence, work in progress and all the emotions you get when you sit down and create, because they feel the same too. It’s a great exercise for adults, as is for children and can benefit adults the same way.
What’s your favorite activity you like to do with your kids? I would love to see the creations you make with your children or class!
Hashtag #hopscotchmomartcreations to show us your creations and for a chance to be featured!