Josie's Planet

When I was planning our solar system lessons, I had the bright idea of making a planet out of paper mache.

I was not aware of how insanely messy it would be!

But Josie really had fun dipping the papers and covering the balloon and our planet turned out pretty cute so I'm calling this one a success.

We did this project after Gabe went to bed one night last week so our pictures are a bit dark and grainy.

Making a paper mache planet is super simple, albeit pretty messy.

You need a balloon, newspaper, and paper mache paste.  We made our paste by mixing one part water to two parts flour.  I ended up adding more water to get the right consistency.  You want it runnier then paste but not too watery either.

Just blow up your balloon, rip the newspaper into strips, then dip them in the paste and cover the balloon.

Make sure the whole balloon is covered with at least a few layers of paper.

Once it's all covered, you have to let it dry.

Josie was an overzealous dipper so ours took about 36 hours to be completely dry.

When it's dry you pop the balloon and have a hard shell.  Or planet in our case!

Then we busted out the paints and made Planet Satinern.

Which is just Saturn said in Josie words.  She wasn't feeling very creative with naming her planet that day.

I found this little book on Deceptively Educational.

We filled Josie's in while her planet dried.