Christmas Lesson Plans and Activities

Dough Ornament

Make bread dough.....and this is science.
I have them use a recording sheet to note all the observable changes....and it is written as a science experiment. do all the steps as if you were making bread though......rising, punching down and rising again after the bears have been shaped. Then, the fun stuff...we make 'teddy bear' ornaments which can be kept for years.
Here is how. It sounds more complicated than it is:

Each child gets a 'ball' of dough..about the size of a tennis ball or could be smaller. Cut it in half. One half is for the round body. The other half gets 'halved' again. Half of the half, (or quarter) is for the head. (we are into fractions here now) Make the head nice and round. Using a tad of water, join and pinch. The 1/4 left is now halved again......one of the 1/4s is for the two ears. One of the 1/4s is for the four paws. (The bear is facing you, 4 paws toward you.). Use cloves for the eyes and the belly button and a little piece of roundish dough for the snout. Put a hole through the top by inserting a paper clip before baking. When baked, allow to dry gradually.....if not, they will crack. (put a towel over the trays of bears). When dry, they
should be sprayed with a shiny acrylic and they look like they just came out of the oven and are 'buttered'. Put a little ribbon around the neck and you have darling ornaments.
Submitted by: Joyce boudreau@email-removed