Glittery Starfish

What has arms but no legs, and feet but no toes? Starfish (or sea stars)! Today's colors were blue and purple. I taught the class about starfish. Why, you ask? Because there are some beautiful blue and purple starfish out there! Our project was very quick, but oh so pretty. I took a black and white picture of a starfish and taped it to the table. Then I put a piece of wax paper on top of it.

Then the kids followed the star with glue, first outlining it and then filling it in. And I stuck a paperclip in one of the arms.

Then they had a blast dumping glitter on top. This was one time when I actually encouraged them to pour a lot on.

I let them sit like that all day long. At the end of the day, I very quickly dumped off the excess glitter. The glue was still very runny, so it had to be fast.

It will take all weekend to dry. Probably longer. But you'll know it's dry when it's mostly clear underneath.

Then just grab the paperclip and slowly peel the starfish off the wax paper. Last year we made these during our ocean them and I hung them on the wall with tacks.

(Aren't the orcas cute? Someday I'll blog about those.)
This would also be a neat and fun way to make ornaments. Just remember to put the paperclip in so you can hang them.

Fun Fact: As long as a starfish has at least one arm, and a central part, it can survive. If an arm is lost, it can be regenerated. It's takes about a year for an arm to grow back.