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Just like last year, this year I also had the chance to team up with the Santa Loves STEM campaign by The Institution of Engineering and Technology. We made a marshmallow igloo last year. And this year we decided to make white “clay” Christmas decorations with just two simple cupboard ingredients.
About Santa Loves STEM
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has a webpage dedicated to festive STEM activities for children. It is part of the IET Education’s Santa Loves STEM Workshop that seeks to help inspire the next generation to pursue science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) careers. This free online hub is packed full of inspiring ideas for families to do with children in the lead up to and over the festive holiday season. Children can join Santa and his helpers to make, create, imagine, and discover this Christmas. Activities include fun craft ideas, recipes, hands-on experiments, and resources, which provide STEM inspired learning through play.
The range of activities are extensive: from festive baking with marshmallow snowballs, to writing a poem to Santa. There are even experiments designed with climate change in mind, like helping Santa examine how heat passes through animals who need to insulate. The page also offers ideas on affordable and recycled STEM toys. From electric dough experiments to snow globe making, there is an array of ideas to suit 4–13-year-olds.
White Clay Christmas Decorations With Just 2 Cupboard Ingredients
To help launch the campaign we’ve made some simple, homemade clay decs for our Christmas tree. They are like salt dough but the result is whiter. All you need is some cornflour, bicarbonate of soda and water! Both kids helped – my daughter enjoyed making them and my boy enjoyed putting them on a jute string.
Ingredients:
- 125g of cornflour
- 250g of bicarbonate of soda
- 175 ml water
Whisk them together.
Method:
In a pan, heat the mixture until it’s play-doh – like in texture. Let it chill until it’s not too hot to touch. Roll it out on a cornflour dusted surface and cut the shapes with cookie cutters. At this point you need to poke the hole if you’d like to hang them. I used the bamboo skewer for this. Place them in the preheated oven and bake them for 15 minutes and turn them half way, use low/medium setting. If they get too cooked they will turn off-white.
Further ideas with them:
- You can also paint and decorate them
- Hang them individually or as a garland
- Use a roll that adds texture or pattern
That’s it! Then just decorate.
If you enjoyed this activity, you can also try these homemade STEM crafts:
How to Make Non-Toxic Playdough at Home
Home-Schooling Made Fun: Scrap, Craft and Art Ideas For Children
