Mushrooms: Whittling Wooden Toadstools
Hands-on projects are a big winner. Offer up an activity to get your hands busy and everyone wants to have a go at it. We were about to skip over the whittling project for our mushroom unit, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iysEyP5Nc_o but once Miss O took a go and showed off the results, the others got down to business.
Miss O taught the gang to chop a 3-5" piece from a hardwood branch about 2" in diameter. Once they sawed the sections, she instructed them to slice into the center about 1/2" all the way around, separating the cap from the stem portion of the carving.
jThen she demonstrated how to remove shims from the stem by placing a knife on the edge of the wood and hammering off chunks. This helped to create the basic shape for more detailed carving.
All of the kids have a real love of working with knives, so they were happy to sit and shave the stem to their liking.
Some of them have decent enough carving knives, plus the skill to continue using the knife to shave the mushroom cap into shape. However, Mr. M is a big fan of machines, so he set off for the barn to sand his work into shape.