Can you believe that Christmas is just over a month away? Here come the festive projects! These DIY Christmas Erasers are definitely one of my favorites. So cute and so easy to make gingerbread people, gift box and candy cane erasers with mold and bake eraser clay. Plus there’s a couple of ways to make them based upon the ages of your kiddos. Keep reading to the end for this week’s Love to Learn Linky, too… This post contains affiliate links.
DIY Christmas Erasers
These cute little erasers are made from Sculpey Eraser Clay {affilate} and they’re just as easy to do as play dough. Just mold, bake and go. This clay definitely appeals to the engineer in me… You know how it works? It’s polymerization. The unbaked clay contains monomers that once you heat them react to form polymer chains. These polymer chains create a stable, solid eraser ready for your next writing session. For more fun ways to learn about polymers, check out my Polymer Science: Homemade Fruit Gummies and Shrinking Plastic Art posts.
Supplies Needed:
- Sculpey Eraser Clay (the Tasty Treats set has red, green, white and brown) {affiliate}
- Holiday silicone candy or baking mold {affiliate}
- Cookie sheet or oven-safe glass dish
Molding and Baking Your DIY Christmas Erasers
We made our erasers two different ways based upon our fine motor capabilities. The Babe (at 3 1/2) rolled the clay, marbled a few colors and pressed it into the silicone mold for her erasers. I was a little more ambitious and made the gingerbread man and present. We made the candy canes together. A few hints for successful molding:
- The clay starts out really hard and needs some kneading before being ready to mold. I had to do that because The Babe wasn’t strong enough to get it started.
- The colors tend to bleed on your hands a bit, so have a moist paper towel ready to clean your hands and your white clay won’t become pink.
- Try to smooth seams between pieces in the erasers or they will become weak points when you erase with them.
- Wash your hands after handling and definitely keep an eye on the kiddos. This is not clay for kiddos that still like to eat their craft supplies.
I followed the baking instructions in the package: Bake at 250º F for 20 minutes per 1/4″ of eraser thickness. Place the molded erasers on a cookie sheet covered in aluminum foil or an oven safe glass dish that you don’t use for food. The silicone mold can go in as is. I put them all in together and just pulled the thinner ones first and let the thick ones bake longer. You can kind of tell when they are done because they lose the clay-like feeling and feel like erasers. Don’t over bake or they will crack when you use them.
Using Your DIY Christmas Erasers
I printed out a super fun Christmas Learning Printable Pack from 3 Dinosaurs to go along with the erasers. It’s filled with tons of activities for kids ages 2-9. The Babe loved practicing her letter tracing…
Making Their Mark
These erasers were inspired by some of the fun mark making ideas shared in the Love to Linky recently.
- Triple Name Tracing Fun from Hands on As We Grow
- How to Draw a Star For Kids from Tree Valley Academy
- Encouraging Mark Making in Preschoolers from P is For Preschooler
Love to Learn Linky
To see more amazing kids’ activities featured this week, check out my co-hosts posts:
The ABC’s of Sensory Play from Totschooling
20 Fine Motor Skill Activities from A Little Pinch of Perfect
Christmas Sensory Fun + Free Mix and Match Activities Planner from One Time Through
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Left Brain Craft Brain (leftbraincraftbrain.com): Anne is an ex-engineer, current stay-at-home mama writing about crafty ways to encourage creativity (and brain power!) in our kids. Each of her projects gives kids the chance to learn about a new subject and do something crafty at the same time.
Totschooling (totschooling.net): Viviana is a blogging mom to a toddler and a preschooler, sharing ideas and resources for early education. She specializes in unique, hands-on printable activities that are educational, fun and inspire creativity in young minds.
A Little Pinch of Perfect (alittlepinchofperfect.com): Katie combines creativity, play, and learning for the perfect mishmash of fun activities that keep kiddos entertained throughout the day. She wholeheartedly believes in the power of play and feels that all activities naturally provide a fun way to learn.
One Time Through (onetimethrough.com): Sue is an Elementary School Teacher currently on leave to be at home with her preschooler son. She shares ideas for connecting and learning with kids through meaningful, play-based activities that nurture curiosity and creativity.
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What a fun idea!
Hi! Stopping by from Mom Bloggers Club. Great blog!
Have a nice day!
Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you have a good one too :)
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I’ve never heard of this material Anne. What a cool activity to do with kids of all ages. Love it!
It’s really fun! I’ve been dying to try the clay since I saw it a few months ago.
What a super cool activity! The erasers turned out adorable :)
Love it! My daughter has been obsessed with animal erasers lately and is going to love making her own! Thanks Anne!
I hope she has fun! I bet she’d love it.
My daughter loves anything made with sculpy!
They make the best clay, don’t they?!?
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