Metamorphoses (Shrinky Dinks & Butterflies)

On Friday, May 11, I introduced Sunny and Ida to shrinky dinks. As with everyone else who has ever tried this, they were instantly hooked. This is an extremely fun activity, and one of the best things about it is that the materials are virtually free. All you have to do is save any clear #6 plastic containers (many bakery or restaurant to-go containers are #6, but we've gotten most of ours from the containers for yummy raspberries). Remove labels, and cut them into whatever shapes you want. You can then decorate them using permanent markers.

If you want to have any holes in your creations, be sure to punch them using a standard-sized hole punch before hand, as the plastic becomes too hard to do so later on.

Then place the items, marker-side up, onto a foil-lined baking sheet and place in a preheated 350 degree oven.

Don't step too far from the oven, as the transformation doesn't take long to begin. Here are all three girls watching with rapt attention.

Magical!

It was hard to get a photo of the shrinky dinks in the oven, as I didn't want to deny anyone her view of what was happening. Basically, the plastic pieces all curl up, forming bowl-like shapes. Then they once again flatten out, but now much smaller and much thicker than before. Once they are fairly flat, take them out of the oven, and using a kitchen towel or hot pad, flatten any that aren't completely flat, quickly, while they are still soft.

And here they are!

The girls did batch after batch of shrinky dinks and created many fun things.

The other exciting metamorphosis of the day is that our fourth (and penultimate) butterfly emerged. I noticed it shortly after it had come out, and we all got to get a glimpse of it with its still wet and crumpled wings.

And here is one of the butterflies (sorry--can't tell them apart--they are all identical).