Indian Corn Mosaics and More

This week we've been sharing different activity ideas we had for exploring "indian corn." Our final activity put to use the kernels we'd taken off the cobs the other day by combining them with salt dough to make mosaic decorations.

Indian Corn Mosaics (with 15+ Indian Corn Activities and Crafts)
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We've used basic salt dough before, we find it an easy material for even the littlest of hands to create with. For these creations we tried something we had not tried before, pressing and baking something into the salt dough. 

To begin with I made up a batch of salt dough and used our biscuit cutter set to cut out circles. (Our set is very similar to the one listed here. Sometimes I think I use more for crafts than actual biscuits.)

After I cut the circles I placed them onto small pieces of parchment paper as I wanted to be able to move them easily after they were decorated. Both boys had different approaches for how they started their mosaics. Little Brother was pretty eager to get started and very purposefully pushed all his corn into his circle. 

Big Brother and I had looked at some images of mosaics on the internet, so got the idea of trying to create a picture with the pieces of corn. 

On his second round he asked me to draw a spiral with a tip of a pencil and then he placed his corn along the line. We also poked some holes in the top so we can hang them as ornaments if we want. 

After we were done making our circles (I made a few too) we baked them in a 275 degree oven for about 4 hours. I was a little worried the corn would pop, but some quick research informed me that corn needs a fast, very hot temp to pop.

After they had cooled I sprayed them with clear acyclic spray paint. A few of the kernels were a little loose, but this helped keep them in place.

Even Little Brother's held up really well in the oven. 

We're definitely pleased with how these turned out and with Christmas around the corner we're pretty sure we're going to turn them into ornaments. 

We've really enjoyed exploring this material for craft and sensory play! We encourage you to check out these other 

great Indian Corn Activity Posts:

Art with Indian Corn

The bright and colorful corn is great for different types of art projects. 

We used indian corn for a Toddler Painting Activity, which Little Brother fully enjoyed.

Sunny Day Family also painted with indian corn, but they had the awesome idea of turning their art work into a placemat.

Teach Preschool also painted with indian corn, with a great way to set it up.

Indian Corn Sensory Play

These colorful kernels and cobs are terrific for different types of sensory play. 

Earlier this week we used the corn as a way to take apart cobs and sort colors.

Still Playing School also created a terrific sensory tub by adding it into regular dried corn.

Living Montessori Now has a great post on scrubbing and tweezing indian corn.

Fantastic Fun and Learning put the kernels into a squish bag, in this case made by the kiddo.

Learning Opportunities

There are several different learning opportunities different blogs have explored. 

Every Star is Different used their sensory bin as part of their First Thanksgiving/Native American unit.

Preschool Powol Packets created this really interesting science experiment using indian corn.

Fantastic Fun and Learning created their corn craft with an eraser and also learned about the Five Kernels of Corn Legend.

Don't have any Indian Corn? 

Check out these great crafts for making your own indian corn decorations. 

School Time Snippets used paper hole punches to decorate these festive corn images.

Still Playing School used colorful chips to create indian corn patterns on the light table.

Crafty Morning used lego stamping to create their indian corn craft.

No Time for Flashcards shows how to create indian corn mosaics with self-adhesive craft foam , another one with mini-marshmallows, and a third with bubble wrap.