In our study of Ancient China, we could not leave out the clay army surrounding Emperor Qin's tomb. The kids were fascinated by this pretty recent discovery. It is amazing the detail that was put into this army. The figures are all different and the carving and painting were astounding. There are even models of chariots and horses. Originally, the soldiers held real weapons.
To supplement our reading about these soldiers, we will be going to visit an exhibit not too far away that has replicated this tomb. But I really wanted to see if we could make our own terra cotta soldiers. I found this recipe to make your own terra cotta soldiers. I got it from a unit done at St. George Elementary taken from the book "Marco Polo for Kids".
You will need
1 1/4 cups boiling water
1 cup salt
2 cups flour
Red and yellow food coloring
4 T. paprika
Preheat your oven to 250. Boil the water. Stir in the salt. Put the flour in a large bowl and add the salt water to it. Mix well and then divide dough into four pieces. You can put each piece onto wax paper. Add 8 drops of yellow and 4 drops of red food coloring to each piece. Add 1T paprika to each. Work the clay until the color is uniform. When the color has been distributed, shape your clay into soldiers, chariots or horses. Be sure to use toothpicks to carve faces and details of uniforms,etc. You can make holes in hands to place toothpick weapons after baked.
Place on a cookie sheet (I sprayed it first) and bake for 2 hours until hard.
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