Kaya display help, please!

[OSusannah]

All of you are so creative, I just know you'll have some great ideas for me. I'm just getting started making an AGT classroom for my 8yo similar to Meg's rooms.

I want to do something similar for my 10yo who has Kaya but her things are WAY too big for a room. So my big idea is to make her a mat of some sort that can be rolled up for storage. This is where I need you!

What can I make it out of to look like grass and dirt? Can you think of a way to make fake rocks to arrange and a little creek to "flow" through it (maybe with sheer blue fabric)? It needs to have an area for the teepee and a place for Steps High and Tatlo to roam. I think I would like to get a set of those trees that stores sell at Christmas in groups of 3.

I was thinking of those rugs you see that kids play with cars and trains on, with streets, buildings, trees, etc. but I'm not sure how to begin to make one for Kaya!

Any ideas?

[Sakurako]

When I was little (back in the 50's), I had a shaggy green grass area rug in my bedroom. It became Neverland and all sorts of other things. A few years ago I found the same sort of rug for sale in several different sizes as bath mats. Heaven! I bought every size, spread them on my bed and fell asleep just like I was back on my island in childhood. So I would strongly recommend finding a nice dark green shaggy bath mat for the grass. A mirror makes a good stream if you can find one that's tough enough not to break and long enough to work. I got mine from a local glass cutter -- I needed an ocean for my ship to sail on. If you can sew, Vogue has a pattern for Kaya's tent available now. Small (3 foot) Christmas trees would work. For dirt, maybe you could paint a piece of foam board with brown acryllic (acts like glue), then shake some dirt over it while the paint is wet. Shake off the excess before you bring it indoors.

[schallerwoods]

Dark brown fleece would make good dirt. Astro turf, the plastic kind would make nice grass> I also like the bath mat suggestion. Its nicer for play. Get something that is easy to cut up.

Rocks are easy to make out of floral foam or styrafoam. Get some of those balls they sell in the floral section of craft stores. Shape them with a knife, or just break them up and paint them with gray and black spraypaint.

I think it would be nice to make the stream out of fabric. I suggest getting several different shades of blue, a light green and a white. The thinner the material the better. Chiffon or gauze would work. Cut it into strips and tangle them together. It will look flowy and Kaya can put her feet into it.

Nann

[Janabanana]

While I love these previous ideas, you could also get a roll of the green grass that they make for train set countrysides. They also make astro turf in all different colors and you could cut them and zigzag them together on a machine. It would roll up to put away and would be durable for a couple of generations to play with. Make a pattern with newspaper or cut apart brown grocery sacks.(bags) There is spray on glue that can be used to help adhere some pebble or dirt. I would go for multibrown astroturf though! Lowes, Menards and other home building centers sell the stuff by the yard! I would love to see your results when your finished! Please post pics!

[Janabanana]

While I love these previous ideas, you could also get a roll of the green grass that they make for train set countrysides. They also make astro turf in all different colors and you could cut them and zigzag them together on a machine. It would roll up to put away and would be durable for a couple of generations to play with. Make a pattern with newspaper or cut apart brown grocery sacks.(bags) There is spray on glue that can be used to help adhere some pebble or dirt. I would go for multibrown astroturf though! Lowes, Menards and other home building centers sell the stuff by the yard! I would love to see your results when your finished! Please post pics!

[sharlit]

With winter coming you could get a big piece of that white stuffing that comes in sheets and call it good. [img]wink.gif[/img] I'm not very crafty, so I'm not much help. But, some of the areas that Kaya visited was covered mostly by yellow grass rather than green. So you can vary colors for that. Also, if you're putting rocks with that, they should be more brown than gray. Ooh! could you put a rock cliff on it with pictographs and petroglyphs? That would be cool!

[ponydreamer]

I loved Janabanana's idea with astroturf. You could use different colors, and sew them together like she said. It would be soooo durable. I wish I had thought of that with my kids!

[adriana82]

When I get bored in class, sometimes I spend time thinking about how I would create little worlds for the Historical AGs. For Kaya, I always thought up a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and hills with blue skies leading to a plateau in the foreground. If I were to make it, I would get one of those three-fold large poster-board science-display type thingys and order inexpensive blown-up posters from webshots or paint it myself!

Just my imagination running again...

Good luck!

[OSusannah]

Thanks for all the great ideas! When we were at AGP for Kaya's birthday, they had a large "rug" with long, green grass-like stuff on it. It reminded me of a store display at Easter. I've never seen any for sale. I was at Lowe's today buying the wood for the rooms, didn't occur to me to look there! And we also have Home Depot and Menard's.

I was going to look at fabric stores. Maybe I could find some of that fabric that is different colors depending on the light for the stream.

I don't think using real dirt would be a good idea with my girls. They bring enough dirt in already! Isn't there a textured felt? I saw squares of something at Hobby Lobby next to the squares of felt.

Sewing pieces together sounds like a good idea, pieced together like a quilt sort of. Then I could attach a backing like an old twin sheet?

Audrey O, that would be my ideal, the mountains in the background. However, my art skills hover just above coloring in the lines. Maybe you live close enough to come help? [img]wink.gif[/img] There is the perfect scene in Kaya's book 6 in the Looking Back section.

Also on the subject of the rooms, does anyone know if chalkboard paint comes in a spray can?

[Sail-Away]

Originally posted by OSusannah:
Also on the subject of the rooms, does anyone know if chalkboard paint comes in a spray can?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes, the paint sure does! I have used it befor but depending on where you put it you might want to prime the surface first.