Terra Cotta Warriors

We are studying the journey's Marco Polo in geography. We reached the Great Wall of China and discussed the Qin Dynasty. Of course, it's impossible to talk about the Qin Dynasty without mentioning the Terra Cotta Warriors! My kids were already familiar with the warriors from watching the Mummy 3 and were really excited to make their own warriors.


First we made our "Terra Cotta", bascially we made a salt dough and colored it with red and yellow food coloring and paprika. It took A LOT of kneading but the result was close to the terra cotta. We then made our soldiers and horses, using cheese grater, toothpicks, etc to add details. Afterwards we baked at 250 degrees for a couple of hours.



Ta Da! The fiercest warriors to ever come out of my oven! I think they may be closer to "Terra Cotta Buddhas" but we had fun.