Porcupine Prickles

crayola supplies

Markers
Model Magic®

household supplies

toothpicks - wooden

Why

Stand back! W-a-y back! Real porcupine quills can prick! Will your critter be friendly or fierce?

Steps

1. Porcupines are good climbers. They stay in trees and usually come out at night. Look at pictures of them to see their quill-covered backs and tails. Has anyone you know ever seen a porcupine? Ask them! Porcupines only live in the Americas and Africa.
2. Porcupines make a warning noise to let you know they’re around. Then they lower their heads and raise their quills. Often they shake their bodies to make their quills rattle. It’s a myth that they throw their quills. But they can hurt attackers with their raised quills by backing into them or hitting them with their tails. Here’s one way to make a prickly porcupine.
3. Mix the color from Crayola® Washable Markers into white Crayola Model Magic. Knead to get the colors you like. Sculpt a porcupine or a porcupette (baby porcupine).
4. Poke the surface with a wooden toothpick for texture. Or, if your porcupine is excited, leave the toothpicks stuck in the porcupine for quills. Where will your porcupine perch?

When & Where

"At a local Pow Wow, we saw the porcupine portrayed in dance with rattling quills. We also saw traditional quillwork on leather pouches and moccasins."
- Dolores A., mom of 5-, 7-, and 8-year-olds.

"Model Magic works so well for short, hands-on sessions after family nature walks. The children take home their creations right away."
- Shelley T, nature center leader.

Interesting Info

Porcupines have about 30,000 barbed quills. These are under a softer coat of guard hairs. The hollow quills help the porcupines to swim by acting as buoys in the water.

Safety Guidelines

Crayola Modeling Materials including Crayola Model Magic®, and Model Magic Fusion™, Crayola Air-Dry Clay, and Crayola Dough—

Keep away from open flames. Do not use to make candleholders, hot plates, trivets, or other similar objects that will be used or placed near fire and other heat sources.
Do not put in an oven, microwave, or kiln.
Do not make into vessels/containers that will hold unpackaged food.
The use of modeling material to make items that look like food is discouraged for children younger than age 5 to avoid their confusion with real food.
Unless sealed with a water-resistant glaze, do not make projects exposed to or immersed in water, such as boats or outdoor bird feeders. They would disintegrate when exposed to moisture.
Crayola Dough—contains gluten (wheat flour) as an ingredient.
Crayola Air-Dry Clay, Crayola Model Magic and Model Magic Fusion are gluten-free. However, they are produced on the same machinery as Crayola Dough which does contain gluten. Although the machines are cleaned prior to the start of each production run, there is a slight possibility that trace amounts of gluten from Crayola Dough may be present in the other modeling compound products. For information regarding specific ingredients or allergic concerns, please call our Consumer Affairs department at 1-800-272-9652 weekdays between 9 AM and 4 PM Eastern Standard Time.

Wood—By its nature, wood is rough and may contain splinters or sharp points