Golden Birthday Ball
Start a new tradition that children in Switzerland really enjoy. Roll a Golden Birthday Ball and share good wishes with the birthday child!
1. Here’s a Swiss way to say "Happy Birthday!" Children lay decorated fabric on the floor and sit around it. The birthday child rolls a Golden Ball to one person at a time. Each friend rolls the ball back to the birthday child while extending a greeting. After all wishes are given, the birthday cloth is put on the back of the birthday child’s chair. You can make the fabric and ball to use in your classroom.
2. Decorate the fabric. On paper, use Crayola® Erasable Colored Pencils and your imagination to sketch ideas to decorate the birthday fabric. Just erase if you change your mind.
3. On cotton or 50/50 cotton/polyester fabric, use Crayola Fabric Markers to design the birthday greetings. If the fabric is likely to be laundered, ask an adult to heat-set the colors by putting it in a dryer for 30 minutes on the hottest setting.
4. Make the Golden Ball. Roll Crayola Model Magic into a ball. Air-dry it 24 hours.
5. Cover your craft area with newspaper. Using gold Crayola Premier Tempera and a Crayola Brush, paint your ball. Air-dry it. Enjoy celebrating your new birthday tradition often!
Adult supervision is required for any arts & crafts project.
Crayola Modeling Materials including Crayola Model Magic®, Model Magic Fusion™, Crayola Air-Dry Clay, and Crayola Dough With Small Parts—
WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD—
- 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.
- If the arts & crafts project involves making small objects, follow the small parts/choking hazards standards: WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD—Small parts. Not for children under 3 years."
- 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.
Adult Assistance is required for this arts & crafts project.
- Research other countries to discover how birthdays are celebrated. For instance, in Mexico a large party is given to girls on their 15th birthday. Russians eat birthday pie, birthday chairs are common in Lithuania and Holland, and a birthday flag is hung outside the house of the birthday person who lives in Denmark.
- Younger children and those with special needs could each make a ball for their birthday.
- Sing "Happy Birthday" in the home languages of children in the group or neighborhood. Ask family members to tell the group about their traditions.
Maya Lin: Architect & Sculptor
Castles With Character
Picture a Pretty Bouquet
