Sushi Art

Konichiwa everyone!  Our next stop on the trip around the world took my third grade students to Japan.  We talked about the life and culture of the country as well as the food.  We discussed that different countries eat all different types of food.  Surprisingly a bunch of the class had eaten sushi.  We looked at the different types of sushi and how it is artfully displayed.  The results were very realistic!

We had so much fun with this project!  Here is what you will need to create your own sushi!

Crayola model magic clay in white, red, yellow, and blue.  The students enjoy mixing the primary colors to get the other colors you need.  We also used a past machine to roll the green for the seaweed. The base is made from red foam core board.

Handrolls- (the round ones that look like coins) flatten the white modeling clay and mold into a rectangle.  Put your "fish" or "vegetables" at one end on the shorter side of the rectangle.  Roll the clay into a cylinder shape.  Add green thin clay around the outside for the seaweed.  Using a long blade(teacher job) cut the sushi into individual pieces. I used a tool made for cutting rolls of sculpey clay.  If you gently rock the blade back and forth it cuts without smooshing the sushi.  Nobody like smooshed sushi!

Sushi- Make a small rectangle with a piece of white clay.  Decide what type of fish you would like to put on the top.  The favorite in my class was shrimp and eel.  Create your fish and put on top of the white rice rectangle.  Add a thin "belt of seaweed around the center of the piece of sushi.

Cone-  Have students create a triangle shape with the white modeling clay.  Put vegetables or fish on one side, allowing them to hang out the top.  Roll into a cone shape.  Add the green around the outside and trim with scissors.

Mix light green and roll into small balls to represent the wasabi.  Roll flat pieces of pink and bundle them up to represent the pickeled ginger.

View pictures of sushi in different food presentations.  Have students arrange their sushi in an aesthetically pleasing way.

Add hardened sushi to a 4"x 10" piece of foam core board.  Glue pieces into place to secure them in place. Our final step was to add the chopsticks for an authentic feel.