Craftory: Mount Rushmore Paperweight

[Music] welcome to craftery by prageru kids crafts history and your questions i'm jill and today we're making a paperweight to celebrate one of america's most larger-than-life national memorials mount rushmore have you been there it's in the great state of south dakota it's often called america's shrine of democracy and features the faces of former u.s presidents george washington thomas jefferson abraham lincoln and theodore roosevelt oh we've got a question how do they choose which presidents to carve into mount rushmore that's something i once wondered about too each president included on mount rushmore was selected to represent important times during the first 150 years of american history how about i tell you about them as we build our mini model you ready to start here's what you'll need a bit of wax paper air dry clay or colored modeling clay this can be found online or at most any craft store a quarter a nickel a dime and a penny a pencil and if you want decorative american flag toothpicks so let's start with making the black hills mountains in south dakota that mount rushmore is carved into if you want to use the colored modeling clay you can definitely push it all together and roll it up into a ball but i'm going to use our terra cotta colored air dry clay because it reminds me of the earth roll it up all right [Music] i love this up clay check you think my hands got messier than those of the carvers i don't think so the idea of creating mount rushmore came about in 1923 by a historian named doan robinson the sculptor who was chosen to design the carvings was named gutson borglum and decided to make the site a memorial to american history and presidents construction began in the year 1927 and was finished in 1941 thanks to 400 men involved in the carving what you're gonna do now is squish our round ball into a sort of mountain shape and this is why i like to use the wax paper so that the table doesn't get too messy just sort of squish it into a mountain shape like this the black hills region originally belonged to the native american kiowa tribe who were driven out by the lakota sioux tribe before white settlers arrived looking for gold in the 1870s looks like a mountain right my hands are covered in earth now let's add our presidents from left to right grab your quarter with george washington's face on it george washington was chosen to be included because he was the general who led america during our founding back in 1776. he represents the birth of our nation let's carve him into our mountain you just put him right there next find your nickel did you know that thomas jefferson is on every nickel jefferson was the president who bought a lot of land from france that made america bigger in 1803. that land was called the louisiana purchase you ready to go president jefferson let's go right next to george washington president theodore roosevelt is next in line on the real mount rushmore he was a president who made america one of the most powerful countries in the world in the early 1900s but a different president franklin roosevelt is on every dime so we're going to use a dime for our next coin just for this fun fact theodore and franklin were distant cousins you can think of this every time you look at your finished craft you ready to go president roosevelt in you go and last but not least president lincoln on our penny led america through a very hard civil war ended slavery and kept our country united in the 1800s president lincoln there you go [Music] now we never want to waste money when playing but we can maybe think of this as a temporary bank if you ever need these coins you can take them out so you could leave this to dry right now because it'll take a few days to dry that way you can use it as a paper weight but i like to add a little something special stick with me if you want you can use the pencil and add some holes in the back just like this [Music] see and if you want it to be extra special get those american flag toothpicks [Music] one for each president your very own mount rushmore now this air dry clay will take one to two days to dry so be patient now each face on the real mount rushmore is 60 feet tall with each nose being 20 feet tall but this version is a lot easier to keep in your room or on your desk right about 2 million people visit mount rushmore every year it is one of our country's most special national memorials we hope you had fun if you've got ideas or questions for our next craftery send them our way keep crafting keep learning and keep celebrating land of the free and a home of the brave i think i better wash my hands bye guys [Music] thank you for watching this video to keep prageru videos free please consider making a tax deductible donation