Making sushi with Scholastic Klutz | independent crafts for kids

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Thank you Scholastic Klutz for sponsoring this post. 

I don’t know about you, but these cold winter temps and snow days we’ve had lately have made us want to stay indoors. Heat on, comfy clothes and lots of down time in between sledding in the backyard. Klutz, a division of Scholastic, recently sent us one of their new craft kits and it was the perfect family activity  to pull out on a day when it was too cold to play outside. March is craft month, so this is a great time to grab a craft kit from Scholastic Klutz, whether you’re looking for something to do together as a family or if you want something that’s designed for independent play. Ready to take a look? 

We received their Mini Sushi Bar kit. It creates 16 adorable sushi characters using clay and mixed media, plus there’s some paper craft extras  including a bento box and mini chopsticks to display everything we made. My kids are the pickiest, but we’ve been exploring sushi as a family lately and the boys have really enjoyed it so far. I think they were thrilled to see some sushi rolls they recognized and to learn about new ones we haven’t tried too. They also got a kick out of the smiling faces we added to each piece. 

What’s included

The kit includes a 32-page booklet with step-by-step instructions. I love how it laid out all the directions clearly from start to finish. The booklet also gave us a way to measure our pieces of clay – I found this to be really helpful, especially for Caleb. It was a great visual to be able to see how much clay we needed to make our sushi pieces. Liam is my direction-follower, so he liked being able to follow each step and create sushi exactly like the pictures. Caleb is a little more imaginative, so he really enjoyed being able to decorate with additional colors and sequins and choose which characters got things like cheeks. 

Hands-on educational experience 

Each page also included information about each of the food and the art of sushi making, so it was a great learning experience for all of us too! We got to learn about the difference between sushi rolls, sashimi, onigiri (rice balls), mochi and other treats from Japan. We also got a chance to talk about which items we’d like to try the next time we get sushi for real – the boys are excited to try edamame. 

Once  we were done making our sushi pieces, the kit also provided a great opportunity for open-ended play. The boys enjoyed putting together a little meal-time scene with the paper accessories and pretending to make sushi rolls in the kitchen and take restaurant orders. 

This was our first time working with a clay craft, so I wasn’t totally sure what to expect. I really liked how Klutz also gave us tips on how to store the quick-drying clay so it wouldn’t dry out. As a parent, I also really liked that we didn’t have to wait a long time for the clay to dry once we made our sushi pieces. It made them  much easier to decorate and play with since we weren’t waiting for them to dry.

Tips for successful sushi making

If you end up purchasing this kit for your own kids, I recommend rolling your bubble clay firmly as you try to form and size them. We discovered that if you were too gentle handling the material, the little “rice” beads were more likely to lose their stickiness to each other because of the additional rolling. We also had a hard time attaching some of the small clay balls as decorations to the rice. This is an easy fix – simply use the glue included in the kit to attach these more securely.

Independent craft  or family activity

The Mini Sushi Bar kit is recommended for kids ages 7 and older. If you’re looking for an activity for your child to do on their own, I think that’s an accurate age recommendation. Liam is 8 and would definitely be able to sit down and do this project all on his own. At almost 5 years old, I wasn’t sure whether Caleb would enjoy this activity. With some supervision and a little guidance from me, this turned into the perfect family craft. Honestly, it was nice to be able to set aside my work for an hour or so and help the boys make things. And Caleb loved being included, so I think the whole project was a win. 
You can check out this Mini Sushi Bar kit and other Scholastic Klutz craft kits here.