Make Funky Knitting Needles

I read in Melanie Falick's Kids Knitting that you can make your own knitting needles from wooden dowels. I want to start a knitting club with the children at the day care where I work, and thought I'd try to make some cool needles for the kids to use. I purchased 1/4 dowels, and cut them into thirds. Then sharpened them to point, but not too sharp, the little ones can be accident prone. I also bought oven bake sculpting clay to make little trinkets for the tops of the needles. Here are my first attempts.