Joyfully Weary

This week the kids did a simple craft and made a nativity silhouette to hang on our windows.  The materials needed for this craft are: vellum, watercolors, a paintbrush, a glue-stick, scissors, and a nativity silhouette cut out of black construction paper. I found our silhouette through Google images and then Jer tweaked it a little bit and used a laser cutter to cut all the details - there is no way I would of been able to cut this out by hand.  😬 A simpler nativity would work just as well.  The first step to this craft is to paint the vellum. I cut the vellum a little bit larger than the nativity silhouette to make gluing easier. Vellum won't work for detailed paintings, but is great for skies, etc. Little Lady was the inspiration for this craft; she's currently very into painting sunrises and sunsets.  Once the vellum has dried, use a glue stick to attach your nativity. Then you can trim around the edges to make the final product look a bit nice...

These pictures are from last spring; I just never got around to posting them. I, however, just added this activity to our to-do calendar for this week. It's one of those art activities that we do almost every year. It's simple, process oriented, and one that kids will enjoy no matter their age. 

Lately, my kids have been in to making 3D art projects. They enjoy molding with cla y. We also use plaster-of-paris and silicone molds to make shapes/ornaments. Last week we used some autumn themed shapes to make wind chimes.  Supplies - clay pot,  plaster-or-paris , silicone molds , straws, paint brushes,  acrylic paint ,  Mod Podge , scissors, fishing line, jingle bells/keys, and a large washer/button.  You will want to make sure you use acrylic paint since plater-of-paris is very porous. If you use tempera paint the colors will be very dull.  Since the plaster-of-paris doesn't really make a sound we attached some jingle bells/keys. 

I mentioned last week that we are currently finishing up,  The Story of The World: Ancient Times . The history of Roman has definitely intrigued us; there so much to cover  and they way it's impacted western  civilization  is  fascinating! On a side note, if like me, you have the desire to learn more than what your children's history books are offering you I highly recommended the podcast,   "The History of Rome by Mike Duncan . The episodes are short, so it's easy to listen to while doing household chores, etc.  Alright, back to the reason for this post, one of the Roman themed activities we've done is create these simple mosaics. 

Several years back, while planning activities for an after-school program, I stumbled upon the  brilliant idea of turning the corner of envelopes in to monster bookmarks. This was way before Pinterest and I unfortunately do not remember the the name of book were I first saw the idea.  Big Buddy has just started asking for stuff to help him keep his place in books, so I knew this was a craft he'd enjoy making. With Easter so close, though, I decided to have them make bunnies instead of monsters. 

Mini Man and Little Lady are constantly asking me what two colors blended together will make, so right before Saint Patrick's Day we decided to make some blended rainbows.  Our Supplies : coffee filters, glue, scissors, cotton balls, q-tips, and red, yellow, & blue liquid water colors. You can make your own liquid watercolors out of some old markers  or food coloring, water, and a tiny bit of vinegar works too.

We are finally past Ancient Egypt in our history book ( Story of the World ), but before we move on we decided to make some Egyptian Collars. The Ancient Egyptian's cloths were pretty simple, linen skirts or dresses, but they did have a flair for accessories and jewelry. The children had commented  on the collars in some of the books we read and I thought it be a fun way to end our unit.  Supplies: felt, chalk, scissors, tacky glue, paint brush, acrylic gemstones , and if desired large & small circles for tracing.  Step 1 : use chalk to trace a large circle on to the felt about the size of the child's shoulders. Also use chalk to trace a small circle for the child's neck with an opening in the back. Step 2 : cut out circles. Since cutting felt can be a little tricky I did this part. Step 3 : spread tacky glue on the back of jewels and then lay them on felt to create your own design. Since tacky glue can be a little tricky to get out of the bot...

In Big Buddy's history book, The Story of the World , we've spent a lot of time studying Ancient Egypt. One of the coloring pages from last week was of some Hyksos jewelry and the kids thought it be fun to make some of their own. Hyksos, are known for their work with bronze, but we made ours gold because those were the materials I had on hand.  Our Supplies: paper roll tube, scissors, acrylic paint, brush,  Sculpey clay , nail, and a hot glue gun.  Step 1: have each child press their clay (i gave each child 1/4 of the Sculpey cube) in to an oval shape. Then have child use a nail to decorate their clay with hieroglyphics . I had each child try to make their initial in hieroglyph, the rest is just their own design.  Step 2: bake clay pendants at 225° for 20 minutes or until clay is hard.  Step 3: while clay is baking, cut vertically down the paper roll tube and then cut horizontally to make bracelets - we were able to make 4 br...

In the past we've never really decorated for Valentines Day , except for the day of when we hide hearts. This year, though, I had a couple ideas I wanted to try and we've also decided Little Lady's birthday party theme is going to be hearts.  It's still almost two weeks before the party but this way I figured we'll get a lot of bang for our buck.  All these decorations are really inexpensive - maybe $6 dollars a piece, at the most. They are also all pretty simple - the kids helped a lot. Another thing I like about these ideas is that with a couple color or shape changes, they work for pretty much any holiday. For example, if you substitute green for red/pink and shamrocks for hearts you'd be all set for Saint Patricks day. 

One of my favorite wintertime picture books is the the Caldecott winner,  Owl Moon . The illustrations are, of course, fantastic but I also enjoy the excitement and magic the the girl in the story feels for this "adventure" with her father. All three of my children sat with anticipation as I read it too them. They also, all three of them, now want to go owl hunting. Especially Little Lady - I think she's asked me over a dozen times when we get to go. After finishing the story we looked up the Great Horned Owl in our  Encyclopedia of North American Animal s to learn a little more about them. The boys were very impressed that it has such sharp talons and that it dares to eat skunks....boys :) After we finished our research, we set out to make our own Great Horned Owls out of a lunch sack. Our supplies: paper lunch sack, two newspaper sheets, glue, brown/black markers, scissors, brown/black/yellow construction paper.  Step 1:  draw wings on the b...

A couple years ago we made an Apple Orchard Farm  and so this year we decided to make a little Christmas Tree Farm.  Our Supplies : green paint, brown paint, brown paper packages, glue, sequins, and stars.  Step 1 : paint each child's hands green.  Step 2 : press hands on to the paper. Start with hands speared out and then turned together to make a triangle. Step 3 : wash child's hand and paint the next ones.  Step 4 : after all the children have finished painting add a trunk to the bottom of the trees.  Step 5 : once all the paint it dry use glue and sequins/stars to add decorations.  And that's it now you have a tree farm ready to be displayed.  If you are looking for Christmas tree books to go along with this activity I suggest these: Night Tree ,   The Trees of The Dancing Goats , The Legend of the Christmas Tree , & The Apple Tree Christmas .  Lots more great kid...