It’s another cozy day at home for us today, which I really enjoy. Here’s some thoughts I had for ways to fill it. Feel free to join in!
1. Silly similes. Teach the kids what similes are (sim-i-lees– comparison words that use “as” or “like,” as opposed to metaphors which say something is something like “all the world is a stage” or “a sea of faces”). Brainstorm together and list a bunch of predictible ones that everybody knows (black as night, quiet as a mouse…). When you have a nice list, have each child make up a new simile for each phrase. Try to be silly and creative, but still accurate. Then share your lists.
2. Make winter collages and cards from old magazines. We’ve been doing this to make our holiday cards this week and it’s lots of fun. I ripped […]
Original post by Alicia
We are currently working on several things here. I don’t have any final products to show you, but I just wanted to give you a glimpse of our days when we are deep in the thick of things—a middle-view, so to speak, rather than always showing the ends.
This is the latest part of Superboy’s Colossal Castle that he has been working on for awhile–one of the interior structures. Just to show you the level of detail he is going for.
Today we tried our hands at making an Ice wreath (discovered via Whip Up).
We assembled them inside and then set them out on our snow-covered picnic table to freeze overnight.
I can’t wait to see how they turn out tomorrow!
JBug has been working on making a set of paper dolls from around the world. Here is her Dutch girl:
She is using this pad of paper people and these lovely global village papers. […]
Original post by lapazfarm
I ordered a gift from Amazon last week and when I unpacked it I found this massive length of brown paper inside as packaging. What fun! We turned it into a canvas and the kids happily drew all over it for hours. You gotta love packaging that’s environmentally friendly AND is fun to draw on.
Notice what it says by the tiger striped bells?
Original post by Alicia
JBug did art yesterday.
This is Pablo Picasso’s “Child with a Dove” on the left. JBug’s version on the right.
To say I am pleased with the result would be a major understatement. This one is getting framed and hung, for sure!
But let me talk with you about the process, which to me is so much more important than the product (with the caveat that I am no artist nor a trained art teacher, as is probably obvious by now!LOL!).
As I explained in an earlier post, I had set out a display with a few art cards and some art supplies and explained to the kiddos that they could use them (or any other supplies they wanted) to copy the pictures. They agreed that sounded like fun.
The materials sat there untouched for over a week. Disappointing, but completely okay, because the kids were obviously highly engaged in other creative pursuits of their […]
Original post by lapazfarm
…the Petronas towers …
and an itty bitty city is complete!
Yes, we’ve been having fun with architecture around here.
Original post by lapazfarm
Both Superboy and JBug have absolutely gone construction mad!
It’s not exactly what I had imagined when I “strewed” all those architecture books the other day…
it’s better!
First up is JBug’s work in progress, “Itty bitty city”:
using some halloween candy boxes and a few odds and ends…
she is creating…
and building…
and decorating…
an itty bitty city! And she is not nearly done yet!
I can’t wait to see where she goes with this!!! What fun!!!
Each day she wakes up and says, “Can I work on my city now, pleeeeease???” And I can most joyfully answer “YES!”
Of course you know Superboy is not one to be outdone…
Stay tuned for architecture part 2: Colossal castle!
Original post by lapazfarm
It’s snowy and dreary here this morning. I desperately need to find the cleaning fairy and chain her to my kitchen, but I also have 4 mostly-darling children in dire need of some plain old fun.
Here’s 10 things that are on our list of possibles today.
1. Play hide the phone. This is one of my favorite games to play with toddlers and the big kids love doing it with Alex. Hide the phone, press the page button and watch the little guy happily tear through the house looking for it. (Can also be played with ticking timers.)
2. Make miniscule art. Hand out index cards or other small pieces of paper and trace a circle in the middle. Have the kids use magnifying glasses, microscopes or just look very closely at whatever object they like (each in a different room). […]
Original post by Alicia
Inspired by a childrens book, Ada and I decided to make an apple doll. We skinned an apple, carved a simple face into it, soaked it in lemon juice, then dried it out for a week. The head shrunk, the face wrinkled and it developed some definite character.
David and Ada made a body out of pipe cleaners, stuck tiny black beads in the eye holes, glued cottonballs to her head and cut up one of our cloth napkins for a dress.
Of course, our great grandmother doll needed a pipe cleaner guitar, and our friend Rachel came over and made her a pipe cleaner cat.
Ada named the doll Luppy. I think she named the cat Mouser. She didn’t name the guitar, but it’s possible that David did.
Original post by adamaria
Inspired by a childrens book, Ada and I decided to make an apple doll. We skinned an apple, carved a simple face into it, soaked it in lemon juice, then dried it out for a week. The head shrunk, the face wrinkled and it developed some definite character.
David and Ada made a body out of pipe cleaners, stuck tiny black beads in the eye holes, glued cottonballs to her head and cut up one of our cloth napkins for a dress.
Of course, our great grandmother doll needed a pipe cleaner guitar, and our friend Rachel came over and made her a pipe cleaner cat.
Ada named the doll Luppy. I think she named the cat Mouser. She didn’t name the guitar, but it’s possible that David did.
Original post by adamaria
I promised I’d post some more ideas today, so here are a few. I am running a little behind (we have been busy with all this fun stuff!!!) but I’ll have the rest up tomorrow, hopefully.
These are pretty simple today. Just a few ideas I gathered from things I’ve seen around the internets:
This is a very simple art center I set up with some watercolor pencils, paper, brushes and a few fine art cards. I put up three cards of very different styles so the kiddos can choose whatever suits their mood and try their hand at imitating it. I put out watercolor pencils because of their versatility, but the kids know that in the bright red cabinet beneath there is a wide assortment of other media they could use if they choose-paints, markers, colored pencils, pastels, etc. I think I originally saw this set-up by Lori over at Montessori […]
Original post by lapazfarm
Ada made a card for me. She folded a piece of cardstock in half and cut the corners decoratively. She gave it to me, then said she would write her name on it. She wrote ‘Ada’ in careful, squiggly lines. Then she said she was going to write ‘love.’
I wrote LOVE on a separate paper and she copied it onto my card. So it says, simply and perfectly, LOVE ADA.
She’s enjoying writing letters now, which is always her own idea and I don’t know how she picks which letter she will write. Out of the blue it will be, “I’m going to write Rs.” Sometimes she makes such an announcements, then hesitates and asks me if I know how to write that letter. I say, “Yes, do you want me to write one?” And in this way she gets […]
Original post by adamaria
Are your well-layed out shelves collecting dust? Are cobwebs growing on your manipulatives for lack of, well…manipulation? Are you tempted to describe your school as
“Montes-snore-i” ???
Time for a shake-up, I say!
In an effort to fight the ho-hums around here, this morning I temporarily stashed away some of our stand-by’s and put together some trays that are certain to inspire the kiddos to get those creative juices flowing! And guess what…it’s already working! Tee hee!
Wanna see?
Ok, but only a few at a time. I’ve got to dole these things out slowly, ya know, to keep you coming back to my humble little blog!LOL!
Ok, here is the first tray. I call it (did you know I name my trays? Weird, I know)…
The Dr Seuss creature creator:
Start with a copy of a Dr Seuss book (any one will do, really) for inspiration, add some neon colored play-doh, cut-up chenille stems, some colored feathers […]
Original post by lapazfarm
We spent a lovely day today learning about and doing art. We read about the amazing John James Audubon
and we watched a DVD all about his work from the National Gallery of Art.
Then, in keeping with our current read-aloud, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, we studied a bit of the Dutch Artist Hendrick Avercamp
and trying to capture the beautiful pastel and brown tones of the wintry woods outside our doors and windows:
A day of art and nature is so good for the soul. I highly recommend it.
Original post by lapazfarm
This morning I had to pick my bil up from surgery (He’s ok). And the whole way there I kept being awed by the spectacular color of the Fall foliage this year. This is the best year I’ve seen in many. And my bil and I marveled all the way home.
Then, when I got home, someone had sent me this video featuring Sir Ken Robinson speaking about creativity being killed in the public school system. And the two events, plus my creative nature, converged, and pointed towards a day of artistic pursuits.
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While I was picking up my bil, GB was home with my dh dutifully working on his online German course. So that by the time I got home he was ready for a break. While he was outside on the swing set, I got all my art materials out. And when he came in we […]
Original post by Robin
We are in a bit of a groove right now and I am pretty pleased about it.
JBug is still working hard on the illustrations for her book. This is taking a lot longer than either of us anticipated because she is working so hard on them, taking her time, trying to make them extra nice.
From the photo you can see she chose an illustration from the book The Twelve Dancing Princesses to use as a model for the princess in her book. That is what she does. She decides what pictures she needs to draw, and goes looking through her books to find a model. Then she carefully draws, colors them in with colored pencil, and outlines her drawing with black ultra-fine Sharpie. She often asks me for help with getting things to look the way she wants them to. I try to limit my input to helping her see […]
Original post by lapazfarm
I made a cute Halloween trick-or-treat tote for JBug adapted from an idea I spotted at the long thread.
My adaptation includes a slightly simpler design, and the fact that I used a pre-made canvas tote (~3 dollars at JoAnn) and just sewed the embellishments onto it. This made it easier in that I did not have to construct the tote myself, but also made it difficult because manuevering the tote around my machine in order to sew the stuff onto it (without accidentally sewing the bag shut) was awkward. It would have been much easier to sew the design onto flat fabric, kwim? My fabric scraps are also not nearly as cute as the ones in the tutorial, but I just used what I had on hand. So, the whole project only cost 3 bucks and took about an hour or so. Simple, simple.
Anyway, what I really like about the […]
Original post by lapazfarm
I am buoyed by the success of my beanbag making and ready to take on a new crafty challenge. The trouble is there are so many great ideas out there it is tough to choose! But when I saw this project :Felt Jungle, featured at The Crafty Crow, I knew I had found my next thing. Tons of potential here! I can hardly wait to begin. I just may end up with a home-made Christmas this year!
What are the rest of you working on right now?
Original post by lapazfarm
Nope!
Paper lunch bags and glue. Yep, I swear!
This was my part of the “yes” day. I wanted to do a craft.
First we made a pattern from a poplar leaf.
And cut out a bunch of them, enough to have two sides for eight or nine leaves.
We squeezed glue all over one leaf….
………. bent a floral wire and lay it in the glue…….
……..then covered it with another leaf.
Here is the fun part. You paint the entire surface of the leaf with school glue on one side (you’ll do the other side later). Don’t leave any of the brown paper showing because you are going to burn the glue, which won’t catch on fire. But if you leave the bag part exposed, that might catch on fire. So just don’t.
Now holding the leaf by the stem, hold the glue side against the flame. This is probably an activity to be done with a […]
Original post by Robin
This week’s Unplug Your Kids challenge is white. So here’s the art project we did…
Isn’t it lovely?
Okay, there was a bit more to it!
1. Give each child a piece of watercolor paper (or any white paper) and a white crayon. Explain that they’re making invisible art and have the kids draw elaborate drawings all in white.
2. Hand out thick paintbrushes, watercolor paints and water. Have the kids paint over their drawings with the paint (either one color or many) to magically reveal their masterpieces.
That’s it!
Victoria did an undersea picture:
She liked it so much she did another page:
Anna drew a flower with long underground roots:
And Jack did a design and then made the paint into a dog:
It was quick, easy and fun!
Original post by Alicia
Victoria came up with this art idea the other day and she and the other kids did it on their own and surprised me with it.
She drew a simple cat drawing and cut it into 3 equal pieces. Then she had each kid color their section and she taped them back together. They each signed their parts and Anna wrote a little letter on her part to me.
Pretty cute, eh?
The idea could be adapted pretty easily… draw a big fish and cut it in two for two kids to decorate and tape back together, draw a face shape and have each child draw the eyes and their half of a nose, mouth, hair, etc.
Just thought it was fun!
Original post by Alicia
This is a nice, simple introduction to watercolors that I thought I’d do with the kids tomorrow. Though they’ve been using watercolors since they could crawl, this looks like a fun way to concentrate on techniques and effects you can do. I’ll have to dig out the good watercolors and the watercolor paper for full effect.
I wonder how we could morph this into Halloween or fall decorations… I’ll let you know if we come up with something neat!
Original post by Alicia
It’s nice to be home for a bit.
Today is shaping up to be a nice lazy day. It’s beautiful weather and Anna has set up a family pedicure stand outside. For 5 cents she’ll paint your toenails! I had her do it outside to keep freshly painted toes from marking up carpets and such, and also to keep the fumes out of the house.
Victoria and Alex started the morning bird watching from the window seat.
The girls got out altered books earlier and made some neat pages in them.
I also read a couple of chapters from Story of the World. It was a very interesting bit!
The baby played with watermelon playdough and bouncy balls, Jack made a magnet sphere and I’ve started doing some fall cleaning.
Oh, and I transplanted some geraniums and herbs into a window box for inside. I always bring geraniums inside since they bloom most of the winter […]
Original post by Alicia
We’re back from our overnight trip to Mankato and packed in lots of wonderful stuff.
We started out attending a homeschool potluck picnic, where we all ate great food and played/yapped with friends until well after dark….
We got to Grandma and Grandpa’s house pretty late, with just enough time to play a little and listen to Grandma finish up Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. Daryl and I stayed up too late watching TV together and paid the price today. In the morning Grandpa made eggs, I went back to sleep for a couple of hours and we packed up to hit Bethany College’s “Art on the Green” event.
Art on the Green had bouncy rides and lots of fun art activities from sun prints to painting to making funny portraits on the computer. We had very little time to do anything but got to visit with fun friends yet again.
Then we were off to the […]
Original post by Alicia
We met up with friends in Sioux Falls over the weekend and one thing we did was the Sculpture Walk. We’ve done it before and every time it is such a neat experience.
Every year they invite artists from all over to display their sculptures in downtown Sioux Falls. They’re on display all year, but from May through September the public can vote on the People’s Choice award. The top 3 scuptures get cash awards and the favorite is purchased for permanent display in the city. The sculptures are also eligible for lots of other awards and they’re promoted for sale so it really benefits the artists, too.
The whole exhibit is very child-friendly, too. Many of the works are very whimsical (lines of sheep dancing arm in arm, girls curled up in circles reading books, children interacting with toys and animals and so on). They generally say on the signs that […]
Original post by Alicia
For Art this year, I am trying something different. We have a short read-aloud session on Friday (poetry, plus whatever subject needs finished), then we get out the art supplies and–create! There is no a structured lesson. Actually I got the idea from Amanda Soule’s book, The Creative Family, in which she describes a family drawing time. My son is loving it. I’ve always loved art and spent my childhood drawing, but as a busy mom I never make time to play with it. Our “picture study” in the past never came off well, but this is becoming the highlight of the week! On the morning of I ask Cal what he wants to do do (drawing, painting, or modeling), then we get out our stuff, and play! For drawing or painting we might hunt for a picture in a book to draw from (each individual can choose what he/she likes). Sometimes I also […]
Original post by angela
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