A Birdie Surprise

This birdhouse has been sitting on our table for months and just the other day the girls peaked inside, and got a big surprise!  It looks like we have a nest of Nuthatches.

It's hard to tell, but there are 2 baby birds inside and they look like mini hairless chickens.  We saw the Mom inside the house yesterday, that's how we were able to identify them.

Olive drew this fantastic picture of a Nuthatch.

Here are some other birds that she saw at the bird feeder this week.  I love that my girls will spend hours outside exploring nature.

Dictate, Draw, and Drama

The idea behind the 3 D's (dictate, draw, and drama) is that I want Olive to present a story, illustrate it, and then act it out. She started by telling me a story about a mermaid who lived with her friends underneath the sea and they had magical seaweed. I wrote the story down in her own words and then she drew a picture on a separate piece of paper.

 Jem and I enjoyed being the audience while she acted out her tale with puppets. This was her favorite part!

Before school started I labeled many things in the house with these cards. I read that it's helpful for children to identify the object with the word. I found these nice labels over at 1+1+1.

First Art "Still Life"

We purchased some new paint brushes and small canvases to paint, but instead of just painting I thought it would be fun to set up a still-life scene for the girls. I used a play scarf, bowl, banana, and peach.

At first Olivia got frustrated because her peach did not look like the real one. We had a talk about how art is a process, a way to express what you see, and how you feel. I think her finished product turned out great and I was proud of her for sticking with it.
We also used recycled paint trays left over from a cookie package. I blogged about that HERE.

I am also linking up with Welcome To My Wonderland to her little masterpieces link up.

Homemade Shrinky Dinks

The girls had some friends over the other day and we decided to try our luck at homemade shrinky dinks. This is also a good recycled craft for all your #6 plastic containers...so look for them with salad or berries, you can even use the textured parts.

                                    (Here is a fish, I traced the design and Jem colored it in).

Homemade Shrinky Dinks:
- Use #6 plastic.
- Cut into the shape you want. (Important note: hole punch before you bake it).
- Use permanent markers or even stamp ink.
- A cookie sheet with aluminum foil on it.
- Turn oven to 350 degrees, they will shrink in about 5 minutes.
  (plastic shrinks about 1/3 of the original size).

Skip to My Lou has some lovely ideas here.

Little Nino's Pizzeria- FIAR

Our Five in a Row Co-op had a fun time today reading Little Nino's Pizzeria, by Karen Barbour. We talked about having a servant's heart, how bigger isn't always better, and how we can help others. Instead of making lapbooks, we made folder menus for our pizzeria story.

We made homemade pizza, along with some pizza topping math, learned words in Italian, and made a Matisse type drawing for the back of our menu. I printed some cards on what you can add to a pizza to play a memory match game and we learned about homonyms- words that sound alike, but are different.

You can find a variety of ideas for Five In a Row books at homeschool share - this site is really a great resource.

Party Hats and favorite book

My girls love this book by P.D. Eastman. They think it is so funny and get a kick out of the dogs going up, up, up the tree for a big dog party.

We decided to make our own party hats and here they are.....

Just take a paper plate and cut on the lines you see above. Flip the points up and glue on your favorite decorations. Finish by punching 2 small wholes on both sides for the yarn to tie around your chin. We also added crepe paper to make them look extra fancy. Enjoy your party hat!

Full Size Self Portrait

This turned out to be a really fun project. Olive and her friends took turns tracing their bodies on butcher paper and then they drew their clothes, face, and hair. She gets a good laugh every time she sees herself and she can't believe that she is so tall!

Our "Real" Egg Tree

Every year when I was a kid my family would hand-blow eggs, paint them, and place them on a branch of the sassafras tree. This is a tradition I plan to continue with our little family. The eggs on this branch were painted by my great-grandmother many years ago. So from our family to yours Happy Easter and may you carry on a little tradition year after year.

What to do with an old frame...

The fridge is full of art work, we send it to family and friends, but we still need more room to display the girl's masterpieces. I had an old frame that I was about to trash when the glass broke, but I held onto it and I'm glad I did. The wire hanger is still attached, which works out great for hanging our daily drawings and paintings.  Clothes pins and clips work well to attach the art to the wire hanger. I am thinking about finding 4 more frames in various sizes to make an art display wall.

Circle Ideas

Olive's art class read the book Round Is A Pancake, by Joan Baranski at Co-op last week. The class did all sorts of fun things with items shaped like circles.

The group used coffee cans, toilet paper rolls, lids, cups, foam, and different colored paint to make circle collages. Everyone was different, here is what Olive's looked like.

This book is a good one to add to your collection. We also went around the house and counted everything shaped like a circle, For more cirlce and shape hunting ideas check out
Chasing Cheerios here.

Coloring with many crayons

I needed something to occupy Jem while I was unpacking from a fun weekend wedding trip to New Orleans. First let me say, it was my first time in the "Big Easy" and eye opening on Bourbon Street. It's a fascinating city, where you almost feel as if you are in a different country. The kids stayed at home with wonderful Buzz.
Now for the coloring with many colors....I just taped a bunch of crayons together and she thought it looked "cool." It helped keep her busy for about 30 minutes, which was just enough time.

Let's Explore has some other cute ideas for using many crayons here.

Easter bunny's with Draw, Write, Now

We have enjoyed using Draw, Write, Now as part of our curriculum this year. Olive has always enjoyed making letters and drawing so this program is perfect for her. Each book (1-7) is set up like a unit study, for example- farm animals, arctic, pioneers.

The rabbit is from book 1, which we have been working on this year.
My Montessori Journey here  also has a chicken drawing tutorial.

 Here is some copy work that goes along with the book that Olive did.

First "real" art show

Olive enjoyed taking a 6 week art class and made all sorts of fun projects, but her favorite was this recycled Picasso guitar. It is made totally from recycled products like paper bags, toilet paper holders, and a box.

 The curator of the art exhibit told Olive that "hundreds of people have viewed your art, people pay thousands of dollars to have their work displayed here" and she got a huge smile. The show was really well done and now all she wants to do this week is draw and create.

Collage Story Telling and download

Grab some old magazines, glue sticks, and scissors and let the kids spend an hour putting together an art collage story.  I tried explaining to Olive that the pictures could be whatever she wanted and glued in any direction she would like. This is how her neat collage turned out....

I then had her tell me a story with the photos she chose for her collage. I loved it, but it was a very long story. I asked her to tell me another story prompting her with these "about" questions and she came up with a very funny one.

Who: A tall girl named Curly.

What: She wanted to travel, but was too busy with work so she snuck out of work to go.

Where: She traveled to Italy.

When: Yesterday, but she liked it so much she decided to stay.

Why: It was so pretty and she had a big house.


If you would like to download this idea, please click on the below image.

It may be my years as a reporter, but getting to the meat and bones of a story is important.

 

  

Jem loves to cut and paste too...her collage is a little more abstract!

Early Bird Homeschool has some great ideas for making story logs, here.

Stained Glass Art Project

Olive made this lovely stained glass art project.

She used cardboard, aluminum foil, tissue paper, and black paper.

Here's my first tutorial:

1. Cut a circle out of cardboard.

2. Cover with foil and paint with watered down glue.

3. Tear tissue paper into pieces and paste.

4. Make a snowflake out of black paper and glue onto top of tissue paper circle.

 

Now you have a lovely piece of art to share with you family and friends!

This post is linked with: Little Materpieces

It's a date!

Dates with your children are just as important as dates with you spouse. I was lucky enough to have some alone time with Jem today. We enjoyed playing together at the local children's museum. It was nice to observe her playing with out the aid of Olive, especially when creating art. We showcased Jem's creations on the living room table for daddy to see when he came home from work.