Cotton- field to fiber

Our 4-H Textile group had a wonderful field trip last month. We learned all about cotton and how it goes from the field to the fiber.

We learned that the cotton buds are edible and it takes 1 plant to knit a sweater.

The girls took the cotton from the plant and brushed it until it was fluff.  The fluff was then spun onto a make shift spinning wheel made from a mason jar lid and cabob stick.  Spinning is such an art!

Classical Conversations Cycle 3, week 1

If you are like me...you have been staying up late prepping for the new school year. I pulled this one out of the archives.  It's hard to forget week 1, it's always the first one that comes to mind when I give someone a CC example.

Columbus Boats

We made these cute boats to go along with our Classical Conversations history sentence and they turned out great.

History Sentence:
In 1492, Columbus sailed on the first of four trips to the Caribbean on three Spanish ships, called the Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria.

I think they will make cute name cards for our Thanksgiving table.  We followed these directions, but used a chopstick to hold the sails up.
(linked to Half a hundred acre woods weekly link-up)

Easter Hand Lilies

  We will be doing this again this year.  I just love how these cute Easter hand lilies preserve your child's little hand prints.  This hand print craft makes the sweetest keepsake for birthdays and holidays.

Step 1:  Trace and cut hand print, find a pipe cleaner for a stem, and a different color cut short for flower center, twist together.

Step 2:  Curl hand print fingers and fold around stem, secure with tape.

Step 3:  Add your lovely hand print lilies to a vase, no water required, just love!

Linked to:

Winter Fun

Here we are wishing for snow...thankful for the winter treat!

Toilet Paper Pumpkin

Here is a great last minute craft idea for decorating just about any part of your house. Plus, this cute little pumpkin would be good to place on the back of the toilet seat, just in case you run out.

-Take a roll of toilet paper and give a little smoosh.
-Take a Fat Quarter and start stuffing it into the center all the way around.
-Secure with a twig pushed into the middle and add ribbon to decorate.

These toilet paper pumpkins can be left out until Thanksgiving too. We made this cute craft at MOPS, you can find more toilet paper pumpkins here.

Bubble Snakes

The girls enjoyed making bubble snakes this afternoon.  This is a fun summertime project that we learned how to make from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Items Needed:
-1 plastic bottle with bottom cut off
-half of an old washcloth
-rubber band
-bubbles
Just dip the washcloth bottom of your bottle into the bubble solution and give a big hearty blow!

Weaving Loom Purse

Olive is such a crafty 6 year old! She received a weaving loom in her Easter basket and just finished her first project.

I forgot to take a picture of the loom, but it looks something like this.  She loves making patterns and choosing her yarn to weave. After she weaved the correct length, we pulled it off the loom, and she sewed the sides together.  We decided to use the left over yarn threads to make a closure with a button.  She is now working on a little purse for her friend.

***Please be sure to check out some of our other weaving projects:  cardboard loom, and paper weaving.

Easy Easter Wreath

The girls and I had blast making this colorful Easter wreath.  I was in charge of the hot-glue gun and they helped by sticking the plastic eggs to the foam wreath.  This is a nice way to recycle all those left over plastic eggs.  We even added a little Easter grass to make it look more festive.

My girls know that I usually plan a fun craft to do after their school-work is complete.  Happy Easter Crafting!
Linking to:

Bridge Building

Here is our latest bridge building activity that was completed during our Classical Conversations co-op last week.  The kids were given straws, play dough, and tape to build their creations. The bridge will soon be tested with small weights to see which design holds-up the best.

Olive and her two friends used almost the entire roll of tape and just about every straw, but it's strong!

Beach Mobile

We just spend a wonderful long weekend camping at the beach.  We had perfect weather, ate yummy smores, and enjoyed playing in the water (well, the girls did)!  Here is a fun little beach project made with a piece of drift wood and shells.  All that was left to do was string the shells and enjoy.

Just search for shells with the hole already in them.  This mobile looks lovely hanging from a window.
Linked to:

 

Link and Learn

Dr. Suess Goop - 2 Ways

This recipe is perfect for little hands and only requires two ingredients: water and cornstarch.

Goop 1
You'll Need:
Water
Cornstarch
Orange food coloring
Directions- Mix the water and the cornstarch in a bowl. The new mixture behaves like a liquid and the a sold.
The girls enjoyed watching their spiders slowly sink, but if forced they would stay close to the top. I would use this recipe with younger children.
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Goop 2:
You'll Need:
2 cups -White Glue
1/1/2 Cups -Warm Water
4 TBSP. -Borax
1 Cup- Cold Water
food coloring- orange

This GOOP is very similar to Silly Putty and it won't stick to your hangs. You can keep it fresh by storing it in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. 

Mix glue and water in a separate bowl and borax and cold water in a separate bowl. Mix 2 bowls together and add food coloring or tempera. Stir well, then kneed. Store in air tight container. Do not use near carpet as it's glue
I posted about this second recipe a few weeks ago. Now you can see the difference between both of them.

Seussical Fun!

Here are some activities that we did last year to celebrate Dr. Suess.
We've been having a good time celebrating the birthday of Dr. Suess by reading a ton of his books, making a hat, fishing for letters, color foot stamping, and green egg fun.

 

I found some great ideas from Suessville, it's really a wonderful site! Click here 

We also subscribe to a site called Kidssoup that has some fun ideas too. Click here.

We are in the process of making this Cat In the Hat mask. All you need is a paper plate and construction paper.

Olive loves to rhyme words so in honor of Dr. Suess we started to make rhyming word list.

Train        Plane

Box        Fox

Cat          Hat 

Fish         Dish

Cake         Rake

Book        Hook

Car        Star

I hope you have fun this week...his official birthday is March 2nd. Please keep me posted on your Seussical fun!

Indian Corn Weaving

My girls really enjoyed this weaving craft.

 I cut slits in an oval piece of paper and strips of paper to weave.

 The girls weaved the paper strips, glued them down, and cut off the extra length. The indian corn was a fun project to do. You can also find another cute indian corn idea over at Almost Unschoolers.