Fairy House (kid brag)

While Mike and I worked on home repairs (post coming) all last week, Sheridan and Logan came up with a project of their own. They spent three solid days on it. I have never seen them cooperate for that long before!

A very special young lady was turning ten Saturday, and I had already gone out and purchased a gift. She loves fairies, though, and the kids got it into their heads that she needed a fairy house. They asked me for a box, and I gave them some leftover blue paint and free run of the craft materials.



This was all them! I didn't give them any direction or ideas, they just looked at what they had available, and thought things up. The only assistance I gave was cutting the door and window holes at their direction. Here is the finished product:

Fairies need glitter!

Of course, they had to make furniture, too.

Sheridan had sewn pillows for both beds (adult and baby sized!), but the cats stole them, and we can't find them anywhere! Pom-poms worked just as well. And then we locked the house in a closet.

Table and chairs:

Even artwork on the walls:

Of course, they need books to read, too!

This one is titled "The Little Fairy". The Gingerbread Man gets a cameo too! The birthday girl seemed to like it, and her little brother was seen playing with it few minutes later. Hopefully her parents will forgive the glitter some day...

Review: Create with Duct Tape series

Here's an argument for the ages: is it "duck tape", or "duct tape"? I have always said duct tape, and held that "Duck" tape is a brand name, but I have had people correct me. Turns out, we are both right, but you'll have to read the introduction to find out why:

9781512426687

9781512426663

If you are a librarian, I do not have to tell you that DUCT tape crafts are very popular, especially with teens. We had a craft night this summer with all sorts of fun possibilities, and all anyone wanted to play with was the duct tape!

You may also know that it can be difficult to find simple, printable tutorials online (huge thanks to the librarians who had made their own and shared them with me!) I would have loved to have these books on hand - most projects are detailed in a two-page spread, making it easy to prop the book open and follow along as you work. The projects are also more diverse than the old duct tape wallets and bookmarks, while not requiring too many out-of-the-ordinary materials, or too much technical skill. And they are cute!

Web sites at the end of each book offer more ideas, a history of DUCK tape, and other related information.

I guess there's only one thing to do now - we'll have to schedule another crafting day so I can make use of these and the other titles in the series (Duct Tape Costumes and Duct Tape Fashion), which of course, we will also be ordering.

Tween Program - Christmas Decorations from Paper Towel Tubes

We hold our Tween (grades 4-7) program on the last Monday of each month during the school year, and weekly during the summer. Participation is higher when school is out, but there is still a fairly steady handful who will come out on a school night.

Mr. Cliff runs this program, with the assistance of his lovely significant other, and this week they tried one of those Pinterest crafts that I know I would completely mess up. There are a million tutorials out there, but this one is from Chasing Fireflies, one of the blogs I loosely follow:

Yeah, I envisioned a gluey, misshapened mess when I first saw that, and I didn't even try. Fortunately, middle schoolers are more coordinated than I am.

Such focus!

Huge thanks to all the staff members who have been dropping bags of toilet paper/paper towel tubes on Cliff's desk (you can stop now!). The finished products look fantastic!

I may actually have to try this at home after all!

Back in the Saddle!

After our usual August break, to restock and clean supplies and just take a much-need breather, we have started our regular story time schedule. Today went went in with a bang: painting with body parts!

Our theme was grandparents, and I have been stockpiling little tote bags for a special project. Not too many people special-er than grandma and grandpa, so we printed out sample ideas of things we could make from hand or foot prints, and spread out the supplies - a big piece of paper and a bag for each child, Sharpies on a separate table, watercolor markers on all the tables, and washable tempera paint in little souffle cups (God bless whoever donated them to me years ago!)

There were big t-shirts to cover clothes, and two tables with just markers for those who didn't want to take chances, but I think everyone chose to paint.

There were some really cute results!

We had the tote bags for the grandparents, then paper to make more pictures on,

because I knew some children would just do this:

Of course, painting your hand (or foot) was the best part.

Some artists were a little more shy than others.

And some pictures needed a little extra time to dry.

Most importantly, no paint seems to have made it onto the new carpet, so Miss Ami still has a job!

The stories we read today:

      

Shaving Cream Easter Eggs

(***published the day AFTER Easter because my computer was being difficult - bookmark it for next year!)

Ever third Mommy blog seems to feature shaving cream Easter eggs, so we thought we'd give it a try. Shocking, I know, that we would be drawn to something messy. All we had in the house was shaving gel, but fortunately Daddy was headed to town, so we sent him on a side trip. Supposedly whip cream will work, too, but I didn't have much of that either, and I didn't want to risk wasting it!

So, we hard-boiled our eggs, then filled baking pans with shaving cream and a few drops of food coloring.

By "we" I mean "Mommy". I'm not totally crazy.

 

Swirl it a bit with a toothpick, then you're supposed to roll an egg from one end to another.

 

Ours didn't roll, they just scooted. Too much shaving cream? Too little? I have no idea.

 

No matter, everyone was happy to just squish them around.

 

We do a lot of semi-naked crafting, for obvious reasons.

 

 

Mmm-hmm. Being the overachiever she is, Sheridan didn't stop with getting her hands messy.

 

NO idea how that happened.

 

Aaaaaand, on to the sink!

We let the eggs sit on paper plates, covered in shaving cream, while we ate lunch, then wiped them off.

 

Pretty! Mostly pastel-type colors. I may experiment next time with gels vs. liquid food coloring, or see if we should have added more drops. At any rate, the kitchen and dining room smell nice and fresh - although Sheridan's arms kept their greenish tint for a while...



Summer Reading Week 3: Underground Animals

I had a hard time finding good read-alouds and suitable crafts for this one!

 

Story Times

 

Preschool

What We Read:



    

 

It was hot, the kids were wiggly (like worms!), we only made it through two! We talked about animals that live underground, and I showed them our worm farm made from a 2 liter bottle (dozens of instructions in the internet).

 

What we made:

 

 

Worm art! Use the worms (yarn) to make pictures, or do it in abstract and sell it for a thousand dollars.

 

Table Set-Up:

Total fail in picture taking. Very simple, though: each seat had a piece of paper, glue, and scissors, then I scattered different colored balls of yarn.

 

Kinder/1st Grade

What We Read:

         

 

What We Made:

Ants at a picnic scene!

 

Table Set-Up:

 

I also had wet wipes at the front to wipe with after using the stamp pads. Some of the 5-year-olds who came with a local camp got a little over-enthusiastic, pressing their whole hands in, so this turned out a little bit messier than intended.

 

2nd Grade and Up

What We Read:

       

 

What We Made:

 

Yes, I know, moles are not purple and pink. But they should be.

 

Table Set-Up:

 

Because we just didn't make enough mess with the dirt last week. This went with MUCH instruction involving keeping the sand contained (and with a very realistic understanding that it would not happen). We had different underground animal shapes spread out up front, to choose from. The popsicle sticks are for spreading glue evenly. I also had large baggies available to take the pictures home in, and kids could leave them on the table to dry while they went to lunch.



 





Tween Activity - Origami Animals

 

Great turnout!

 

     

              

 

Thursday Afternoon Movie

 

 

Teen Cafe - Reptile Show

 

This turned out to be more of a multi-age program, presented by one of my former students, Joshua Haynes and some of his friends. They brought a dizzying number of reptiles, mostly snakes, and shared all sorts of fascinating information about how they live both in the wild and in captivity. I HIGHLY recommend him to any teachers looking for a classroom program!

 

 

Mike, here, refused to speak, he just held and demonstrated:)

 

Now, that's a striking scarf! A bit heavy for summer, though (about 12 pounds).

 

I didn't think she was going to give him back!

 

Josh describing how big Spike, held by Mike, can get.

 

Don't worry, much hand sanitizer was used over the course of the evening.

 

Explaining the difference between different phases of the same type of snake.

 

I HAD to hold this one! 8 feet long, about 24 pounds. There was a contest to guess her weight (and, really, people who guessed 300 pounds or more? Do I LOOK like a body builder?!)

 



Friday Family Event

 

This was just one of those good weeks where everything scheduled worked together with the theme. The Asombro Institute for Natural Science is based in Las Cruces, part of the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Preserve. They offer programs throughout the year, with groups coming out to the preserve, as well as presentations they give at other locations.

 

She started off with the story, "The Three Little Javelinas". There were just a few audience members at first, but the room was packed by the end of the story.

 

She showed all sorts of animal skulls, skins, etc. and explained how their bodies helped them adapt to our desert environment. She included a lot of audience participation by having the kids pant like a coyote, etc., and misted the audience with a spray bottle to demonstrate how sweat helps us cool down.

 

There were two live animals, a spadefoot toad and a tortoise, then everyone got to feel the snakeskins and ask more questions.

 

Another highly recommended program, if you are in southern NM!