Book Inspired Art

This morning Jillian had her first skating lesson.  She skated last year and did really well but we thought we would sign her up for some lessons, too.  The drive to and from the rink was absolutely beautiful.  All the trees were covered with snow and the view was amazing.  Here are some pictures from our backyard.

I wrote about this book yesterday.  We read it again today and loved how all the pictures were blue and white and looked so dramatic.

I found this great book inspired art project at Superheros and Princesses. 

I put painters tape on cardstock since this was the tricky part.

Then Sarah painted the paper dark blue and 'sprayed' on the white paint with an old toothbrush.

We then peeled off the tape and had our own dramatic winter scene like the book!  How great that a wonderful book inspired our craft for the day!

Sarah liked the craft but really wanted to join Jillian in making their own 'masterpieces'.  So they sat down with our easel and created their own blue and white scene.

And here they are......

Snow Day

It's our first SNOW DAY of the year! 

We were unpleasantly awakened by an automated 5:45am phone call from the school announcing the school closure.  I knew last night that we would probably have a snow day so I was ready with snow related activities and books for the kids.  Usually I only have Nathan on Friday's - the prospect of having all 4 kids at home all day had me scrambling for activities to keep them busy.

Snowman Glyph

Have you ever heard of a glyph?  I had never heard of one before until Sarah started bringing them home as homework.  You use a legend (key) for what different parts of the glyph mean (like what kind of hat the snowman will wear, color of the scarf, how many buttons and what kind of footwear).  

Shaving Cream Snow Painting

The next craft we did was so fun!  I took some sky blue cardstock and drew a tree with brown marker.  Then I mixed good old Elmer's glue and shaving cream together and gave the kids Q tips and spoons to dot and smear the 'white snow' on their picture.  The results were great!  The 'snow' dried to a soft marshmallowy texture and the kids loved applying it to their winter tree.

You could also add food coloring to the 'snow' and decorate a Christmas tree with snow or make snowflakes on a dark blue piece of cardstock.

Then we sat down to read some snow themed books. 

Coffee Filter Snowflakes

The books reminded me of another craft I was thinking of making - snowflakes!  I filled small bowls with water, tinted with food coloring, and had the kids use droppers and Qtips to color coffee filters.  We let the coffee filters sit on paper towels to dry and then cut them into snowflakes to hang on our kitchen door.

And here is the little sweet baby that so patiently sits, watches and observes while we craft.

Pizza Fractions

I printed off these sheets from the Family Fun website.  They look so realistic!  We didn't play with them according to the game instructions on the website - but we plan too!  I just cut the slices out and started talking to the kids about fractions.

I thought this would be more appropriate for Sarah, but Jillian and Matthew ended up being more interested.

Jillian decided to set up a pizza store.  I would ask for 1/2 a pepperoni pizza, or 1/4 or a cheese pizza and then pay her in pennies for the pizza.

She even discovered that a 1/2, a 1/4 and 3/12 will make one whole pizza and that 3/12 is the same as 1/4.  This was a great way to have fun with fractions!

Recycling

The girls have had lots of use from 2 hair bands with a large rosette attached to them.  The rosette had been looking more and more sad and finally started to detach from the hairband.  I ripped off the rosette and was left with this.....

I had some cream and pink felt from a previous project and cut out small flower shapes and stacked them.  Then I sewed on some small little beads in the center of the flower and hot glued the flower onto the hairband.  Here is the renewed and refreshed hairband!

Great Kids Music

The Puntamyo series of CD's are a great way to introduce children to world music.  They have music from all over the world.  One of our favorites to dance around to is World Playground 2.  The kids can get a little wild while dancing but it is also a great way for them to expend some of their energy.......and boy do they have a lot of energy!

Sarah loves turning up the music and dancing around.  Today, after a bunch of dancing she said, 'I'm so happy inside!'.  Then she added that she was a little bit sad because Daddy wasn't home yet to join in our wild rumpus.



In the above picture Sarah is holding Kaya, her American Girl, who has made a major resurgence after being neglected for at least a year.  Now, she is the most important thing to Sarah.  Over Thanksgiving we had to send Kaya to the American Girl Doll Hospital to replace her detached arm (due to certain siblings fighting over the doll and hence pulling the arm right off).  Sarah sent a very heart warming note to the Doll Hosipital doctors asking them to take extra special care of her Kaya - so sweet.

Calendar Skills

Since it is now the first month of a new year I have been trying to work with Sarah to remember the months of the year and which months are in which seasons.  Sarah seems to forget the months of May, August and November.  While Jillian can rhyme off all the months of the year, Sarah does not pay attention to things she is not interested in - and she is just not interested in anything calendar related.  We have tried to work with this by hanging a calendar in the kitchen and having her refer to it whenever she asks us a calendar related question.   

I remember that it took me a while to learn all the months of the year and I have never been able to remember how many days are in each month.  This little rhyme did not help me.

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
All the rest have thirty-one

Save February, with twenty-eight fine
'til Leap Year makes it twenty-nine!

BUT....I came across this awesome way to remember!

Counting on your knuckles!!

All the knuckles are months with 31 days and all the spaces in between the knuckles are months with 30 days (with the exception of February).

January has 31 days

February has 28 days - this one does not follow the rule

March has 31 days

April has 30 days

May has 31 days

June has 30 days

July has 31 days

Then go back to your first knuckle to finish off the rest of the months!

Eureka!!  Now I know how many days are in each month Mom!!

Cinnamon Salt Dough

After making the salt dough ornaments I wanted to try the cinnamon salt dough recipe too.  They turned out great and smelled delicious while baking.

I know it is now after Christmas but thought I would still post this since they would be great for other holidays too (for example hearts strung on a garland for Valentine's day).

Cinnamon Salt Dough

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup cinnamon
1 1/2 cups water

Mix dry ingredients together and add water to form dough.  Knead several times before rolling out.  Dust surface with cinnamon and roll to a 1/4"-3/4" thickness.  Use cookie cutters and remember to poke a hole in each ornament before baking.  Bake at 300 degrees for 45-60 minutes.

You can use some fine sand paper or an emery board to smooth off the edges of the ornament.

Can you tell we do most of our crafts in the morning?  My kids always seem to be wearing their PJ's in the pictures!

 

Simmering Spice Stovetop Potpourri

Happy New Year!

We had a great Christmas back in Ontario with friends and family.  Since we had a long drive back last night it was nice to have a low key and relaxing day today.  The kids started out by playing with some of their Christmas presents. 

Chris and Matthew finished Matthew's lego construction vehicles.....

.....while Sarah worked on her latch hooking.  I clearly remember latch hooking when I was a little girl so it is fun to watch Sarah doing the same.

As you can see she has completed 2 rows with MANY more to go.  I hope that she sticks with it and finishes her project.

Since it was a mild day today we all went out to play.  Here is a snowman that the girls did all by themselves.  Jillian even put eyelashed on their 'snowgirl'.

We also hung up the birdseed tree ornaments that the kids made for Chris.  They look so pretty against the back drop of snow.

Then the kids played 'Just Dance' on the wii.  It is a really fun game!  The kids looked so cute dancing around.  Sadly Sarah preferred songs by Ke$ha instead of the 'classics'.  I think this marks the beginning of musical divergence in our household.

While we played around this afternoon I had this great stove top potpourri simmering on the stove.  It smelled amazing and filled the house.  We will definately be making this again!

1 orange sliced

1 lemon sliced

4 cinnamon sticks broken into halves

3 tablespoons whole cloves

2 tablespoons whole all spice

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon nutmeg
4 cups water

Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Then reduce to a simmer and enjoy the wonderful smells.  Occasionally watch the pot and add more water as needed.

Wishing you a wonderful New Year filled with

health and happiness!