What's New

Here's a few things we've got done this week:

First, I bought a few packs of large buttons on sale at WalMart this week, along with metallic glue sticks that my KL decided needed to be tried out- more specifically as new hair bows.

She picked out the ribbons, designs, and buttons for each.

Here's the first one, my first of this style boutique bow:

She very much loves pink. And really wanted to use the heart buttons.
(My husband was kind of happy with this one because it ended 2 different rolls of ribbon, he thinks I have too many.)

Here's the second:

She wanted to help with this one, however, when she did she shifted the layer of red loops so one is a little out of place, but she didn't mind so I don't mind. This one she chose the star ribbon because I "haven't used it in a while" (I've got some ribbons I've never used but she's worried about the one's that have been a while since used). Then she chose the yellow and red to match and the blue star just seemed perfect to finish it all off.

The metallic glue sticks weren't really all that impressive. The only time I could tell it was a metallic color was when I would use a large spot, and even then it was really just a little shimmer looking more than full on metallic looking- oh well, they were cheap (cheaper than a pack of regular).


After we made new bows we tried a science experiment/DIY art supply- turning run down markers into liquid water colors. Here's how they looked just about 10 minutes after adding the markers. I'll edit later to see how they look later- they're supposed to sit for about a week to pull all leftover ink out.

You can see the water already pulling the color out of them.

This is approximately 18 hours later:

(We had neon dry erase markers that left those colors with an almost cloudy look, we will have to see how those turn out.)

Before I'm completely done I will probably cut the ink tube out to get the most out of them, but for now we will let them sit like this for the directed week. I'll update this post, or make a new one, when they're all finished.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Bug Week, Days 3-4

On Wednesday we took a look at the different features and looks of bugs.
We made a chart and listed spots, stripes, antenna, color, and number of legs (easy one, I know but it helped them realize part of what makes an insect an insect).

I just made a chart on Word, simple project.
Here's a few action shots:

(KL didn't know what, or how to spell the names of, some of them so I used little post its to help her there.) 

(KK stacked hers after she finished with them.)

On Thursday, we investigated flies- more specifically, their compound eyes.

I spent a lot of time using Microsoft Paint to make the image of a fly's head. Then transferred that image to Word and filled the page around it with information about the eyes.
Then they used bubble wrap to fill in the lenses of the eyes.

(KK's eyes)

(KL's eyes- the paper really wanted to shine on me :( )

If you choose to paint with bubble wrap (and it is fun), it works best if you paint onto the bubbles with a paint brush and push it on the paper gently so it doesn't smear.
Like so:

That's all for now,
Jo!

Bird Week, Day 4

Today we made painted a peacock...

... kind of.

We started out but painting with just about everything but a paintbrush.

We used combs, old used gift cards, straws, and plastic knives and spoons.
Here's KK's painting:

And here's KL's finished painting:

And then once it was dry we used both pictures to make one peacock (partly because it was getting close to bed time when they were dry and partly because I wasn't sure how much I would get out of just one) using simple tear drop shapes as the tail feathers.

It was fun to experiment with different painting utensils. Here's the action shots:

That's all for now,
Jo!

Rainbow Week, Day 5

Yesterday we did rainbow archery.

This was originally found as a birthday party game (with a "Brave" theme) and I thought it looked too good to pass up.

Unfortunately I bought my bow and arrow at the dollar store, and it wasn't working with the Big Ks; I could get it to shoot but they tried and tried and got nothing from it. So we decided we'd just throw the arrows, which also made it so they didn't have to wait and take turns so it kind of helped.

I made my targets with poster board and a compass, it was pretty easy. Then I hung them from the clothesline (it was a little windy so I grabbed a few boards from our garbage, that had no nails and clipped them to the bottom for some weight).

Then I set up a bowl of every color paint and a bucket with water to rinse. We also had some paper towels to dry the tips.

And then they had plenty of fun. I think they spent over an hour just throwing the arrows at the targets, or getting a running start and throwing during the slide, at one point KK was sitting on the ground behind her target and throwing it up from under it - they were just having a blast.
 Here's the action shots:

 Eventually KL knocked hers off the line, so we put it on the ground and she was doing it that way. It really was pretty fun, however there were some spots that were so thick they weren't dry this morning.  Oh well, I left them on the line to dry so there wasn't any paint tracked through the house, except what was on their clothes.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Flower Week, Days 1 & 2

Last night we went got home late and had very little time to do anything.
This week started a flower theme, and math-centered lessons too.
Since I needed something quick I went with an activity I found online here.

It was super simple. It allowed KL the opportunity to identify the numbers (and match them to the chart) and to make the lesson a little more difficult for KK, we introduced the concept of probability and fractions to represent them too.

Here's the action shots:

KL lucked out (twice) and beat KK. The second round we even made them build in the order flowers grow. They had fun (minus losing twice).

For today, I printed off a few worksheets I had found online. It was set up as a multiplication activity, but I switched it to addition for KL (just out of Kindergarten).

(Isn't KL adorable counting on her fingers <3 her!!) 

(KK finished quickly and started coloring hers)

After that we painted a few swirlly flowers for a game later this week.

We just put a little drop of 2-4 colors and then swirled the paintbrush outward- and we had a few we decided look like a pile of poop- we may have over-swirled our paints.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Butterfly Week, Days 6 & 7

We we're traveling this weekend so I didn't get to post them.

Day 6 we just did a water color wax resist painting. (Which my kids don't quite understand, they like to draw their picture and just paint a line right over it- whatever. It took me a while to learn but it is impossible to make art "wrong"- as long as you expressed yourself it's art!)

So here they are:

I'm sure you know how it's done- if not, draw on the paper with a wax crayon, paint over with water colors and they won't "stick" to the wax.
Here's the action pictures:

Saturday we did beaded butterflies:

I just used some left over jewelry beads (that have been sitting in my craft stuff for years!!) and the wire that I had with it and let them go at it. We started with a bead in the middle for the "head" and then worked with the wire folded in half and beaded both wires for the body and then single strands for the wings (leaving a few inches for twisting space and antennae). I let them decided whether the upper or lower wings would be bigger and then twisted it around a time or two in wherever I could find enough space on the body and again at the top right under the head. when it came to the antennae I only let them put a few beads on and then ran the wire back through the top bead to hold them in place. (And since my K girls always draw their butterflies with curly antennae I went ahead and curled the tips with a pair of needle nose pliers.)
Here's the action shots:

That's all for now,
Jo!