It is hard for us to call this an autumn weather study… since the weather around here is decidedly winter these days. Here are our few brief observations between helping Daddy shovel the driveway and full out playing in the snow.
Observations at around 3pm:
Cloudy – sky was all gray
Snowing – big, wet flakes (accumulation was less than 1″)
Windy – (I looked up later that the wind was about 13mph from W)
Temperature – right at freezing 32F
Snowman conditions… perfect. Sledding conditions… a bit sticky and slow.
Join in the Outdoor Hour Challenge #40.
For our quilt squares this month our theme was Thankful. The kids could draw anything for which they are thankful.
If you haven’t caught our directions before, here is a quick run down on the Glue Batik process.
First I cut out 10″ white muslin squares. The kids draw their outlines in pencil (the younger two often skip this part).
We cover the pencil with the Blue Gel Elmer’s glue.
Once the glue dries completely, we paint over the entire square with acrylic paints. We have played with different levels of paint to water ratio. The less you water down the paints the more brilliant the colors turn out. The fabric does become a little bit stiffer though.
Once the paint dries completely, wash away the glue with warm water and tada… easy batik!
You can also check out our previous month’s quilt squares from September and October. I will be making a quilt from all the squares at the end of the school year.
Here is a quick and easy was to dress up some found treasures for the holidays.
Earlier this fall the kids and I collected bags of pine cones. We ‘cleaned’ the pine cones by placing them on a baking sheet, lined with foil, in the oven at 200F for about 20min. This helps removes some of the sap and kill off any little critters or things (hate to say it… but I also didn’t want a bunch of bugs or worms or something all over my holiday table either). This will of course will also help ensure that they are completely open (see our nature study on pine trees for details).
I then used a spray adhesive (outside – I won’t let the kids near the spray adhesive) to cover the pine cones with glue. You could also use a watered down craft glue and brush. Then the kids got to sprinkle lots of glitter on the pine cones. They loved trying to completely cover them with the glitter.
If you want your pine cones to have a holiday scent I would suggest doing that first. You can brush on cinnamon essential oil and store them in a plastic bags for a couple weeks. See this site for directions. OR you could just buy the pre-scented cones from the craft store.
We will be using the pine cones individually as ornaments and in wreaths.
We have been working on something special to share with all of our readers at Wee Folk Art (the crafting blog my mom and I run) for this holiday season. We have an adorable pair of Holiday Gnomes who will be celebrating the holidays with one of our lucky readers. Enter to win Holly and Noel.
I invite all my Nature’s Way Learning readers to stop by Wee Folk Art and check out the contest… and some of the fun free patterns we have listed there. Good luck!
My two year old loves play-dough. It is a constant request of hers. I long ago gave up buying the tiny tubs of play-dough and instead make my own every month or two as needed. When the Pixie girl got out our play-dough yesterday… it was too dried out so we decided to whip up some new Christmas play-dough. We made two batches… one scented with mint, the other with cloves. They have a wonderful holiday scent.
Here is my favorite recipe for play-dough (note the changes for the Holiday dough).
Kool Aid Play-Dough
INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 c. flour
1 c. salt
2 packages unsweetened Kool AidFor the Christmas dough we used 2 tsp ground cloves and red food coloring in one and 1/2 tsp food grade mint extract and green food coloring in the other.2 tsp vegetable oil
2 c. boiling water
4 T cream of Tatar (if you have it… I often skip this but it does make for a nicer texture)
DIRECTIONS
1. In bowl, mix together all dry ingredients.
2. In saucepan, bring 2 cups water to a boil. Turn off heat and add oil.
3. Pour oil and water mixture into bowl, blend and knead.
Tip:
*Remind children that this dough is not meant to be eaten (the Pixie girl seems to enjoy it as a snack though – lol).
*This dough lasts for months when stored in an airtight plastic container. It lasts even longer when the container is refrigerated.
Note: I let the kids help blend the dry ingredients but I take over once we need to add the boiling water. I knead it to begin with and then hand it over to them to finish working in the color once it has cooled down a bit.
We started this nature study in a most unusual way… on the sofa watching tv. We watched the Magic School Bus episode “Wet All Over” about the Water Cycle (on The Magic School Bus: Catches a Wave DVD). We then read Oh Say Can You Say What’s the Weather Today?: All About Weather before digging for mittens and heading outside.
Have I mentioned it is cold here? This was our first sunny afternoon in several days and the kids were quite happy to get out to play in what was left of yesterday’s snow. We took a few minutes to look at the clouds but they were really much more interested in what was going on beneath their feet.
Bug pretty much has the water cycle down. After I asked him a few questions about the state of water around us I left him to his own devices. He was really interested in watching his breath and collecting icicles.
Unknown to me, Bug brought several icicles in the house when we decided it was time to warm up. He wanted to see what would happen. Sure… but can we not have them just sitting on the sofa please? 😉 I got him a little jar to place the icicles in for his experiment.
I did have to tell him later that it probably isn’t a good idea to drink water from melted icicles found hanging off of who knows what outside and out of a jar we use for painting no less. LOL. Boys!
LOL – I totally forgot to post this week’s lesson plans. I think this really shows how much I’ve moved into holiday mode. My evenings have been spent crafting away to get holiday presents and decorations completed in time. Not to mention the fact that we are taking the whole month of December off from preplanned activities. I think my mind has moved on from this term and I might have started my break a week early. 😉
Week Twelve (Nov 17-22)
The Story of the Pilgrims
Sarah Morton’s Day
Samuel Eaton’s Day
L is for Lily-of-the-Valley
We will be coloring the Lily page from our Flower Fairies Alphabet Coloring Book and reading the accompanying story in the Flower Fairies Alphabet Book.
We are still working on stuff for our Thanksgiving table.
Sorry I don’t have anything to share this week. I’m hosting Thanksgiving for 22 people next week and we will be doing so much cooking and baking I will probably take this week off of any planned kitchen activities.
Over the River and Through the Woods (or A Boy’s Thanksgiving Day)
Over the river, and through the wood,
To Grandmother’s house we go;
The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh
through the white and drifted snow.
Over the river, and through the wood –
Oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes and bites the nose
As over the ground we go.
Over the river, and through the wood,
To have a first-rate play.
Hear the bells ring, “Ting-a-ling-ding”,
Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!
Over the river, and through the wood
Trot fast, my dapple-gray!
Spring over the ground like a hunting-hound,
For this is Thanksgiving Day.
Over the river, and through the wood –
And straight through the barnyard gate,
We seem to go extremely slow,
It is so hard to wait!
Over the river, and through the wood –
Now Grandmother’s cap I spy!
Hurrah for the fun! Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin pie!
by Lydia Maria Child
Kindergarten/Preschool Term One Overview: Harvest Time
This week’s Unplugged Challenge was Junk. For this activity we dug into the recycling bin and the box I keep in the back of the craft shelf filled with “useful junk” like toilet paper rolls and old magazines. We didn’t do anything fancy… definitely an all about the process sort of project but the kids had fun.
An hour and a half later… the older two had finished, bathed and moved on to other activities but the Pixie girl was still going strong. I don’t know if she was cleverly avoiding bed time or what but she was quite intent on gluing fuzzy pompoms to her favorite cereal box. I only removed her from the activity when I realized that she was no longer content gluing the pompoms to the box and had moved on to gluing them to her chair. 😉
We tried a new technique this week with our water color painting… adding salt crystals to create an interesting texture.
NOTE: setting down a bowl filled with salt then immediately walking away to answer the phone is NOT a good idea when a 2 year old is completing said craft. This produces the “It’s SNOWING in the Dining Room” effect.
We started by choosing a picture in our book “In November” to use as inspiration. The kids picked a page with 2 cardinals on a bare branch. Then we drew outlines in crayon. We applied the watercolor paints. Over some of the wet areas of paint, we sprinkled kosher salt. I highly suggest you place a tray under your painting first – unlike us! Our intent with using the salt was to make it look like it was snowing in the picture. Once the paint dried we brushed off the salt. It created a tie-dyed looking background and left some sparkly, glittery salt residue (can’t see in the photos) that looks like ice crystals on the page.
Drying with the salt still on.
Close up of texture.
This great offer and idea was just emailed to me and I thought I would pass it along. The Oprah Winfrey Show viewers were suggested to take their kids artwork, create digital images of them and then have a custom book printed. This is a great way to save some of your kid’s artwork or maybe make a gift for the grandparents.
Snapfish is giving away a one FREE standard 20-page 8″ x 11″ custom-cover photo book per household. Hurry… you must sign up for the offer by Friday night and order your book by Sunday. Click here for the offer and details.