Such Things

Building Bridges

During the month of April, the students completed the "bridge challenge" which was a summary of all of our learning about Structures.  

They made a plan to design their own bridge, based on some samples of bridges that we had discussed in class, such as suspension bridge.  

The bridges had to span at least 30cm and hold the weight of two cars.  

The students were provided with some materials and were also asked to bring in some materials from home if they chose to. Many of them worked with their parents on the projects at home.  The final bridges were on display for our student-led conferences 

and the students were very proud and excited about what they had designed and created.  All of them met the criteria too!

Christmas Highlights 2013

Wow!  Was Halloween really my last post?  I think that's a record for lapses in posting!  I meant to post a couple of things, but the busyness of work and the season set in again.  Lots of wonderful December memories, including the decorations, concerts, crafts, crackers, gifts and even a snowfall:

Not to mention cherished family and friends.  Wishing a blessed and joyeous season to all!

Autumn and Thanksgiving

We have been enjoying these sunny October days, noticing the oranges, yellows and reds and enjoying our favourite fall places, not to mention a bit of "turkey" crafting:

Happy Thanksgiving to all our Canadian friends!!  So, so much to be thankful for!

Spool Knitting, or What I Like to Call Tube Knitting for Kids

This summer, the kids really got into tube knitting after trying it out at a the Maritime Festival in the summertime.

What fascinated me is that the artist used a home-made knitting tool, that she had created from coloured card-stock, popsicle sticks and patterned tape. 

We discovered some patterned duct tape at Walmart and used that when we made our own at home.  It's great to have home-made ones because you can use them with a large group and even have older kids make their own tubes. 
The knitting itself is very easy.  You just tie the wool on (we discovered you have to use regular wool, not thick wool), loop the wool around each one of the popcicle sticks, then put the wool on top of the loop and lift the loop over the line of wool.  Some very clear instructions about how to do the knitting can be found here at Craftinsanity.com.

Keep doing that over and over, pulling tight until all the wool is used up.  My only question is, what to do with the knitted tube when finished?
I think my favourite idea so far is to make a knitted cactus!:)

Cupcake Decorating for Kids

One of the easiest and least expensive birthday cakes we ever served at a party were cupcakes decorated by the young guests themselves. 

We bought cupcake icing in an aerosal container in a couple of different colours and then supplied M&Ms, coloured candy stars, sprinkles and other toppings found in the cake decorating section of the grocery store.

The girls were extremely focused as they shared and added the decorations to their cupcakes.  We let them make several and then put them all on a desert platter when finished.  You can also buy pyramid-shaped cupcake holders as well.  When we sang Happy Birthday, we brought out the cupcake platter with candles on top.  To add to the desert, we used a floral foam in the bottom of a vase and skewered some fruit to make our own fruit bouquet. 

The girls were excited to eat their own cupcake and the skewers as well.  A great idea for a home birthday party!

Canada Unit: If You Are Not from the Prairies Art Project

I think the best way to teach students about Canada is to take the most visual journey possible, the next best thing to actually taking a trip. 
When teaching about the Prairie provinces, the book If You Are Not from the Prairie, written  by David Bouchard, is a powerful teaching tool both in its poetic language and painted imagery.

I read it slowly to the students, emphasizing the repetitive words, "flat", "sky", "grass", "wind". 

After the reading, as a class, we discuss the pictures, focusing on the horizon, the colours, foreground and background. 

The students choose from photocopies  of some of the key pages from the book, which they, themselves attempt to sketch. 

After sketching, they outline the bolder lines of their drawing with sharpie pen.  In this lesson, I shrunk the artwork on the photocopier, to darken their pencil lines as well.

To finish the project, the students used water colour paints, mostly blues, yellows, greens and browns to paint their pictures. 

A few carefully chosen spots in their paintings, such as a barn or flower, are painted with a bright, bold colour, such as red or pink. Lastly, the students use sharpie to print the key word that goes with their picture, such as "grass", "flat" or "cold". 

The students were thrilled with their finished pieces and others enjoyed them too.  Likely a small, but hopefully an accurate glimpse of the Prairies.

Winter Leaf Print Christmas Tags

I was so disappointed to run out of time for autumn leaf prints this year, that I had the idea to do a winter version. 

We have been studying coniferous trees, so we practised using a cedar branch to make beautiful prints on white paper. 

After the print was finished, we added pinches of glitter on top of the paint.

The children added silver and blue borders to bring out the colours in the sparkles.

They attached the tags to their gifts, and now the gifts are waiting proudly

to be taken home in the next day or two.

Hope you are enjoying your Christmas crafting!!

Steveston, B.C.

We enjoyed a fabulous day in Steveston, on which happened to be my fortieth birthday. The weather was warm with a bit of a breeze blowing in from the ocean.  I was so happy to be using the new portrait lens that Mark got me for my birthday-especially good for taking close-ups. It's a Cannon 5Omm f1.8.  I think Mark enjoyed using it just as much as me!

We saw all the sights and shops

in the Fisherman's Warf area, including the docks where they sell seafood right off the boats,

the Gulf of Georgia Cannery and Garry Point park, where the kids played on the rocks by the water and in the Japanese Gardens.

We headed next to a festival at the Britannia Heritage Shipyard,

where they had different kinds of print-making for the kids.

It was dusk and the light was amazing.  There were many photographers making their way down the pier.

We finished off at the Night market, which was a feast for the senses with unique food, entertainers, venders and crowds of people.

A blessed day indeed and a very happy birthday for me.  At forty, I feel more settled and contented than ever, or is that just because it's summer?

Hope you are enjoying these beautiful weekends!

Easter Chicks

Every year the kids love to decorate our Easter tree. 

Each year we seem to make and collect more and more ornaments.  One of our favourites is the Easter Chick ornaments that we made ourselves.  Here's how we did it:

We painted those little styrofoam eggs from the dollar store with satiny yellow paint.  We also covered some with ripped yellow tissue paper applied with glue (an idea from Usborne).  This gives a textured, feathery look.

Then we added an orange paper beak, googly eyes and feathers to make the wings.  We attatched ribbon at the top with a pin and then hung the cuties on our tree.

Easter chick bliss.

Corn Husk Dolls

The kids were so excited to eat from our meager corn harvest. 

Miranda collected the husks and ran to get her I Can Make That book. 

Within a few minutes she had created this adorable corn-husk doll by bending a husk around some "corn silk" for the hair.  Then she tied wool around the neck, waist and you could separate the bottom to make legs (our husk was a bit short for that).  The arms were made by sliding in a second husk and tying wool around the arms.

Miranda painted on a face, and enjoyed her cute little corn husk doll.  I think if she had a blog, she would have posted this herself!

Hope you are enjoying the last few days of September!