Celebrate Dr. Seuss

My son had a half day of school earlier this week.  Usually I try to keep to my normal afternoon routine, but in reality my kindergartener will want my undivided attention and his little brother won’t nap because he’s so excited.  This usually results in me struggling to stick to my regularly scheduled Thursday while feeling guilty that the little one isn’t getting his nap and frustrated that the older one isn’t just playing quietly.  This Thursday I tried something different.  Since Dr Seuss’ birthday is this weekend I prepared a list of fun activities based on a few of his many books, planned a fun Seuss themed lunch and threw my normal looking afternoon out the window.  The night before I picked up a couple extra items at the grocery store, boiled eggs, set blue gelatin in the fridge and gathered some simple craft items that I already had around the house.  

Yertle the Turtle Stacking and Counting Cups:
During the morning my younger son helped paint a paper egg carton blue (I had cut the individual cups apart and trimmed the uneven edges so they stood evenly) and while it dried we read one of my favorites: Yertle the Turtle.  Once the paint had dried we added some designs on the cups with black marker.  I drew some samples of patterns that Dr. Seuss used in his illustrations to give him ideas (polka dots, stripes, zigzags, checkerboard etc).  Then we glued a number to each “turtle shell” and a turtle head that I had sketched to look like the turtles in the book.  Number 12 is King Yertle, the only turtle who is smiling.  When the cups are stacked in chronological order Yertle ends up on the top.

Materials:
egg carton, cut apart
scissors
blue paint
paint brush
newspapers to cover the table
black marker
white paper (for the numbers and turtle faces)
glue

Making Oobleck:
Who can resist an excuse to mix up some water and cornstarch? Mix 1 cup of water into about 1 ¾ cups cornstarch add some green food coloring (if you desire.)  We played in it for about 30 seconds before my 2 ½ year old said, “This is fun! Mommy, I’m gonna go wash my hands!”  He came back to play some more when I drizzled a little onto a rimmed baking sheet and added a couple of spoons for scooping.  At that point it was time to head to the corner bus stop to pick up my kindergartener.  The oobleck was a big hit with both kids.  They played in it, adding a couple of plastic dinosaur figurines, while I put together lunch. 

Green Eggs and Ham Car
My boys are crazy for hard boiled eggs and both like avocado so I mixed up some avocado in with the yolks and a touch of mayo and dill relish to make these green deviled eggs.  I added ham and cream cheese pinwheels for wheels and topped it with a sketch of Sam I am and his friend in the car.  You can stick the wheels on with pretzel sticks or a little cream cheese.  My son enjoyed this lunch so much we packed it the next day to take to school!

Ingredients:
6 hard boiled eggs, cut in half
1 ripe avocado
2 tsp dill pickle relish
2 tsp mayo
1 slice of deli ham
whipped cream cheese
pretzel sticks and alphabet pretzels

1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish Gelatin

I found this on a blog called simple girl at home.  Just prepare the blue gelatin in 1 serving sized cups and gave each child a few gummy fish to press into the gelatin.

Sight Reading Cards
My son is always telling me that he needs to practice his sight words more often so we flipped over these unconventional flash cards we saw on the purple haired homeschooler.  We spread the eggs yolk side up and as he reads each word he flips them into a play frying pan with his spatula.  I cut circles out of green paper using a scrapbooking punch and then glued the circles onto white paper leaving space around each one and then cut, freehand, around them to make the white of the fried egg.

Materials:
green and white paper
glue
scissors
pen
toy spatula
list of sight reading words

Gertrude McFuzz Sculptures
This is also a favorite of mine and can be found in the book Yertle the Turtle and other stories.  It’s a great story about the consequences of greed.  We used aluminum foil for our structure and decoupage tissue paper which gives a great shimmering effect.  Start with about a two foot long piece of foil.  About 1/3^rd of the way pinch the sides of the foil toward the center.  The long side will become the tail.  Form the small side into the body of the bird.  Dab with Mod Podge and lay tissue paper down and dab the top of the tissue with more Mod Podge.  Allow to dry, attach googly eyes with glue and use a marker to draw a beak.  At this point you can also cut the tail into feathery shapes so it isn’t as boxy and triangular.

Materials:
aluminum foil
Mod Podge (we used glossy finish)
brushes
tissue paper
marker
googly eyes
glue

The Big Brag Finger Puppet:
My guys are crazy for putting on puppet shows.  I created this finger puppet for the last story in the Yertle the Turtle collection: The Big Brag. I drew the characters onto craft foam and cut a hole for the worm and made a loop on the back of the worm’s head to fit my son’s finger.

Materials:
craft foam
glue
permanent marker
googly eyes

Green Eggs and Ham Pretzel Sweeties:
To finish off our day of Dr. Seuss fun we made these pretzel sweeties in the shape of green fried eggs (shared with us by a friend on facebook).  Melt about a half cup of white chocolate chips in a mug in the microwave (30 seconds at a time stirring in between until melted, about 1 ½ minutes)  Spoon onto parchment paper and press a green m&m and a pretzel stick broken in half.  Allow to cool to set and enjoy!





Materials:
white chocolate chips
green m&ms
pretzel sticks
parchment paper
cookie sheet

I had that list of activities thinking that my son would choose a couple things from it, but he kept going until supper time and was disappointed that supper wasn’t Dr. Seuss themed!  We had a blast bringing some of our favorite Dr. Seuss books to life and hope you try out some of these fun themed foods and crafts with your creative little hearts.

Kid Director: Stop Action Animation

Today we combined our shutterbug’s love for taking pictures with his love for trains.  He has clocked in many hours around his train table.  You may notice the red wooden engine in the video, where the corners are all worn and the paint is chipped off.  Someday many of their childhood toys may be passed on to younger cousins or sold in a yard sale, but that engine will probably remain – maybe even get bronzed as a memento of his childhood.  On a daily basis he comes up with complex storylines for his engines so I set up a tripod with his little point and shoot digital camera and showed him how to take a photo and then move a train(s) slightly and take another photo to enact one of the stories.  Then we loaded the photos on our desktop computer, removing any that were blurry or seemed unnecessary.  My tech savvy husband then loaded the photos into movie editing software and recorded our son’s voice narrating the scenes.  Then he added another layer of audio in the form of instrumental music with a creative commons license from www.freemusicarchive.org.  I hope you will enjoy his first stop animation video and maybe try your hand at stop action animation with your creative little hearts.

The Paper Bag Art Gallery

Ideas for displaying, preserving and honoring your child's artwork

A dilemma most parents of preschoolers and young grade school students face is: what to do with the influx of artwork done at school?  There are also worksheets that mark their progress, sentimental samplings of early handwriting, and the responses to questions like what they want to be when they grow up and how to make their favorite meal.  Well these papers, too precious to part with, sat broken and sad in a torn paper grocery bag at our house.  Keeping every paper felt like a heavy burden and this storage disaster was no solution.  So I’ve come up with a few creative remedies for this problem. 

1.       You know the sheets of paper that come home where the teacher asks each student a question and then records each child’s answer?  I started a word document where I record all the questions and dictated responses.  They are fun to read through and don’t take up additional physical space in my house!

2.       Establish a folder on your computer where you can keep digital copies of artwork and projects.  Scan flat pieces that are small enough to fit on your scanner or take a digital picture of larger works.  Take a picture of your child with items that they made to wear or use (like masks, headpieces, hats, puppets etc)  Most of these projects are cuter on your child than on their own.



Clothes Line Art Gallery



3.       Hang a clothes line and clip seasonal works of art that you can change up as new works arrive.  Scan or photograph items as they are hung for your digital collection.

4.       Paint unfinished wood picture frames and hang them in your family room or toy room.  You can change these masterpieces out periodically without too much fuss.

5.       Design and print blank greeting cards on card stock (2 cards per 8.5 x 11 sheet).  Be sure to include your child’s name and the date/age they created the pictured work of art on the back of the card.   Pair them with invitation sized envelopes and give them as gifts for Grandparents that enjoy writing letters or as a teacher gift at the end of the school year.



Use children's original artwork on blank greeting cards



Please be sure to back up any digital files in the event that your hard drive crashes.  Keep a few treasured pieces of artwork that were created with their little hands and let the rest go!  I hope these ideas give you some inspiration for how to honor your child’s creative little hearts without cluttering your home with piles of paper to precious to simply throw in the trash or recycle bin.

How do you honor the artwork that comes from your little creative hearts? 

Wear Your Heart on Your Fingers: Valentine's Day Finger Puppets

Today I volunteered in my son’s classroom for their Valentine’s Day Party.  I had prepared a quick and easy craft which fit well in the last ten minutes before dismissal.  After they chowed down on party food and distributed all their Valentines we made finger puppets with craft foam.  The craft foam was stiff enough to stand up and soft enough not to give the kids paper cuts.  It would have been a little easier if I had been able to find self adhesive googly eyes and a hole punch that would work on the thick craft foam.  Before the party I traced and pre-cut the large hearts and finger holes.  Then at the party I had paper bowls with each craft item –small and large conversation heart foam stickers, googly eyes, and scraps I cut from the foam sticker scraps after I popped out the heart shapes.  They used the scraps for mouths – at least one student used them for eye brows.  A few permanent markers were passed around to add some last details like nose, mouth, eyelashes etc. 

These finger puppets were a big hit with the kindergarteners and the clean up was easy, we simply stacked the bowls of materials and I tossed them in zip top bags.

Materials:

Craft foam sheets (precut into hearts with finger holes)
googly eyes
white craft glue
foam valentine stickers
permanent marker
paper bowls (to keep pieces organized)

Not So Scrappy Paper Ornaments

Taking down the Christmas decorations can be kind of a disappointment.   To keep my little ones and myself out of a January winter funk, we leave a few winter themed decorations up including these paper ornaments we made to replace the Christmas glass ball ornaments that had adorned our dining room. 

Materials:
Cardstock Scraps(colored or with a printed pattern) at least 6” long
paper cutter or scissors
ruler
stapler
hole punch
head pins
jump rings
jewelry making pliers
decorative beads
ribbon for hanging

Procedure:

1.       Cut your cardstock into strips measuring the following dimensions:
(2) 6” x 1”, (2) 5”x1”, (1) 4”x1” If your cardstock is blank on the back side you can double the strips so you have color or printed pattern on both sides.

2.       Line up the ends of your strips and punch a hole in the middle of the short side and about a quarter of an inch from the end.  Line up the strips to the other side and punch a hole in the same way.

3.       Stack your strips lining up the short ends starting with one of the largest strips, then a medium strip then the smallest, then the other medium strip and finish with the other large strip on top.  If you have strips with different patterns on their opposite sides consider how you want them oriented.  My paper had different patterns on the front and back so I configured them up so that the patterns mirrored the center strip.

4.       Secure the ends with a staple.

5.       Gently slide the opposite end of the paper strips so the ends line up and they bend into a nice curve.  Secure with a staple. 

6.       Slide some beads onto a head pin and bend a circle in the end of the head pin using round nose pliers to hang it from a jump ring. 

7.       Thread the jump ring through the bottom hole and hang a bead from the bottom.  (The same can be done for the top of the ornament or you can skip the bead and just thread ribbon for hanging.)

8.       Thread ribbon through the top hole for hanging.

Photography is Drawing with Light

This photography experiment I tried with my boys was inspired by a book we borrowed from our local library, Sam and the Firefly by P.D. Eastman.  It’s about an owl who befriends a firefly named Sam who can blink his light on and keep it on so Gus, the owl, teaches him to write words in the sky.  The story goes from there, the firefly plays tricks on people writing “free show” over the movie theater and changing the “hot” sign on the hot dog sign to “cold”.  It’s not the most amazing story, but it’s cute and the idea of drawing with light was fun.  Sam the firefly eventually uses his new skill to save the day by stopping a train before it crashes. 

I received a new camera for Christmas so one night at bedtime I had the boys bring their new flashlights to their bedroom with them.  My camera is a single lens reflex camera (SLR) that allows you some creative control over the shutter speed etc.  I set the shutter speed at about 4 seconds and turned the automatic focus to manual.  The boys took turns writing letters in the air, drawing shapes, and dancing.  It’s not that easy to write backwards so I wrote some words and flipped them horizontally on the computer later on.  My husband tried outlining the boys with the flashlight which turned out pretty cool too. 



 

Heart

Zigzag from head to toe





  On a side note I realized that my writing with light looked just like my normal hand writing.  This is intriguing to me since I wrote in the air using wide sweeping arm movements, completely different muscle groups than writing with typical pen and paper.  But when I look at these words written with light I totally recognize it as my handwriting.  My husband who is much more mathematically oriented than I am also found this interesting.  “The math in that is beautiful,” he said. 






Smiley Face

Circle using your arm as a compass



 

Spiral



Dancing











 





Wrapping Paper You Won't Want to Rip

Hand Painted Wrapping Paper

My eldest son tried his hand at making wrapping paper this holiday season.  We tried several methods and decided that the best paper (quick, simple and most beautiful) was stamped with sponges cut into different shapes.  We started with a roll of white butcher’s paper.  First we cut it to fit the package we were wrapping and wrote the name of the person it was going to lightly in pencil.  We flipped the paper over onto a table, protected by a layer of newspaper, and taped the edges and corners of the butcher paper to the newspaper with a small amount of painter’s tape, so it could be easily removed later on.  Then we decorated the paper with layers of stamping.  Below is a list of materials, some tips for stamping with sponges and directions for making the three designs that were our favorites.

Materials:

Roll of White Butcher Paper

Pencil

Newspaper

Painter’s Tape

Paper Plates

Paints

Markers

Kitchen Sponges

Scissors

Q-tips

Small Cardboard Boxes

Foam Stickers

Wet Wipes (handy for any painting/messy project with your child)

 

 

Tips:

1. If your child has a hard time getting an appropriate amount of paint onto the sponge stamp make a stamping pad by dampening a rag or inexpensive washcloth.  Place the damp rag onto a paper or plastic disposable plate.  Squeeze some paint onto the rag and fold to distribute the paint.  This helps keeps globs and drips to a minimum. 
2. Have your child practice stamping on scrap paper or newspaper first to get the feel for it.  The trick is to stamp straight down and pick it straight back up without sliding the sponge or stamp.
3. Start from the furthest edge away from your child and work towards your child so they don’t lean over wet paint reaching for a blank spot. 
4. Always use washable paints and markers when working with small children and keep wet wipes within arms reach.

Snowy Paper

Stamp circles in a random fashion starting with a medium blue.  Add some white to the blue and do another layer.  Repeat this process adding more white paint to the paint mixture  each time.  We also made a stamp with a small cardboard jell-o box and a foam snow flake sticker.  We finished the design by stamping blue snowflakes on the white spaces and light colored circles and white snowflakes on the blue circles.   

Christmas Tree Paper

Stamp green triangles onto the paper and then decorate with colored ornaments made by stamping a q-tip in a variety of colors.  A star shaped stamp made with a star foam sticker would have been nice for a tree topper (as shown in the snowy paper design).

Strings of Lights Paper

Draw some curly stripes in dark green or black leaving space in between for the lights to make the cord.  We used a marker for this but paint and a brush would work too.  If using paint you may want to let the paint dry before moving onto stamps.  Stamp with tear drop shaped sponges.  Utilize your child’s early math skills by having them make up a pattern to repeat so the colors are evenly disbursed.   Once the paint has dried add a squiggle to attach the bulb to the cord.

It took much longer to wrap the gifts since you have to wait for the paint to dry in between and took up quite a bit of table space.  (Every time it was time for a meal we had to check to see if the paint was dry!)  But it was a lot of fun and the few special people who received gifts wrapped in hand painted paper appreciated it.