Sticky Leaf Bracelets

Duct tape and a stroll in the woods made for an adventure in bracelet making. 

Wrap a piece of very sticky tape, like duct tape, around your wrist with the sticky side facing out then head outside.
    
You don’t need a forest to make a sticky bracelet but we have one right behind our school so we went for a walk.
       
As we walked we discovered pine cones, ferns, coloured leafs, and sticks that we added to our bracelets.  Finding each item allowed us to identify it and see if it would stick.  The pinecone was the only one that didn’t stay on.



We also saw mushrooms, a squirrel and slugs but left them behind for others to enjoy.

Pom Pom Patterning

Our play tray table this week contained one activity.
      
A simple activity using egg cartons, pom poms, tongs and pattern cards. 
I found this idea at Ecole Petite Section.
        
I painted the dots to match the pom pom colours that I had.

            
The older children caught on to the idea quickly and filled up the cartons.

The younger children enjoyed using the tongs and placing the pom poms in the carton.  With a little help they started to match the colours from the cards
to the pom poms. 
              
A simpler idea for toddlers would be to paint the inside of the cartons.
I'll try that another time.

Piggies in the Bath and Blankets

Well this isn’t art in the way that you have a finished product but it is art in regards to colour mixing and using different tools (scrub brush and toy pigs).

Most of the children weren’t keen on getting their hands dirty so I moved the wash tub right up to the art table.  It allowed easy movement back and forth from the tub to the table.  Turned out that the piggies preferred to be clean.

Meanwhile at the snack table…
      
                   we made Pigs in a Blanket.

We used Pillsbury weiner wraps and hot dogs but I cut them much smaller.  It was interesting to watch that most of the children tried to roll the dough towards them rather then away.
          
           One can of 6 wraps made 24 piggies in a blanket.

We talked a little about that the weiners are made of pork that comes from pigs.

Feed Silo

I ended my post about our barn building wondering if our barn was finished.  A couple of followers gave suggestions for additions; a tractor, a windmill.
 
The windmill would have been great but not relevant to the farms around here. But the suggestion did inspire the idea for a silo.  I used the other half of the box that was left from the roof.  Crimping it allowed it to be curved in a circle, well almost.  I tied string around it to help hold it round.
          
The silo isn’t very big and probably wouldn't last very long if we made
a door for the children to go inside.        
     
Instead I thought I could build an apparatus similar, but much smaller,
to one of Tom Sensory’s.
      
A tube was threaded through the silo, one end higher than the other.  Two troughs were placed on either side of the silo and we use wood pellets for the food.

The animals were brought out of the barn to eat at the trough.
      
Soon all the feed is in trough on the low side.  How do we get back to
the other side?
                         
One solution tried was to scoop the food at the lower end to go up the tube. 
It didn’t work.
 
Another solution tried was to switch the troughs.  That worked.
      
A third way was to dump the full one back into the empty trough. 
That worked too.

A great day of playing and learning.

Feather Painting

     
 
        How easy or difficult is it to paint with a feather? 
The children experienced it this morning and showed us how to do it.
 
 
                     We saw some wonderful and varied results.

The feather painting also worked as a base for collage.
   
        
                   A mixed media collage at four years old.