A Few More Star Activities

Wrapping Paper – cardboard stars were taped to the table
and newsprint placed on top.

Pastel chalk for rubbing.
 

Star Wands – sticks, paper and ribbons.

 
 

Star Shaped Cheese Crackers
 
 

For the recipe head over to Inspiration Laboratories.
The only change I made was to substitute garlic powder for the onion powder
because I didn’t have any.

They are delicious.

Star Gazers

   
Today we finished our study on stars by making star gazers.
    
They are very inexpensive to make and the materials you can
find around your house.

             
Start with a tube from paper towel or toilet paper. 
Then cover one end with a piece of paper, securing it with an elastic.

 
Use a pin, or like us, an embroidery needle to poke holes in the paper.
Some did random holes while others did shapes or letters.

      
We decorated the outside with star stickers (they were donated, yay) and markers.

 
Having a peek at the stars was a challenge for some. 
Which eye do I close? 
Which eye do I hold the tube to?
    
    But they all figured out how to make it work.
         
               The inside of my star gazer.

Colouring Sheets

     
After visiting the Wonders of Learning exhibit in Vancouver last month,
I was inspired to make a permanent spot for the overhead projector in our room.
 
It is placed on a low riser and illuminates on to the wall. 
   
The children have been experimenting with how it turns on and off. 
What parts move?  How does it work?  What will reflect on the wall?
   
They have been exploring with a variety of materials. 
Coloured blocks, rock mats, clear paper weights, old slides and more.
        
Making the connection between what they put on the projector, what they
see on the wall and describing it.

This week I added black outline pictures printed on transparencies. 
I was a bit surprised that the children wanted to colour them.       
     
I don’t provide colouring sheets in the program as I feel that they
don’t offer much for creativity but I was surprised how attractive
this is for the children.
 
And surprised that it is mostly girls that are attracted.

Driving home today I thought back to my experience with colouring books
and fondly remember colourfully filling in each page. 
I felt like an artist.

I talked to my daughter, who is now 24, about this and she remembers colouring
and enjoying it too.  She felt that it did offer her creativity because she could
decide if she wanted the tree to be pink or rainbow or whatever colour she desired.
     
So by not providing colouring sheets in my program am I missing
an element of creative art for the children?
I would love any opinions on this.

Parachute Lessons

Today we got together with our big buddies in the gym to play with the parachute.
We haven’t used the parachute very often but when we have I learned that it is
very exciting for the children and to be able to give directions we needed
to start with small steps
and that meant at first sitting down to use it.

This allowed more control both for me to give the directions and for the children
to manipulate the parachute with just their arms.

We started by moving the parachute side to side then up and down. 
Those were the two movements we would focus on today. 
Having the big buddies as role models for each child allowed me to stand apart
and observe how it was working.


Now we were ready to make popcorn. 
We pretended the parachute was a big pot. 
First it needed to get hot so we turned on the stove, poured in the oil
and threw in the popcorn kernels (soft yellow balls). 

The oil needed to be spread around so we moved the parachute side to side
and listened for the oil to get hot.  Once we were all making sizzling sounds
the kernels were ready to pop.

But I learned that using a bigger parachute made it much more difficult
to pop the balls off the parachute especially when we were sitting
so we stood up.

Although it was alot more fun it didn’t help much
in fact I could hear some students say they were getting tired. 
So we brainstormed and decided to make a wave,
one side would lift the parachute up really high while
the other side went down low.

It didn’t work either so next we sent the little buddies underneath
to knock them off.


They loved it.  I could hear the laughter from both young and old.


Lastly we gave the little buddies a ride –
it was wonderful to watch their expressions of glee as we walked
around twisting the parachute so it moved.


The final lesson I learned was to make plans with the big buddies
before we get together. 
After the parachute play several came up to me and suggested
other ways we could use the parachute. 
Ugh!  I have to remember that I’m not in this alone, that many minds make great plans.

Thanks grade 7s for another wonderful experience.

Stars for our Fairies

              
This morning several families ventured into Fairy Lane
to decorate it with the stars that we made yesterday.
 
It was raining a bit when we started but it didn’t slow us down.

 
Most of these families haven’t explored Fairy Lane before so it was
exciting for them to find the fairy doors for the first time.

 
As they discovered the doors they decided where to hang their stars. 

 
The stars are not very big, as you can see by the first picture.
But we're sure the fairies will see them.
 
Once the trees were decorated we stopped for a snack and story.
   
     
The Three Wishes was a perfect story to hear in this forest setting.
It is about a poor woodcutter who wishes that he could have better
clothing, home and food but none of his wishes come true till the day
he finds a very big oak tree.  
When he is about to cut it done a Tree Fairy appears and pleads for him
not to cut down her home. 
He agrees and is granted three wishes. 
But he accidentally misuses them.

       
 The children were excited to show me the web of stars they found.
The raindrops on the leaf skeleton do look like little stars.

       
I hope you have a chance to visit our Fairy Lane and feel free
to bring more cherished items to share with the fairies.