Spring Flowers

It's officially spring. As I'm sitting here it is a gloomy day with sprinkles. In some ways, a perfect representation of spring. It's not my favorite season, but I do love how variant it is. Pretty much anything goes for spring - hot, cold, snow, rain, windy, cloudy. . . you get what I'm saying. We had a LOT of snow this winter and as it melted away, I was amazed to see that despite all the heavy white stuff on them. my daffodils and tulips had pushed through the ground. I imagine it won't be too much longer before the buds appear.

Leaves returning, blossoms on the trees and flowers all around are some of my favorite parts of spring. So, as I was sitting down with with my son, working out of Ed Emberley's Picture Pie book at his request, I decided I must make flowers.

The book is full of many ideas, but you can easily use your own creativity. I keep a bin of colorful paper scraps - left over scrapbook paper, the fronts of thank you, birthday, etc. cards, and so on. It is very handy for a project like this. When we got he book I went out and purchased a circle punch. I want to say it is an inch or maybe 1.25 inches. 

 It needs to be enough that you can cut the circles in to eighths and have the pieces still big enough to work with. Of course, you can always just cut the circles out with scissors. 

 One thing I like that this has taught my 6 year old a few fractions. All the ideas in the book use these 4 shapes. For the spring flowers, we'll just use the 1/8 piece.

 First I filled the bottom of the paper with various greens for some grass. I found it easiest to just put short lines of glue on the background paper instead of each individual triangle.

 Then I randomly put green triangles scattered around the rest of the page. For the petals you can do 3 or 4. I think they look better a little tucked under the green, but clearly you can do it however you like.

 Lastly, add some stems.

This picture makes me happy.

And if you aren't into flowers, there are certainly other options.

 My son started with a bird and a fish. 

 Then he did a pair of these along with another fish.

The options are endless.

Get yourself cutting and gluing!

Growing Easter Grass

We thought it would be fun this year to grow our own Easter grass.

  

NOW is a perfect time to start in order to have some fun grass for Easter

We saw a tutorial HERE and gathered our supplies....

POTTING SOIL

WHEAT

FUN CONTAINERS

SPRAY BOTTLE

PLASTIC WRAP

The girls were super excited at the idea.

First we found some fun containers from around the house.  We grabbed a few unusual choices and then filled them with potting soil

I had some fun tin containers that I didn't want to get ruined  - we lined them with the bottom half of a gallon baggie.

Then we filled the containers with soil to about 1/2 to 1 inch from the top

 Next we sprayed the soil with a spray bottle to moisten the dirt.  

 Finally come the wheat.  We put our on dry but also decided to soak some overnight to see if it germinated faster.(which it did)

 We placed the wheat seeds on the top of the moist soil.

Then covered the containers with plastic wrap to create a "greenhouse" effect.  

Then placed the containers on the table near the sunny window. Then the waiting began.....

Day 1

Day 2 Each day we would lift off the plastic wrap and spray the seeds. 

Day 5  We started to see roots appear within a 2-3 days and then on day 4-5 the green started to emerge.

 We continued to daily spray the seeds and once the green shoots started to reach the plastic wrap - we took it off permanently.

Day7 - As the grass grew longer we  sprayed twice a day to  match the growing root system.  The kids loved to call it giving the grass a "Rainstorm".

Day 9 - the grass seemed to grow really quickly within a week of first seeing any roots - the grass looked like this

Day 12  Within a few days after that it was time to give the grass a "Haircut"

 The kids were really excited to do this.

 After the initial trimming the kids thought i would be fun "shape" it - with artistic flair

 It was fun to see how much they got into the creative process

End result was some super fun Spring grass.  

All you need is about 12 days - to get to planting so you have have some really Easter Grass.

Year of the Snake

Last year for Chinese New Year we made lanterns and dragon masks. Well, it's about time for the dragon to move on over for the snake. Sunday the 10th is Chinese New Year and the snake will reign through next January.

This project was modeled after one I did sometime around second grade. I remember that I loved making it and it actually was hanging up in my room even when I was in high school. Thinking that if I loved the project so much that my boys, one of them a huge animal lover, would be all over this. With the "Year of the Snake" coming up, I decided the timing was perfect.

Very basic supplies that you probably have sitting around already. Markers also work well (unless you pick the dried out ones like I did!). The paper plate will need to be the very basic cheap-o ones.

Using the indented circle as a template, cut out the head. When starting on the outer edge of the plate, make sure you cut at an angle, as one end will be the tail.

Either pre-fold the circle in half or just keep it flat and fold later and fill in the mouth.

On the other side give the snake some eyes and nose dots then fold in half. The head is ready to go.

Next up is the body. The bumpiness of the plate is a little hard to color on, so you can just smash it down before you start.

 You can look up various patterns snakes often have to decorate it or just wing it like we did.

 Fold up one end of the outer ring and staple to the head.

 Your snake will look something like the one on the right. You can roll it up to help it curl better.

 The longer they hang the more elongated the body will be.

The project was even more loved than I could have guessed. My animal lover asked both yesterday and today if he could make more, in addition to the two he did on his own and the one we tag teamed on. They are easy and very kid friendly to make. Options are endless.