GRAB MY BUTTON!

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It only took me 2 hours and lots of hair pulling to get it right, but by golly if that ain't the best button you ever did see! 

Please forgive me - 2 hours of struggling with HTML is not good for the sanity. 

Worst week of my life...

Is also turning out to be the best yet for me in blogland! 


First I need a little venting time so feel free to skip the next paragraph. Teachers are ridiculous, ex-fiancées are hurtful, and exams are DREADFUL! Why why WHY would you assign the biggest research paper of the semester to be due during exam week? Is this week not stressful enough? If you loved me so much this past year, how have you already moved on? I have to know every major world event from the 1500's to the present for one test, how does one even begin to study for that?


Did ya skip that? Good, it was painful. Onto why this is turning out to be my most successful week for blogging. The other night I discovered I had received  [I before E except after C and in words that sound like A as in Neighbor...and every other stupid word in the English language that can't be normal. This is why spell check was invented.] My very first Feature over at Delicate Construction and was ecstatic to say the least. Check out my last post to understand what I mean. Now I find out I have been featured AGAIN!!! 

Same post as last time, Raindrops. WOW I could get used to all this special attention ;) 


It makes me so happy to see I may actually be inspiring some people out there. 


Thanks soo much Rachele@Messy Kids! 




I don't know if these pictures will be inspirational in any way BUT I was digging around my old clothes and stuff for some scrap fabric for a project I'm working on when I found a bag with some old costumes in it. Of course I took a trip down memory lane. 

Can ya guess what I was here? A box of nerds! yes it was nerd day at my high school and while everyone else drew on uni-brows and threw on suspenders I sewed these two shirts together, strung a bunch of boxes of mini nerds into a necklace + belt [that got thrown out] put on pair of pink leggings+knee high purple socks and VIOLA! 

This was my 80's costume. My hair was teased that day but don't you just adore that scrunchie!?!

I also found a a Bonnie and Clyde costume I wore to a couples Halloween dance a couple of years ago, but this was midnight when I re-found these costumes and didn't feel like whipping out the stockings and beret. Random pictures I know. 


I don't know how I transitioned from being excited over my SECOND - count them...1...2 - feature, but then again I've been trying to stuff centuries worth of knowledge into my head the past 5 hours so... Until next time, hopefully I'll have a legitimate post for you to read. 

Proudly presenting from Angelyn's half conscious brain...

MY VERY FIRST FEATURE!!!

OHH-EM-GEE

Thank you, Michelle!

I always link up to her Made by Little Hands Monday's [check it out] and this week she featured my Raindrops post.

I'd like to thank my mommy, because without her...*sniff sniff* I wouldn't be here [literally].

And of course the man up stairs. Thank ya big guy!

And finally my little ones, because well they are the ones that actually made the project with their little hands. 

YAY WOO-HOO HOORAH HIP-HIP HURRAY

Hopefully this is not the first and last time I am featured......

Well seeing as I am in the midst of final exams, my brain is fried and no longer functioning properly [as you can probably tell from this silly post] 

so until next time...

grabbing some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzs

Rainbow Collage + freestyle clouds

I got this idea from The Imagination Tree. Great blog with tons of inspiring posts. I love how she emphasizes the importance of play in her blog, and her kids are beyond adorable! You should check out her posts about Discovery Boxes and Treasure Baskets, those are my favorites.

Moving on, I got the idea to do a Rainbow Collage from their, and I wanted to share my results.

Remember this messy looking rainbow painting from my post The Sad Life of a Poor College Student.

Well there WAS  purpose for that sad looking thing, and it was this rainbow collage! It's a pretty self-explanatory project; basically I painted it - cut it out - spread some glue out on one color at a time - gave my kids a variety of objects of that color to place on the rainbow. I did this over 4 days, 2 colors of the rainbow each day + one more day for the clouds. I skipped indigo...eekk! 

You can see a few misplaced colors, not a big deal, I am actually surprised it came out as correct as it is! This is all due to Talen. During her turn if she noticed any misplaced colors from one of the other children she had to fix it! Haha it made me laugh, and I was very proud of her color recognition. I used foam stickers [their favorite] sparkle balls, paint chips, feathers, & pipe cleaners. Lots of texture and fun in this project.

We also made clouds to go underneath our rainbow. I was going to have a coffee filter covered in cotton balls with a little glitter sprinkled over for this project. Sounds pretty right? Well my plans changed the night before when I read this post about Art Placement at Art 4 Little Hands. Another great blog, and inspiring post. Unfortunately letting go of control is not my strong point! You're supposed to leave some art supplies out when kids aren't paying attention and let them come to it on their own time, and do with it whatsoever they chose. Well I cheated a little bit. I had my kids sit at the table and handed them these art supplies.

Some gluey coffee filters

And a coffee filter with a few cotton balls, white pipe cleaners, and silver glitter.

Sensing a theme? AHH I'm a terrible art teacher, this is hardly giving them free reign over their creation process. It was a baby step though, a very small first step, but progress from my usual reign of control. I also gave them paintbrushes so they could have something else to utilize if they wanted. Here is what I got...

 Bre dipped her paintbrush in the glue and painted her hand with it, not how I had intended BUT this was not about my wants, but hers and a gluey hand is what she wanted =] 

Then dipped her hand in the glitter. This is Bre's final product. It sure looks pretty.

 After decorating her hand, she decided to add a couple cotton balls and pipe cleaner to her coffee filter.

This might have been with the help of Talen though...

Here is Talen's work in progress. She went at it like she was a cloud making professional!

Here is her finished product. She finished before everyone else, so decided to lend her cloud making talents to help her friends. No kidding, I guess she thought because I wasn't taking control, she should. She went around the table 'helping' them put their clouds together.

I saw alot of smearing the glue around with the paintbrush before adding anything, I guess they learned that technique from me.

 I LOVED Emery's idea to dip her brush in the glitter, then put it on the paper.

 Unfortunately this process is time consuming and after a while when she saw her friends finishing, she decided the dump method would suffice.

Pretty, no? 

Linking up to...

Raindrops

...keep falling on my head, but that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red. Cryin's not for me 'cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin' because I'm free nothin's worryin' me.


I did this real simple project with my kids at work to demonstrate raindrops. We used a medicine dropper to drip watered down blue paint onto white paper. Boring I know, but I was really interested in introducing them to the dropper and teaching them how to operate it. We always use brushes or sponge stamps to do painting, but you can paint with tons of items: trucks, q-tips, nature, feet, etc. I wanted my kids to experience making art with a non-traditional art supply. They wanted to dip the dropper in the paint, then rub it onto the paper like a brush, but after a couple of times of helping them squeeze water in then squeeze it out over the paper they got the hang of it. Well, most of them got it... I was surprised my two oldest were determined to 'paint' with the droppers, even after showing them the dripping method, while my younger kids picked it up quickly. Oh well, it was a fun new experience for them, easy to prepare, and interesting to see their reactions. Plus I thought it was great fine motor practice for pinching, and releasing. Here are some pictures I took =]

 

 

 Linking up to some AMAZING linky parties this week, starting with...

Birds Nests

I saw this idea on someones blog, and though I thought I saved it, I can't find it now =/
You just need yarn, lots of Elmer's glue, and some sort of bowl that you can use to create the shape of the birds nest, and for best results, use a ceramic, plastic, or glass bowl, something that the glue will not stick to.


-First step is to cut strips of yarn [i cut them about my arms length], and then soak them in glue. 

 I thought I would use only a bottle or so of glue for this much yarn [5 nests] but used over 2 bottles! thank goodness my classroom has lots of that stuff. Also, I was thinking that if you have an older child with better fine motor skills, or just want to experiment making a pretty nests on your own, I bet embroidery floss would, and look real cool!

-Next drape the glue soaked yarn over an upside down bowl so they dry in a nest shape.

I have alot to say about this step! 

*As you see I used paper bowls. BAD choice. It takes a couple of days to dry, and I didn't want to bring and leave my bowls at school, so I made the wrong decision to just use the paper ones at school.

* I gave my kids one piece of yarn at  a time to work with and let them play with them. The glue soaked yarn is a fun new experience and you can't just give a kid something like that, make them put it on the bowl and not let them keep touching and manipulating it. So this step takes alot of time with younger kids.Oh ya and just handing them the bowls took a little because they wanted to turn them, slide them, wear them on their heads... lots of time + patience.

*You can see in the picture one smashed bowl and a few sad pieces of yarn on top. This is the product of the youngest in my class room, Bri. She was so interested in experimenting with the yarn that I couldn't get her to leave it on the bowl. I eventually gave up and just let her play with her two pieces which included tasting, dropping, putting on her head... it took a little scrubbing to get the dried glue off her later, but she was so happy I didn't mind. The smashed bowl is because at one point she wanted to see what would happen if she stomped on it, and well you can see the results to that experiment. 

*The two oldest in the class had fun playing with it too, but figured out to arrange the yarn on top of their bowls.Unfortunately when I announced that their art project was all done, one of them decided that meant to dump all the yarn off their bowl...she was able to rearrange it again quickly. I guess I need to be more clear with my instructions.

*The two middle kids [about 20-22months] needed help putting the yarn on the bowl, and not in one small clump, or spread out half across the table. 

After all those adventures, here are the results of 5 little hands!

 I told myself I wouldn't go behind them and rearrange their projects...but it had to be done.

 I tried to keep them as close to how the kids had actually left them [except bri's her's was done again from scratch] but I also wanted them to be able to hold things inside. Does that make me a bad art teacher?

-After you let them dry for at least 2 days, maybe a little more because some of the thicker spots were still a little wet, remove them from the bowl.

 

 Because I had made the mistake of using paper bowls, the yarn had stuck to the bowl. I was able after much effort seperate the yarn nests from the bowls, but it took it's toll on some of the nests. So I took them home and hot glued the yarn that had been misshapen from my tugging and ripping.

-I tied another piece of yarn with a label of the kid's name strung on around the edges of the nest and stapled them to one of our display boards. I think they look just grand hanging there. I placed Easter eggs inside and the Thursday before Good Friday, I'll send each kid home with their nest, and some candy and a peep inside! 

This project might have gone smoother had I worked with one child at a time, and sacrificed my ceramic bowls for a couple of days. Despite that, they had fun with the gooey yarn, and they love looking at their finished project. I can't wait to see their reactions when they leave with it and discover the peep inside =]


Linking up to: