Valetine's Craft

For Valentine Day this year we were going make heart shaped wreaths that I saw on a friends blog. The tutorial can be found here. The tutorial shows a round wreath, but my friend used a heart shaped wreath which I wanted to use as well. When I went to the craft store to get a heart shaped foam wreath I couldn't find one. I didn't want make a round wreath for Valentine's Day, so I was just about to forgo the whole project when I had an idea. I could make my own design up using the circle folding method found in the tutorial. I bought a large rectangle styrofoam like board and many sheets of colorful felt material. I think the board was meant for flower arrangements, but it worked well for our purpose too. The kids immensely enjoyed this craft, as did I because it was simple, clean,quick, and best of all super cute.



Here is the tutorial for how we made our LOVE board.

Material needed:


1. lots of long strait pins
2. felt material to cut in to circles
3. foam board
4.pencil
5.ruler
6.paper.

The first thing that we did was make letters out of paper to trace on our board. We used a ruler to make block letters , but you can draw your own or make them on the computer and print them off.

Then we place the letters on our board and arranged them the way we wanted and pinned them in place with straight pins.
After pinning the letters in place we traced them on the board with a pencil, or pen.


Then we outlined the letters with the folded felt circles.

After out lining the letters we filled them in.

After you outline and fill in all the letters then you are ready to fill in the rest of the board, and your project will be finished.

Magical Pictures

The Golden Fish by Paul Klee was our inspiration for these magical pictures. Paul Klee used oil paint and watercolors, but we used oil pastels and watercolor paint to get a similar effect. W wanted his to look like the original painting. M and B were more interested in making up thier own.

Caterpillar Coins

Reading Incentive Program

Caterpillar Coins are coming to little raCOONs academy. One way to run the reading program is every 15 minutes read earns 1 Caterpillar Coin. Collect your coins for a given time frame. At which time you will be able to spend the Caterpillar Coins at Carry Caterpillar’s Collectables. This little store is filled with a vast number of different items. Examples of items in store are: dvd’s, puzzles, games, books, fishing tackle, stuffys, jewellery etc.

An other way you could run the program is to earn coins that buy electronic decive time for example Xbox for 30 min, a movie and popcorn, DS for 30 min etc. For this type of program you might not want to save the coins over a long period of time. They could be used as you go. Just have fun with the idea. You can taylor it to fit what your needs are.

You will receive a reading log. When you read for 15 minutes and mom or dad approve the time you can fill in a spot in your reading log. When the log is full you can hand it in to your teacher(mom) and she will reward you with your Caterpillar Coins.

You can draw up you own coins, search on line for printables you like, or print off something like these coins.

Resolutions

At the start of a new year we are making some resolutions. These resolutions include focusing more on other areas of our education other than just math, science, social, and language arts. Although these are the most important areas we feel that it is time to expand our circle of knowledge. We are going to forcus on making our bodies as healthy as possible, and developing our artistic and cultural talents.

Story Writing

B and M put thier heads together to write a story about going to the dentist. Here is the result of thier hard work.



A Trip to the Dentist

One summer afternoon while Fred the crocodile was eating his lunch he cracked his tooth on a chicken bone.
Fred went and told Mama Croc that he hurt his tooth.
Mama Croc told Fred that she would make an appointment with the dentist, Dr. Hippo. “Dr. Hippo is the most genius dentist in the jungle. He will fix your tooth.” Mama Croc explained.
Fred was a little nervous about going to the dentist. He wasn’t sure about someone looking in his mouth, and fixing his tooth.
Mama Croc told Fred not to worry. She put her arm around him, and sat him down on Papa Croc’s chair.
Mama Croc told Fred about the little mirror and pick Dr. Hippo would use to look in his mouth. She told him about the mint flavoured numbing gel he would put in his mouth, so Fred wouldn’t have to feel anything while Dr. Hippo fixed his tooth.
Mama Croc told Fred that Dr. Hippo saves the best part for last. Fred would get a new tooth brush, and he would get to pick a prize out of Dr. Hippo’s special green prize box.
After Mama Croc described to Fred what the dentist would be like he wasn’t nervous anymore about going. He was even a little excited to get a new tooth brush and a prize.
The next day Mama Croc and Fred went to the dentist to get his tooth fixed.

Remembrance Day

Now that that all the excitement of Trick-or-Treating is over and the sugar buzzes have worn off it is time to focus on the great men and women that gave there lives for this country to keep us free and safe. We are learning the poems In Flanders Fields by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. We are also going to be making poppy wreath crafts to helps us remember.

Science experiments

If you are ever in need of a science experiments I came across a fun web site today. It has 52 differnet experiments to try out. I can wait roll up my sleeves and dirty. All in the name of learning.