Entries from August 2009

August 29, 2009

Very Hungry Caterpillars

For our last day of At the End of the Rainbow we had a little encounter with The Very Hungry Caterpillar. What a  well-loved little chap he is. A simple yet captivating book.  After reading, we got down to business with the plasticine and everybody had a go at making caterpillars.

And they were very  hungry, of [...]

August 26, 2009

“I made lots of oranges.”

I found myself with a little time to fill today and decided to return to colour mixing. This time I offered the primaries, black and white, and a still life “provocation” at each table.

Some fruit. Sheltering from a rainstorm.

It was a good reminder of how many different connections children are making when they have this [...]

August 24, 2009

Mouse Paint and Colour Wheel Pizza!

My class this week is “At the End of the Rainbow.” Colour is our main focus. Today I tried two new things, and I’m pretty pleased with how they went, though in each case I could imagine some improvements.

As the class is all about colour, I wanted to introduce the children to colour mixing quite [...]

August 23, 2009

Homemade bouillon cubes!

This evening I’m making my own vegetable bouillon cubes. The recipe is from Rodale’s Complete Book of Home Freezing. I borrowed it from the library when we got our freezer and have been continually renewing the loan. I’m quite excited about bouillon cubes. I do use the store bought ones, and often have call for [...]

August 21, 2009

Visiting the Allotment

Just back from a rewarding, all be it HOT, visit to the “allotment”. (This is the piece of ground allotted to us in my parents garden to grow vegetables.) I’ve been over every day for the past week to water, which is a change from the wet beginnings this year. Things are growing well! It’s [...]

August 19, 2009

Peaches and Basil: Summer Love

Never mind this peaches and cream nonsense! What you really want to be eating is peaches and basil. The combination may sound surprising but once you try it you’ll understand why it is one of my favourite summer treats. Fragrant and delicious. And local! (Peaches from the market, honey from Local Source and basil from [...]

August 18, 2009

Could this be “knitting”??

What are those stick things?? And what is all that string for?? Could this be “knitting” ??

Picked up the sticks after what seems like ages. And not only that! – I’ve started some Christmas knitting. For years now I’ve been trying to tell myself that I should start in the summer but have never managed [...]

August 16, 2009

Rediscovered: a very lovely house.

My mother was cleaning out her attic and found our old dollhouses. This is the little dollhouse my father made for me. It is the smaller and the first of two, and the one that seems to really strike a chord with me. Though I had forgotten about it memories and emotions came rushing back [...]

August 13, 2009

Jungle birds and Treasure Maps

This is the second time I have done this bird project, and it seems to be a great success. I was originally going for something like those wooden geese with wings attached to strings, but discovered that a paper model would flap its wings simply by being moved up and down.

I think the best part [...]

August 11, 2009

Go North!

Today was the second day of “The Great Art Adventure”. (3-5 year olds) And today, we went North!
We read a beautifully illustrated book,  “The Three Snow Bears” , and made some snow landscape collages using many different white materials. These included salt and flour – it looked wonderful, the kids were very excited about it, [...]