Ipod apps

I set little man up with a couple preschool apps on my phone and was astonished to see how well he did with the touch screen. I will be searching and listing a few in a post soon.
All the other kids enjoyed a gift of colored construction paper from a coworker. Christina,Cam,and the littles made welcome home posters and pictures for Trent who comes home on saturday. I just set them up and the table and let them do art anyway they wanted it was fun. No project just free art time. What a way to see what they like, learned, and retained. Everyone should have time to create.

Artist Study-Henri Matisse

With our "rowing" of Boxes for Katje we are studying artist Henri Matisse. We looked at several of his collages and compared them to the illustrations in our book.  Then we used my scrapbooking paper stash to make some collages. I also found this coloring page here.

How do we study art? Well it may sound crazy but I bought a calender of art and scanned it into my computer. I downloaded the pictures to a digital photo album that I hung in the playroom. I call this "subliminal art learning". I have been dying to try this since we bought a digital photo frame for Grandma last Christmas. I knew it would be a great way to introduce some art images to the kids with little effort on both our parts. I change the photos in it monthly. Think of it like a slow flashing bulletin board. The bonus is it takes up less room than a wall of art all hung in individual frames. We focus on just one artist at a time. Please realized that I have my copy right on this original idea and if I see it on a page without a link back to me I will enforce copyright infringement! [You know who you are--- cause you stole from me once already----- "mama" (name changed to protect the guilty) Don't think you can dare steal another idea from me just because your blog is bigger! Take notice my oldest is in law school now!] That is why I try to link everything I use that I find on somewhere else back to the original place I saw it. Anyone else also hesitate to share great ideas because you saw your idea posted on a bigger blog the same week as your post with no link back and a claim that it was their idea? Sorry for the soap box, getting off the box and back on topic again. No pun intended since this is boxes of soap for Katje not soap boxes for Mitten Mom.

A Short Biography
Henri Matisse was born in France in 1869. He first studied Law. At age 20 he underwent surgery on his appendix. During his recovery his mother gave him a paint box. Matisse discovered a love of painting and became an artist. He is know for his use of bright colors. After he became wheelchair bound in his old age, he did collages with paint backgrounds and cut paper.  This is called drawing with scissors. Source-More about Matisse. 

play/art

This weekend my friend peggy who is a pro photographer came over and set up her studio in my livingroom. Everyone had so much fun posing and modeling their new school clothes they haven't worn yet. Cam was turned into a real model. everyone got bit by the photography bug.

Modeling Bee's Wax recipe

I found this recipe here for modeling beeswax. Since we found some bee's wax at the local festival for $1.00 a small bar I bought 5-- to try some modeling wax with the kids. My Grandpa Curtiss raised bees and I love the smell of bee's wax. It reminds me of him. It's like a hug from the past.

Modeling Beeswax
Approx 1 cup of beeswax
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp lanolin [do not use if you are allergic to lanolin]
Melt the beeswax in a double boiler, [add grated crayon for colour]
Mix the lanolin and the olive oil together and add to the beeswax.
Once all is melted – remove from heat and keep stirring and pour into a walled [and lined] cookie tray. Cut into pieces and leave to cool
To check consistency, warm a piece in your hand and check its pliability. If it is to hard, add lanolin or oil. If to soft add beeswax.

*note while looking for this recipe I found out what was in the modeling clay from the store-UGGGHH!!! I will never buy that again. Definitely worth making our own naturally.

What did we do all day?

Today we started with a hundreds board for number review. That turned into a sorting game since I got out the bin of place markers most of which the kids hadn't seen. Little man started a color sort with the egg tray I keep in the bin all by himself. I was surprised and then pleased at how many he put on the right color no prompting from the peanut gallery either. Pitty-pat and Tippy-toe then abandoned the hundreds chart for the sorting game so I gave them each a Candyland card and told them to find only the color on their card.

Then I took Pitty-pat aside and gave her number cards I found on Mathwire that are like the hundred board-but I only gave her the 5's and asked her to count by fives to 100. I am surprised at the tears but then she caught on and now can count in her head to 100 by 5's.

Then all three little one made crosses from tissue paper and contact paper. I showed them how pretty they were when held up to the light. Little man held on to his all day long. He like placing the tissues on the "sticky".

I also got out the Resurrection basket and talked about each item and how we would be learning about the real meaning of Easter the next two weeks. Pitty-pat was amazed to learn Jesus was "real". Of course then she demanded to see where Israel was on the map and astounded to see me point to it. I could see the wheels turn as she realized it was "REALLY REAL". I think today was a success.I was going to study Scotland next but I think we should study Israel for our next country instead. I don't want to do too much right now at the holidays but I might be able to find the flag and a map for our continent box at least.

Making Pies Theme

Here is what we are doing today-making pies and freezing them.

 I have a small pumpkin that is begging me to bake it for a pie. So today is a Making Pies theme. My mom has been gone 1 1/2 years now but I have fond memories of making pumpkin pies from scratch with our own pumpkins right out of the garden at age 5 years old. The picture below is my mothers tattered copy of the Betty Crocker Cook Book and her favorite mixing bowl. The many riped and torn pieces of paper stuffed in are her collected recipes from friends.

Making pie crust to cool so we can roll it out later.

 

 

Pitty-pat washing our pumpkin

If doing this yourself look for the really dark orange small pumpkins. Those are the pie pumpkins.

Baking our pumpkin in the oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour until golden and soft.

Letting it stand until it was cool enough to touch was the hardest part.

Soft and mushy in the inside. Pitty pat refused to touch the insides to scoop them out and throw them away.

The meaty insides was then scooped and peeled away from the skin and frozen to use in pies next week.

Activities I found to do while the pumpkin baked

1. P is for pumpkin bingo marker art-haven't tried this with little-man yet but he loves to paint. These are from here at Homeschool Creations. ( I cut the P is for Penny half of the page off and I am saving it for Presidents Day.)
2. Cherry Pie Play dough mat from Pre-Kinders.We are using this for a counting activity with red pom-poms.(This activity could also be brought back again for President's Day.)
3. Paper plate pumpkin pie -I saw this great stArt activity at almost unschoolers. stART is story+art from A Mommy's Adventures I can't wait to see more of these ideas. I just happen to have all the basic supplies for this easy peasy art idea.
4. Pie fractions felt activity-- I made this a long time ago. It is just different colored circles cut into fractions 1/2,1/3,1/4,and 1/8ths. I have to slip a little math in today. How big a piece of pie do you want?
5. Pie crust instead of play dough to make into little tarts and bake for dessert today.Mom always had extra for this so I wouldn't get into her pies.

How to draw a turkey!

I found this link to Art Projects for Kids showing how to draw a turkey. We just had to make a few yesterday. i printed out the turkey then had the kids trace over with tracing paper then they painted them with coffee and sprinkled salt on the turkeys. They all loved this activity! Especially little-man, he often has used brown paint it's his favorite and he got a paintbrush for the first time. Tippy-toe who hates handwriting traced two turkeys no problem, no fuss. And the paint smells so good and I don't have to worry if they taste it. Hurray! I pinned the tracing paper and picture to their cork boards so it would stay put for the work.

Indoor sandbox

Today we are studying fractions. I had some left over colored rice which I gave to the kids along with each getting a canning jar funnel, narrow funnel, wide moth jar, small mouth jar, cheese jar, measuring spoon,and a specimen bottle. I set them up with different colors so I will know who needs to sweep the floor by who gets the most rice on the floor. I cautioned them that the rice on the floor will be put in the trash. Now and then I walk over and say whose jar is full, half full, ... ---sandbox math!