D is for Ducks

E's latest letter focus was the letter D. She did a Dd 'dot' painting that I'd drawn up for her and made a collage of things beginning with D. We made a dice using a wooden cube and a permanent marker. We did some dancing. And we did this duck craft:

To make your own ducks, you will need:

• 2 cardboard tubes (empty toilet paper rolls)
• yellow crepe paper
• glue (we used a simple homemade paste)
• orange card
• white card
• pencil
• black marker
• clear sticky tape

Here's how to do it:

• Cut one of the tubes in half so that you'll have one tall duck and 2 shorter ones.
• Smother the outside of each tube in glue.
• Paste on some yellow crepe paper.
• Cut some smaller pieces of crepe paper and glue a few to each duck for tail feathers.
• Let the paste dry.
• On the orange card, draw 3 pairs of feet and 3 duck bills.
• Cut them out and draw some nostrils with the black marker.
• Tape feet and bills onto your ducks.
• On the white card, draw 3 pairs of eyes (using black marker).
• Cut them out and glue them onto your ducks.
• On the white card, draw 3 pairs of wings.
• Cut them out and tape them onto your ducks.

All done!

E enjoyed this craft. She loves gluing things and she loves ducks. She even got to practice cutting with scissors. She later drew a pond for her ducks to play in.

-Polly

Learning Latin

Another book that we bought recently is "Getting Started with Latin," by William E. Linney. No-one in our family has ever studied Latin before, so we plan to work through the book at a snail's pace. That way even 2-year-old E can keep up. Here's an activity that we did after learning the Latin word for 'sailor':

We made basic origami sailboats and little cardboard sailors to sit in them. Here's the folding instructions:

 



We have also watched this [three pigs] cute video a few times. It's fun to watch even if you aren't learning Latin.

vale!

-Polly

Leg Warmers

Happy Earth Day. :)

In honour of the day, I thought I'd share this super-quick re-purposing project that I sewed up this morning. I love to turn old clothes into new ones.
So here's what I made today:

They're leg-warmers made from an old baby t-shirt. There was a stain and a tear near the neckline of the shirt, meaning it wasn't wearable, and I had already used the sleeves to make a pyjama top. I've saved the buttons for another project.

The leg-warmers are really easy to make. Here's how:
1. Measure length of legs from below the knee to the ankle and around the leg, just below the knee.
2. Cut two pieces to match the length and width, adding seam allowance at the top. I kept the original hem from the bottom of the t-shirt, so didn't need any allowance there.
3. Sew two lengths of elastic, slightly shorter than the around the leg measurement, to the tops of the leg-warmers. Fold over and hem.
4. With right sides together, sew the long edges. Turn the right way around and they're ready to wear.

Leg (or arm) warmers are so versatile. They're easy to take on and off which is useful in ever-changing weather, yet they don't need to be removed for toileting or nappy changes. E also has some that I made from a pair of socks and I have some that I wear, too.

Are you doing any recycling/re-purposing projects for Earth day?

-Polly

Paper-Plate Jellyfish

Last week E requested that we make a jellyfish. We'd previously done "J is for jellyfish". We did drawing and play-acting and saw some real jelly fish at the aquarium. This was the first time that we actually 'made' one. So here it is. How to make a jellyfish.

Materials (for one jellyfish):

• 1 paper plate
• scissors
• masking tape or double-sided tape
• paper streamers
• coloured markers
• (optional) string

Method:

Cut the paper plate in half. Stick a row of tape (sticky-side up) along the straight edge.

 Tear the streamer into pieces approximately the length you want the tentacles. Stick each piece to the tape. We made 10 tentacles for our jellyfish.

Put some more tape around the outside of the plate.

Stick the other half of the plate on top.

Colour and decorate your jellyfish however you wish.

All done!

You can then add a bit of string to the top if you would like to hang it up. 

E just had fun swirling it around and singing "Two Jellyfish" (we made two).

Happy crafting,

-Polly

Mo-Men

November, or "Movember", is a time of year when some men grow extra facial hair to raise awareness for men's health issues. I've seen charity events and fundraisers under the "Movember" banner for issues such as prostate or testicular cancer and men's mental health. Neither E nor I are able to or willing to grow a moustache, but we had a little "mo" fun of our own.

Mo-Men

You will need:

• 5 empty toilet-paper rolls (or other cardboard tubes)
• 5 strips of coloured paper, about half the height of the tubes and long enough to go all the way around
• Coloured pencils
• This moustache template printed onto paper or thin card (or draw your own)
• School glue or any craft glue
• Some yarn, cut into 1-2cm long pieces (we used brown)
• 5 small pompoms (we used pink)
• 10 googly eyes

To make:
Using coloured pencils, draw and colour a clothing design onto each strip of coloured paper.
Wrap one strip around each cardboard roll, lining up the bottom edges, and glue in place.
Cut out the moustaches. Coat one side of a moustache with glue. Stick on lots of little pieces of yarn ('hair'). Do this for all 5 moustaches and leave to dry.
Once the glue is dry, stick moustaches into place on the cardboard rolls. Glue on pompom 'noses' and googly eyes.
You now have 5 little "Mo-men".

E began placing the yarn onto the templates one piece at a time, very carefully. She soon realised that it was much easier to pile on handfuls of the stuff. Once they were done, she spent a lot of time playing with her new dolls... they went for a walk along the table and said "hello, hello" a lot. They went for a drive in a shoebox 'car' and found a cardboard box 'house' to live in.

-Polly