Transparent Lantern

I know it is too early in the season for such a captivating project, but can't resist.  This craft helps create softness and romances early evenings.  The kids did this craft in July of last year, and there are no pictures of the process, just the results.  The effect is stunning and very effective in eliciting a mood change.  This is a craft you must try.

The idea came from http://apracticalwedding.com/2011/10/how-to-luminaria-with-kelly-wilkinson/,

which, as you can see from her pictures, the lanterns produced quite a scenery.

The great thing about these lanterns is that they are collapsible and can be reused over and over again.

This young girl said that she and her dad placed it out on their balcony, and it "looked so good."

A few of these could have used a few more items in the design (but that just my opinion).

Supplies:
1. wax paper
2. leaves, twigs, flowers, grasses (we did no pressing of items)
3. balsa wood (ask your nearest Starbucks)
4. washi tape
5. ruler
6. rotary cutter
7. cutting board
8. iron
9. hot glue gun

Directions:
1. hunt for foliage
2. cut wax paper into desired squares of different sizes ( I precut with rotary cutter, 5", 6", and 7")
3. place foliage between two wax papers (three times) ((8 single sheets are used for one lantern))
4. iron the four pairs of wax paper
5. adjoin the four pairs with washi tape (decorative or plain)
6. affix balsa wood on top and bottom with hot glue gun


Duration:
This is just a day craft

My Heart

To some a special day is coming this Saturday.  With this craft, I tried to instill into the kids to have a care and love for others not just because a certain day is celebrated, but because in this age we live in, nothing is guaranteed.  Everyday we need to be those who say "I love you".

With that, I must say this project was labor intensive (in a good way). Don't forget I work for a day care and have 28 kids to care for. This activity was with a view to keeping for a few years.  Credit goes to http://krokotak.com/2012/11/egg-carton-heart/.

If this was going to be a fun project, I had to be the one to cut all those egg cartons. The little ones would not have the strength to cut out 12 separate casings; and on top of that the scissors we had would have totally been a frustration to them.  Do you know how many days I had to spend cutting? A whole week.  Eventually even I had to resort to a tool other than scissors--my trusty box cutter. I ended up with two bags.

 This is a reprisal of the craft I did last year.  I have no pictures to compare with because my computer files got corrupted.  Last year, the kids had the eggs hot glued to a white canvas.  This time we changed it up.  The kids did water color on the canvas.  Well--that was interesting.  As I'm not an art teacher, I did not have the wherewithal to say not to waterlog the canvas.

Here are the soggy canvases, but not to worry.  All I had to say was "NO MORE PAINT!"

This is a small montage of the canvases.  Many more to go.

Next, all those individual egg cases had to be painted white.  From experience last year, not all egg cartons are made of the same material, and I don't know what kind of paint Krokotak used.  So I figured for the painted cases to look good, we needed a base which was regular white house paint.

Once painted white, they were left overnight to day.  They had to do twelve egg casings.

The next layering was to paint the egg casings in a color.  Unfortunately or fortunately, there was no red or pink paint available.  We used a metallic paint that would add a simmer to the casings.

Now you see all of our limited supply of paint.  Behind the scenes, I had to go over all of those egg casings because there was the need of another coat of paint.  The first go around was not effective. These were left overnight to dry also.

The final step was to hot glue the casings to the canvas.  Last year, I did this step.  This year, voila, the kids were able to do this step with my modeling.  Take a look!

We're really proud of these little guys!

Finally, the results!

Supplies:

1. egg cartons
2. scissors/box cutter
3. white paint
4. metallic paint
5. canvas
6. water colors
7. hot glue gun
8. newspaper
9. a whole lot of PATIENCE

Directions:
1. cut egg cartons into separate cases
2. cover table with newspaper
3. paint canvas (if desired); let dry
4. paint egg casings white; let dry
5. paint egg casings into desired color; let dry
6. hot glue cases onto canvas into shape of a large "V" housing little "v" (heart shape)

Lost Shell

It is not often that we do science projects, but this was such an awesome one! I thought we were going to use only one egg--but my partner wanted to extend the experiment and have the kids enjoy the process. In fact, I say again, it was the best science project ever.  Again, Pinterest, thank you. You are still my friend.  I saw the idea on http://mycrazyblessedlife.com/2012/09/27/naked-eggs/.

My partner wanted the kids to have a true scientific experience, so he expanded this process instead of just a single egg. He began by asking the kids how different substances react on objects.  Six eggs were provided and six kids were chosen to select a six liquid solutions the eggs could be placed in. So they chose oil, water, milk, vinegar, dish soap, and bleach.

The kids were asked what would happen if the eggs were left in the solutions.  Being kindergartners and first graders, some said the egg would break, the eggs would sink, they would become softer. One stated that the solutions would produce bubbles.  After these predictions, the eggs were dunked into their solutions for 48 hours.

The next day, the children crowded round the table to observe if anything was going on with the eggs. There was no appreciable difference in any of the eggs, except the vinegar solution had myriads (not their word) of bubbles covering the egg.

On the second day, the children were brought to a table to see more changes, if any among the eggs. Sometimes kids are so funny with the statements they make.  Here are a few:
1. This is bigger!
2. This looks like lemonade!
3. I think this is softer. The shell is gone. It is what happens when you put a rock in water; it turns a little softer.
4. It looks like a water balloon

One child tried to measure the shell-less egg with his fingers.  It was a good opportunity to bring out the ruler and have another opportunity to share that measuring things in our environment is a very good practice.

It was obvious that the egg soaked in vinegar was larger than the other eggs. I so wish you could have seen the faces of the children.  I learned from another co-worker that the video we had taken could be edited out and that the audio could be extracted.  You now have the option seeing some of the edited film.

If I have time, I'll try to re-edit the video with sound.  I think you will have a blast hearing one child say "vi-gi-ner" instead of "vinegar". Until then, I hope you all have good imaginations! :)

Supplies:

1. eggs
2. vinegar
3. solutions: milk, water, oil
4. short plastic cups

Directions:
1. place eggs in various solutions of your choosing
2. wait 2-3 days for vinegar to dissolve eggshell

Duration:
This was a three day process for us

Spirograph

I have always taken care of the little ones.  So one day I asked if I could be with the older kids.  There was no hesitation with my co-workers or the on-site supervisor, but...that gig only lasted two months.
This was a group that definitely needed complex types of projects.  I chose the spirograph because it seemed pretty straightforward; and therefore, I decided to let the kids do the erecting of it all by themselves.  They would have to learn teamwork and collaboration (which only worked to a small extent; but at least it WAS something).

Everything always looked so good on the Martha Stewart website. They must have practiced this project at least 10 times to get it right? On http://www.marthastewart.com, they showed this activity by video.  But I wasn't worried because these boys were going to do the spirograph--and they were gong ho.  I printed out the instructions, got the supplies and let them go at it. Actually, they did a pretty good job.  The project just needed a little tweeking here and there. But BRAVO!!

One of the boys was testing out the flow of paint from the bottle. The blue bottle wasn't working well, so adjustments were being made, such as thinning the paint and opening the nozzle more.

The yellow worked, but I don't have any pictures to present to you.

Here, the boys got the blue paint to flow through the nozzle just right.

I wanted to show you the top of the tripod of how it was tied off.

The little ones wanted to take in the action by placing chairs around the boys' project.

Supplies:
1. three bamboo poles for tripod
2. rope for binding poles
3. plastic bottles for paint with nozzles (ours were tops from glue bottles)
4. duct tape
5. single hole punch
6. newspaper
7. large white butcher or water color paper
8. scissors
9. large paper clip
10. box cutter
11. string
12. hot glue gun
13. measuring cups


Directions:
1. set up tripod with string (we had no rubber feet, which was fine)
2. one inch from bottom of plastic bottles, make incision with box cutter, and cut off the bottom of bottles with scissors
3. with hot glue gun, secure nozzles to plastic bottles
4. with duct tape, cover the bottom of the nozzles (to prevent any leakage)
5. fold over duct tape three equal distances on opening of bottle
6. punch one hole in each of the three duct tabs
7. thread each hole doubly with string (about two feet) and attached them to a paper clip to the string hanging from the tripod
8. prepare paint (one part paint to one part water)
9. pour paint into measuring cup
10. place plastic covering on floor for protection or newspaper
11. place butcher paper or water color paper on top of newspaper
10. add paint to plastic bottle (hold carefully)
11. holding bottle off the paper, test the flow of the paint; if okay, let the bottle swing and watch the patterns that it will create.

Note:
If my written directions have brought you into a fog, here is Martha's video:




Duration:
This project took one day