More Cardboard Castles

 This is such a fun project I did it with a new group recently.  Some of the parents and I brought in lots of cardboard recycling.

 I put out lots of supplies on a table: beads, string, feathers, paper, markers, scissors, glue, pompoms, etc.

 A parent manned the glue gun for us.

 It took lots of work to figure out the geometry of the roof for this wonderful Big Ben.

 This child is creating an amazing waterwheel!

 This is a Turkish palace.

 The boy told me that a Turkish palace has doors like this.  Erik helped the boy make the wonderful hors d'oeuvres stick gate holder.

 Look at the steps!

 We always have wonderful flags in this class.

This fantasy of a castle makes me think of special cakes and pastries.

Woven Paper Fish

I got this great project from a homeschooling blog called se7en, and here's the link: http://www.se7en.org.za/2011/06/10/fabulous-fish-of-the-woven-variety  I had the kindergarten and first grade children paint backgrounds with some sky blue tempera paint I mixed up.  It got pretty gloppy because they were having so much fun pushing the paint around, so some never dried in time.

I had some of this deep blue paper ready just in case.  The children drew, colored, and cut out fish, and I used my craft knife to cut slits in the fish.  I recommend that you cut the slits horizontally.

I had a collection of strips of collage papers on a long table, including plenty of gold strips.

When they were finished they cut out their fish and glued them onto the background paper.  (You might need some tape to hold some of the strips of paper in place on the back of the fish.)  So cute!  

This was a day when I felt a little guilty that the children didn't have smocks on.  Paint went everywhere, in the hair of the girls who pushed their long locks back while painting, and on their clothes.  Some of the mothers laughed, thank heavens, but I had my fingers crossed that the stains would come out, and that the mothers would put the girls' hair in pigtails next time!  

Weaving Fabric Scraps with Children

 The children worked with great absorption, and this project had beautiful results.

It helps to have beautiful materials displayed in an attractive way.  These are strips of my fabric scraps from quilting.

 I made shoebox looms for everyone.

 After cutting some slots with scissors, you wrap string around the box until you have the desired number of warp threads.

 Tie the ends together underneath the box.

 Some of the children already knew how to weave, and some needed a little one-on-one help.  These children were 2nd through 5th grade.

 It was so fun to watch the children create their own color combinations.

 Look at the beautiful results.  At first, I urged the children to tamp their fabric strips down firmly, but then I noticed that some of them wanted to see the fabric patterns and I backed off.  In order to preserve the beauty of the weavings which show off the fabric patterns, next time I would leave the weavings on the loom.  Perhaps I would make the looms out of styrofoam trays, as we did in "Weaving with Children."

This boy asked to leave his weaving in the loom.  Isn't it striking in the black box?