Bird Cage

This Idea Came From: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/animals/cagedbird/

Our Experience: I was and still am shocked that this worked!! This is a project that requires doing a first step then waiting another day or later in the evening. It takes some time to get the hang of slippery glue, string, and a balloon. We tried a few ways and the best was to just dunk all the string in a bowl full of glue at once. Get it all gunky! Then put it on the balloon. Wear a smock and do not be scared of having a good amount of clean up on hair, clothes.. and tables. It is just Elmers so it is not so horrible but be prepared for a potential mess. After we helped each other wrap the balloon with wet glued string we found a clothes-pin and hooked it to a hanger so there would be no issues with getting it off a plate or worse! It dried by evening the same day- so we took a small dowel and raffia string and put our bird on a perch. The moment of truth was when it was time to pop the balloon... the glue slowed down the popping process and was not startling. It was actually really cool. It retracted like the Wicked Witch of the East's feet curled under Dorothy's house. We had a giggle about that. Our bird cage is now hanging in our living room since it is so neat-o!

The Lesson: Something that was expected to be terribly hard.. was really easy. What made this project awesome was we were so surprised by its success. It is fun to get really gloppy and sloppy. And it is super cute!

Mosaic Paper

This Idea Came From: The Little Hands Art Book by Judy Press, Page 53

Our Experience: Emma's cousins came over this morning for a visit so we flipped through the book of crafts and found one they all wanted to do together. First, I took out remnant craft paper of different colors and let them each rip two colors each onto paper plates. It really didn't matter what technique or size pieces they did- this was a nice stalling activity so I could gather glue onto another paper plate (I added a drop or two of water and mixed it on the plate so it would be easier to use with paint brushes). Markers were used to draw an outline of what they wanted to "mosaic" on the paper. Jake opted for the boy approach of getting right to the drawing, Kendall (older) copied what was in the book which was fantastic, and Emma wanted to do what Kendall was doing but needed help with the outline. No biggie. After that was established each of them took a brush of glue and figured out their own way. It was GREAT! Kendall glued the back of each piece, Jake made dots on the paper and stuck the paper to it, and Emma painted glue inside the whole shape area she wanted to mosaic and then started to place paper on it all at once. All good!

The Lesson: This was a nice project that made each of them aware and myself as well... that there are many different ways to accomplish the end result. Feeling good about what you are doing for yourself.. but appreciating what your neighbor is doing with the same concept is always one of my favorite discoveries. Sharing in preparing the paper... being careful with sneezing away from the loose paper... following steps.. and being creative with your own ideas. All in all a wonderful crafty morning. We love our cousins.