Chinese Dragons

 

Today in amongst doing our remaining school work we went off on a tangent and learnt about Chinese Dragons. I found a slideshow here that told us a bit about Chinese Dragons as well as what they looked like and what they stood for.

 

 

Did you know that traditionally Chinese dragons had a camels head, a snake's neck, fish scales, eagle claws, tiger paws, ox ears, deer horn and whiskers. There colour also told you a lot about them. Green was for the land, blue for water, red for fire, brown for the forest and gold for metals and precious gems. They each had different personalities as well. Now I'm not saying this information is fact but it sounds pretty cool to me.

 

 

The kids then drew some dragons as I gave them each feature and chose the colours they wanted to colour their dragon. We had some very powerful dragons created who were multi coloured so they had ALL the powers.

 

 



Later on after school work was done we made egg carton dragons to hang in the schoolroom.
 

 
 

 To make these I cut up egg cartons and gave the kids 6 pieces each.



They painted each cup of the egg carton inside and out.



They then glued on eyes and a tongue on one cup for the head.



After tying some bells to the end of some ribbon the egg cartons (now with holes in them) were threaded onto the ribbon and the ribbon tied off. A dab of craft glue was put on the knot to stop it going anywhere.

 

More instructions can be found here.

 

We're Going To Asia ...

... well our schoolroom is going to Asia.

You got excited for me didn't you.

 

The family I work for don't do celebrations but we are still having fun making things and this time it is Asia. Miss S is studying Japanese and Mr E, Miss E and Mr R looked at Asian stories throughout the year so to finish it off we are going Asian in our schoolroom. Bring on Asian stories, food, crafts and games.

 

 

To start the ball rolling yesterday after pulling down our sea themed decorations and artworks the kids painted some large paper lanterns to hang in our room.

 

 

They are bright and colourful making the room look cheerful. I found these lanterns in a cheap shop in The Towers.

 

 

 

Next up we are going to make some Chinese Dragons after a bit of story telling.

 

Note: Did you notice the countdown in the background of the last photo ... scary.

 

 

 

 

 

'Tumblebugs'

While browsing the web for new spring or any other craft ideas I found instructions for how to make some cool little 'Tumblebugs'.

I thought it was a great idea, one for the boys. So yesterday here is what we did.

What you need:

Coloured cardboard
pencil
scissors
ruler
2 x 10c coins
marble (1 per bug)
craft glue (I broke out the hot glue gun for fast drying)
glue stick
tissue paper
markers

What to do:

1. On the edge of the card draw a strip that is 2cm wide and 14cm long.

2. On the card draw two ovals. Lining the two 10c coins up side by side is a great way to make an oval. You just trace around the curve at each end and then join them up.

3. Cut out the strip and ovals.

4. Glue the strip to make a loop by overlapping the ends by about 2.5cm.

5. Apply craft glue to the edge of the cardboard loop and glue it onto one of the traced ovals.

6. When the glue is dry put a marble in the oval container you have created.

7. Apply glue to the other edge of the cardboard strip loop and glue the remaining traced oval on to it.

8. Allow to dry and then decorate with a marker using tissue paper to create wings.

9. 'Tumblebug' away.

Both Miss Yr4 and Mr Yr1 liked making their 'Tumblebugs' tumble. Mr Yr1 set a ramp which was great for tumbling.

 

 

I may have made a few myself. They are just too cute and just a lot of fun.

Poofy Flowers

Recognise these?

We are 'springing up' our school room over the next couple of weeks. Well really it'll be over however long it takes, that being until we run out of ideas, which going by the ideas the kids are rolling out that could be a while, especially when my ideas are added into the equation. Anyway first cab off the rank which was wholeheartedly embraced by the kids was the idea of poofy flowers hanging from the ceiling. I honestly think it was the 'hanging off the ceiling' part the sold it. So here is what we did ...

1. We used 8 pieces of tissue paper stacked on top of each other (I got 4 pieces out of the packet and folded them in half, cut them down the fold line, stack each half on top of each other and there you have it 8 pieces). Note: there was no measuring involved but hey we did do fractions there didn't we.

 2. We concertina folded the paper in whatever size fold we did, it was not too big and not too small. Yes, I am serious they were my instructions and the kids followed them to a tee.

This part believe it or not was a little interesting and messy in some cases but it really doesn't matter that much so even 3yr olds can give it a go.

3. Next thing is to tie something around the middle of the concertina to keep it all together. We started off with twist ties but gave up on that when they kept busting at the seams. All that tissue paper was just too strong sometimes. We ended up using the string that we used to hang the poofy flower. So the instruction now is tie around the middle of the concertina with a piece of string long enough to hang the finished poofy flower with.

4. Trim the each end of the concertina (with scissors, not teeth, not a knife) into a curve. This gives the poofy flowers a petal shape. I have seen pictures of others done with a point which is also effective.

 5. Spread out the concertina, I mean fan, yes of cause it is a fan, or a bird it is also a bird. Okay so now you can imagine what was happening at this point in our schoolroom. Yep that's right, plenty of giggles and imagination at work.

 6. Now for the tricky part that needs a little patience for small excited hands, pulling apart the layers of the concertina, the soon to be petals of a flower. Just separate each layer of tissue paper. Note: little tears (or big) just add to the effect so don't worry about it. Really the kids did well with this.

7. Ta Daa! There you have it, a poofy flower to hang from your ceiling (that is if you had your tissue paper ready and followed along). Other uses also include a ball and a dog. Did I mention I had a 3 1/2yr old in the schoolroom?

Now here are some pictures of the kids getting creative with their poofy flowers and our combined finished products.

Fold it ...

Tie it and trim it ...

 Pull it apart ...

Then play with it ...

Ta Daa! What pretty poofy flowers.

 

Here is where I got the original instructions from before I attacked them in my layed back, no measuring needed way.

Scrabble Letters

 I honestly think this post should be named 'whose silly idea was this?' but as I used scrabble letters, well I will stick with that. 

Yesterday I finally made up some magnetic letters using crafty scrabble tiles that I had purchased, yet again, off that wonderful place full of good things, ebay. The finally part is because I probably bought these around 6 months ago but making them has been shoved to the back so here goes.

What you need:

First grab a handy bag of scrabble tiles,

 Some awesome magnetic tape, or any other form of magnet you can get you hands on and some PVA or wood glue if you need stickiness or don't trust the stickiness of the tape (which I don't after previous experiences).

Now what to do:
1. Apply PVA glue to the back of the scrabble pieces.
2. Stick on a piece of magnet or magnetic tape

3. Do it over and over and over again (hence the whose idea was this comment)
4. Let them dry.

Then taa daa there you have it, magnetic letters. 

Some ideas for how we are going to use them coming soon (just as soon as we get around to it).