8th Birthday Photo's

If you'd like to see what B got up to for his 8th Birthday jump over to our family blog where I've posted quite a few pics.

Happy 8th Birthday

Where have these past 8 years gone?

We all (especially B) had a very memorable and super fun 8th birthday but I'm completely and utterly exhausted so this is all I have time for now. I'll post a birthday update with lots of pics and all of the fun he got up to very soon.

Constructing The Harbour Bridge

Well a model one anyway.

Yup another Aldi special this one!

3D puzzles, super cheap, so I was a little concerned that they would be rubbish. We've had them in the cupboard for a while now and when B7 pulled out the Opera House one to do I was wondering how it would all go.

Initially it was all a breeze, then he hit a stumbling block with the roof line but once he got over that hurdle it was all systems go.

From this

to this

and check out the real thing just for comparison.

I thought for a puzzle they did a pretty good job. Now I wonder how the others will turn out.

Mosaic Garden Plaques

The kids had their regular monthly Bunnings Hardware Workshop during the week. This time it was Garden Plaque's and it fitted perfectly into our current Mosaic's Theme.

A pretty straight forward, although messy activity, but if you would like to try it out at home I've included quite a few snapshots below.

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Materials Needed

Mould
Plaster of Paris
Water
Mosaics (stones, rocks, shells, tiles)
Cloth (for spills)
Glove for mixing plaster

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Grab whatever you have chosen to use as a mould. In this case it was a drip tray for a pot plant (or at least I think that's what it was). If I redid this at home I would line the mould first with cling wrap, like I did with our Clay Star Mosaics.

Read the directions on your plaster pack and start adding the plaster and water to your mould.

Mix, mix, mix. Keep on mixing and adding plaster powder until you have the right consistency.

This is where you need to start working quickly. Remember to remind the kids about that part or they will be disappointed towards the end when they can no longer add bits and pieces to their plaque due to the plaster drying out.

You need to have it thick enough so that the mosaic pieces you have chosen will sit on top and not sink to the bottom (as would happen if there was stil too much liquid) but not too thick that the plaster is already starting to dry.

Smooth off the top of the plaster and start adding your mosaic pieces. If you want a design you really need to think about that first. It's a bit late to start planning some kind of design after you have mixed the plaster as you just won't have the time to do it.




Remember this is where you need to work quickly. Get those mosaic pieces in and pressed down so that they will well and truly stick as the plaster drys.

Then all you need to do is sit back and enjoy your masterpiece. Let it dry, at least overnight. We left ours for a couple of days.

You might like to use a damp cloth to clean up any excess plaster from around the edges of the mould.

Remove from the mould and place somewhere in your garden.

Let me know if you try this at home, I'd love to see some other variations.

Hey Mum Can I Beat The Eggs!

B7 has a couple of those Lego Crazy Contraptions books, well what 7 year old Lego Love rwouldn't I suppose!

This is the latest contraption:




Might take him awhile to beat enough eggs for 5 LOL! (sorry about the telly on in the background)

Heading To The Show

Our local show starts tomorrow (for those of you in the US I believe you call them fairs). After last year and seeing all of the fabulous entries from other children both B7 and K5 have been busy working on their entries for this year.

We are just heading down now to submit them. The judging takes place tonight and we will head along to the show for a couple of hours tomorrow evening to take a look arond, have some rides and some of that wonderful junky show food (aka fairy floss YUM)

B7 has been working on this 'Battle Station' for weeks, adding bits here and there, fiddling around. He's pretty proud of it. He is also entering his Tallest Ice Cream in the World water colour and oil pastel creation. Along with his hand sculpted clay tree stump, wrapped in vines and a green tree snake.

K5 also spent quite a bit of time on her entry, this is definitely the largest Lego creation she has ever completed, "A house". Along with her Tallest Ice Cream in the World.

We've spent quite a bit of time talking about the reasons why we are entering these in the show and that winning (if that happened) is just a by product. They both seem to be comfortable with that but only time will tell I guess.

Through The Trees: Masking with Acrylics

B7 had our regular monthly Art Gallery Workshop with our homeschool friends a few days ago. We really enjoy being at the gallery so regularly.

The brief from the gallery for this month was,

Through the Trees: Tiny people in the rain forest; works in paint

WORKSHOP CONTENT: Eden’s Landing artist Mark Davey's exhibition Through the Trees demonstrates a vibrant, energetic series of textured abstract paintings based on what would be experienced if peering through trees into a rainforest.

Children will be introduced to the technique of 'masking areas' when creating in acrylic paints. They will have fun creating their own rain forest inspired artworks.

Viewing the exhibition. I totally loved these paintings and could really see them hanging on our walls. There were various colours (not only black backgrounds) the blue was gorgeous. The children were all really intrigued by this art work as well and sat for quite some time discussing it with the lady from the gallery.

From their we made our way into the workshop room so the children could begin their pieces, inspired by the artwork they just saw.

Masking up

The painting begins. Both of these techniques were knew for B7, the masking and the use of the palette knife. I know he didn't totally enjoy the workshop (he's not a huge fan of paint) but he did complete the piece.

Needs to dry for a couple of hours before removing the masking.

Holding our breath.

We still can't decide which way we prefer it, like this.

Or like this. What do you think?

Geodesic Gumdrops

For some reason everyone seems to be doing these of late, every where I go online I see them. So who am I to deprive my kids of a good thing lol


B7 was straight to work, I don't even think he watched me do an example he was off and running.
His structure ended up considerably larger than this but I forgot to take a photo of the finished piece.

K5 found it a little more challenging. She was determined that her brother wouldn't out do her but her structure collapsed once and then the second time she just couldn't get things to stay together. In the end she opted to just make the simple small designs that I showed them in the beginning.

I explained to her that she didn't have to make a 3D model but I think she ws over it by then and just wanted to eat the lollies!!

Next time I think I will use mini marshmallows, actually on second thoughts make that play dough/clay balls. No one will want to eat them more than design and construct with them then hehehehehe

Such a simple activity to set up and the possibilities are endless really.

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Materials Needed:

Round Toothpicks

Jubes, Mini Marshallows, Clay Balls, Play dough Balls (any one of those)

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Sites Of Interest

Geodesic Info on Wikipedia

Geodesic Instructions and Explanations

Marshmallow and Spaghetti Tower

Structures and Mechanisms Lesson Ideas

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Open Ended Art: Mosaics

Teaching My Little Book Worm runs a weekly theme on Open Ended Art and we thought that we would join in this time around since the theme is Mosaics and we've been wanting to do some mosiac work for ages.

There is no doubt a more effective way to do this but this is what we came up with.

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Materials Needed:

Clay (or Playdough)

Pebbles

Mould of some description, we used a Paper Mache Mould of a Star that I picked up on a throw out table

Cling Wrap

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Our Materials

We lined the mould with cling wrap so the clay wouldn't stick to it.

Then push the clay into the mould, making sure the surface is even as possible.



Clay waiting for the pebbles.

Adding pebbles. Be sure to push them right in or they just fall out.

The finished pieces, waiting to dry. B7's is the star and K5's is the face on the star.

After allowing to dry, this is B7's finished star. (K5 had a little accident with hers so unfortuantely we don't have a finished photo to share)

After they finished working on the star moulds, I gave them each a piece of canvas art board and suggested they draw something and fill it with pebble mosiacs. They went straight to work, after drawing their initial design they quickly realised that they would need to sort the pebbles into colours.

This took some time but was actually a great activity in itself. Some of those pebbles were really tricky to decide what colour they should be placed into to.

K5 decided on a tree and a flying creature.

Not quite finished, I believe she is going to paint the background on this one.

B7 chose an airplane, he still has a bit of a way to go with his.

We enjoyed participating in Open Ended Art and are looking forward to next week - Paper Mosaics. Why not check out what everyone else got up to over at Teaching My Little Bookworm.

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Sites Of Interest

Teaching My Little BookWorm

How Stuff Works Nature Crafts For Kids

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Solar Panel Models

A few months back Aldi had Solar Model Kits for sale. (you gotta love Aldi they get some great things in their stores) They were relatively inexpensive so we grabbed one of all three that they had available. These have definitely been a fabulous investment. At least every month the boxes are pulled down off the shelf. Each kit is meticulously put together following the instructions step by step. (The very first time we put one of these together I needed to offer some assistnce, but not anymore)

Generally the models are left in their original state for a few days (as you can see in the images below). Then the real constructing happens! They are pulled apart and put back together but not according to any of the instructions that happen to be in the box. I've seen many wonderful creations made from these models since we have had them.

I'm just waiting for the time that all 3 of them are joined together to make one gigantic solar powered machine!

The original kits are made up of

A Rocket.

A Satellite.

A Helicopter.

These simple little kits have been the ignition for many a discussion on Solar Power, the Sun, our Environment, Wind Power and the things we can do to help save our Planet.

Certainly a great buy in my books.