Colorful Celery: Kitchen science; AND Weekly Kid's Co-op

I've always thought that the science experiments looked super cool where cut stems are put in colored water and the plant itself eventually changes to that color.

Since my son has gotten so into gardening this year, I thought this experiment would be perfect to illustrate to him how plants incorporate water into their body.

We poured about an inch of water into 3 glass jars. My son added red, yellow and blue coloring.

Then we stuck in celery stalks. I thought the stalks with the leaves still intact would be more effective for this experiment.

 Then we waited.

We noticed that the different colors started showing up in the leaves within only 2 hours time!

 24 hours later the stalks and leaves were very noticeably colored.

 Here are the 3 together.

We talked about the term "capillary action", which is in essence the plants ability to pull water up through its stalk and into the leaves and flowers.

Thanks for stopping by! We had fun!


If you liked this post and you want to stay informed of more kid activity ideas I post or find around the blogosphere, remember to "like" me on my Facebook Page! Thank you! Have a wonderful day.

Also it is Weekly Kids Co-op Link-up Party time!  I'm linking up the above post and our post on Painting like Jackson Pollock. Enjoy!

Tee shirt craft using freezer paper; Weekly Kids Co-op

I have had this MASSIVE role of freezer paper on the shelf of my art studio for probably more than a year...untouched, and waiting, waiting, waiting to be used. (Note: you can find freezer paper in big supermarkets alongside the wax paper, parchment paper, etc. - this is what it looks like in case you don't know and are curious).

I have wanted to explore freezer paper stenciling on a tee shirt ever since reading about it in Deb Soule's book, The Creative Family. The Creative Family is by far one of my favorite family activity books, and I highly recommend it to anybody who loves to craft with their children. Also be sure to check out Deb's inspirational blog, Soule Mama, which is full of beautiful photography as well as project ideas. 

Anyway, being that it was the 4th of July yesterday, and my son didn't have any festive tees to wear representing the day, I decided it was the perfect time to bust out the freezer paper and give this craft a whirl.

Using photoshop, I created the above star design for the shirt.

I then printed it out and laid the sheet over a piece of freezer paper cut to the same size. I placed these both on a cutting mat board and started cutting through both layers with my X-acto knife. *Note: the waxy side is the side that will eventually be ironed down onto the tee shirt. You want this to be facing down when cutting the design out, in general. Obviously for my star template it didn't matter which side was up or down.

After the stars are all cut out, I ironed down the paper (wax side down) onto a tee shirt. I made sure that the paper was completely adhered to the fabric before moving on to the next step.

Using a stencil brush, my son tapped (or "stippled") blue and red acrylic paint onto the cut-out shapes.

He worked meticulously on filling each star.

When all the stars were covered thoroughly with paint, we peeled the paper off. It was quite easy! I was sooo impressed with how easy this paper was to use, AND I ended up loving the result!

We were careful to not fold the shirt and lay it flat until the paint was dry.

How do you like it? My son was proud that he had a hand in its creation, and I think he looked perfect for the part of a 4th of July Festival goer!

Thanks for coming by and checking this out. Remember to "like" me on my Facebook Page if you want to stay informed of more kid craft ideas I post or find around the blogosphere! Have a wonderful day.

And now for our weekly linky party! I am linking up this freezer paper post, and my fireworks painting post. Enjoy!

Make a 4th of July Fireworks Painting - using a Fly swatter!

The other day my son and I made a trip to the Dollar Store. Being that the 4th of July was right around the corner, I was keeping my eyes open for craft materials for a fireworks painting. I am happy to say that I hit the jackpot!

Materials used for fireworks painting

I found these unusual fly swatters with flowers affixed to one side of them, a "can strainer", and also inexpensive black poster board, and voila! An idea was born for the Fireworks painting.


Full list of materials we used: 

• Black Poster Board (to represent the sky) (50 cents - Dollar Store)
• 2 Fly swatters with ornamental plastic flowers on them ($1 each- Dollar Store)
• Can Strainer ($1 Dollar Store)
• Tempera Paint (Colorations, from Discount School Supply)
• Bronze "Activity" Paint (Colorations, from Discount School Supply)
• Meat packing trays to hold paint
• stencil brush
• glitter
• sequins stars

I spread blue and red paint onto trays. My son pressed the fly swatter (flower-side down) into the paint and proceeded to swat away onto the black paper. WOW! I was impressed with how the splattered paint looked a lot like fireworks!

Soon he mastered double-fisted swat action! He was having fun!

Originally, I had just planned on him using 2 colors, but he insisted on me adding more (which, I must admit, made for a much more exciting picture in the end)! He then added green fireworks...

 
...and yellow fireworks to the painting. It all came together looking like the an explosion of color against a night sky.

After he was done using the fly swatters, I had him use the can strainer as a stencil to paint a different looking firework to the mix. With a stencil brush, he "stippled", or tapped bronze paint through the holes and onto the paper.

This was the result.

He placed the new fireworks all over the page where he saw fit. 

And then — to add even more pizazz — he sprinkled on glitter...

...and metallic stars to make it glow. 

I love how the painting looks abstract...

...but yet still looks like the beautiful lit-up sky of a 4th of July night.



Thanks for coming by and checking this out. Remember to "like" me on my Facebook Page if you want to stay informed of more kid craft ideas I post or find around the blogosphere! Have a fun holiday! Stay safe!

MUD DAY FUN!

 

We did it! We participated for the first time ever in INTERNATIONAL MUD DAY! Thanks to an inspiring post from Crystal at Growing a Jeweled Rose I was made aware of this annual slop fest! You can read her post that highlights 30 ways to celebrate this kids' "holiday" here.

I have been anticipating this day all week long for my son, with, I admit, a little trepidation. I know from personal experience from when I was a kid how incredibly fun is it to play with mud — I remember fondly making mud pies and muddy stew and just losing myself in play. Looking back on how magical this experience was for me I realize how important it is to stage enticing imaginary play settings for my son. I feel that children are more supervised in their play nowadays by adults and there seems to be a lot of "Nos" coming from these towering figures hindering their otherwise unbridled play. I'm guilty of it sometimes that's for sure! But I try my best not to be. I think children need to be allowed to just be themselves, and not always have older people constantly telling them "do this, don't do that". Muddy play challenges parents to let go of their tendency to control the clean factor of the situation. I had a sprinkler and a towel on the sidelines ready for a preliminary wash when my son was done playing, and also plans for a bath so I didn't let the dirtiness factor of this Mud Extravaganza get in the way of the FUN! AND boy, did he have FUN!

I didn't know exactly how Mud Day would manifest for us, I just provided the props. I filled up my son's old baby pool with mud & had another container nearby filled with water. I put his sand toys out, some pie containers, & bowls of pebbles and sand. I told him "this is your Mud Day, you can do whatever you like. You can even climb in the mud if you want to!" He looked at his options and surprisingly ruled against a mud bath and decided to make mud pies instead.


We found an old window frame and used it as the store front. My son named the business "Pie Prickles". His friend came by to help him out.

I was a repeat customer. I would place my order, and the kids would get to work, a few minutes later I would hear a flute being blown, which was my cue that my order was ready.

He and his friend worked hard making their pies, using rocks for berries, sand for sugar, and of course mud for chocolate. The sticks were useful for stirrers.

Pies, fresh out of the oven! Don't the flowers and cherries make them so inviting?

 They even served candy apples, dipped in caramel "mud".

They had quite the creative menu.

I was able to support their business as I had a lot of "green" currency that I kept kicking down.

 As the business expanded they installed tables for sit down customers.

And they even had a "to go" container for my uneaten portion!


Happy International Mud Day! Hope you got dirty today!

Thanks for coming by and checking this out. Remember to "like" me on my Facebook Page if you want to stay informed of more kid craft ideas I post or find around the blogosphere! Have a wonderful day

Sea Horse Craft

This week is Eric Carle's birthday, the beloved author and illustrator of many modern classics, including, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?", "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", and "Papa, Please get the Moon for me".

We love his books in our household. In celebration of Mr. Carle turning 83, I decided to read his book "Mister Seahorse" and do a colorful textured craft with my son reminiscent of the paintings in his book. "Mister Seahorse" is about a male seahorse who is going to have babies! Mrs. Seahorse deposited the eggs in his pouch and he goes about meeting other male sea animals who also care for their unborns in unusual ways. As he meets each creature, many are hidden at first, and it was fun to have my son try to spot them. When the pages were turned, the creatures became unobscured. This provided a good opportunity to discuss the word "camouflage" with him. This was a sweet book, and my son enjoyed it thoroughly.

Now onward to our craft!

First we gathered up the materials:

• 3 colors of tempera paint (I had my son choose his favorites, yellow, orange, blue)
• 3 textured materials to apply the paint: a sponge, bubble wrap, and an egg carton. 
• 3 containers/surfaces to hold paint that will accommodate size of textured materials (for sponge I used a simple little bowl, for bubble wrap I used a meat tray, and for egg carton I used a cafeteria food tray. 
• Paper cut out in shape of a sea horse (I used this image as a guide to hand-draw the outline)
• A googly eye

 

First my son used a sponge and stamped yellow paint over the entire surface of seahorse shape.

Then my son pressed the bubble wrap onto 2nd paint color (spread out on meat tray) and then stamped it on paper.

Then he pressed the egg carton into the 3rd color of paint and stamped it down onto the paper, covering the entire surface. 

As the last step he glued on the eye.

Voila! How do you like it?

Thanks for coming by and checking this out. Remember to "like" me on my Facebook Page if you want to stay informed of more kid craft ideas I post or find around the blogosphere! Have a wonderful day!