Mixing Colors

R has known about primary colors and mixing them to create new colors for quite a while now, but we still enjoy the process.  Enjoy is an understatement for R; she loves to mix paint colors!

This week we read White Rabbit's Color Book by Alan Baker.  It is a cute book for preschool age children.  White Rabbit happens upon three big tubs of paint (red, yellow, and blue) and you can just imagine what happens next.  The book reminds me of Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh - one of our favorite books!

After reading this book, I couldn't resist doing some color mixing.  I made three copies of White Rabbit on white card stock and R mixed paint on each copy to retell the story.

If you know R, then you know that she could not resist getting her hands in the paint.

We now have an orange rabbit, a purple rabbit, and a brown rabbit; you will have to read the book to find out why the last one is brown!!!

I am linking this to stArt (story + art = a great start) at A Mommy's Adventures.  Head on over there to find more fun book projects!

Birds on a Wire

Just last week I mentioned how much we love Birds by Kevin Henkes.  I have mentioned the book at least three times on this blog. 

A while ago, Frugal Family Fun Blog posted a "Birds on a Wire" art project using color coding labels and I immediately thought of the Henkes book.  There are three pages in the book about birds on a telephone wire just sitting and sitting and sitting, and then the narrator looks away for just a second and the birds are all gone.  That's just the way birds are, and it always makes me smile.

So, since we still had the book out in our current rotation of books we are reading, and since we had plenty of color coding labels on hand, I figured we just had to try the project. 

R loves to create art and make crafts, but she likes them to be pretty quick.  She drew her telephone wires and quickly made a few birds.

C, on the other hand, likes to take his time with art projects and really enjoy the process.  He made quite a few birds.

I wonder if the birds will fly away....

Yarn Eggs

We tried to make yarn eggs last year and we did not succeed.  It has bothered me all year; I know that is weird, but it's the truth.  So, we tried again this week.  I think our problem last year was that we diluted the glue too much because the yarn didn't really stick together and we ended up with a big glob of sticky yarn. 

This is what we did this year.

I blew up balloons for C and R and gave them each about twenty-four twelve inch pieces of yarn.  Then I put quite a bit of Elmer's glue in a bowl and added about a tsp of water just to make it easier to use.

C and R dipped the yarn in the glue and then wrapped the pieces around the balloons, overlapping the pieces as they worked.  I have to be honest and tell you that R did a little more than half of the yarn wrapping before she asked me to help her, and C did even less.  I was okay with helping them finish this.  It's not really something you can go back to later, and we all wanted to complete the craft.

I hung the yarn covered balloons over our craft sink to dry overnight.

In the morning,  C and R popped the balloons and we carefully pulled them out of the dry yarn eggs.

Then we had to reshape the yarn a tiny bit to make nice egg shapes because some of the yarn pieces collapsed a bit after we popped the balloons.

We hung the yarn eggs in the window.  Success feels good.  I can rest easy now!  Plus, these look really pretty!

Life in a Birch Tree

R and I used masking tape to create a birch tree on our sliding glass door.  C and R have been busy adding details with their Crayola window crayons.

So far, we have grass,

ants parading to their ant hill,

eggs hatching in a nest,

a beehive with a few bees,

and a butterfly and a few birds.  There are a few tiny buds on those branches, but not many.  As you can see in the background, the trees around here are still bare.

This is definitely a work in progress.

Bouncy Ball

We made our own bouncy balls last week.  The bouncing ball in this activity is made from a polymer. Polymers are molecules made up of repeating chemical units. Glue contains the polymer polyvinyl acetate (PVA), which cross-links to itself when reacted with borax.  To make a bouncy ball, you need:

• 1/2 tsp Borax powder
• food coloring
• 1 TBSP glue
• 1 TBSP cornstarch
• 2 disposable cups

Directions:

1. Pour 2 TBSP warm water and 1/2 tsp Borax powder into a disposable cup
2. Stir until the powder is dissolved
3. Add food coloring as desired
4. Pour 1 TBSP glue (we used regular Elmer's glue) into a separate disposable cup
5. Add 1/2 tsp of the borax solution you made to the cup with the glue - do not stir
6. Add 1 TBSP cornstarch to the glue/borax solution - do not stir
7. Allow the ingredients to interact on their own for 15 seconds, and then stir to fully mix the ingredients
8. Once it is impossible to stir, take it out of the cup and mold it with your hands
9. It starts out sticky and messy, but solidifies as you knead it
10. Once the ball is less sticky, you can bounce it.
11. Store it in a sealed plastic bag

We found these exact same directions on many different websites, but Science Bob is where I first saw the idea.  The balls don't bounce very high on the hard floor.  I expected them to bounce well, and so did C and R, so this was a bit of a disappointment.  C and R had the most fun just throwing the balls.

To make this into more of a science experiment, you can alter the amount of borax, glue, or cornstarch and record your results.  From what I read, you should keep the amount of water consistent.

I tried to get pictures of them bouncing/throwing their balls, but I had no luck.  I ended up with a bunch of pictures of the kids making weird hand motions.  

I am linking this to Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

Favorite Books of the Week

Everything but the Horse by Holly Hobbie is absolutely wonderful.  I love Holly Hobbie!  This book is actually a story from her childhood, and we really enjoyed it.  When she was a young girl, Holly Hobbie and her family moved to the country where she quickly became accustomed to a life full of animals.  The one animal she really wanted was a horse, but her family members had many reasons why they should not have a horse.  At the end of the book, Holly Hobbie has a birthday and a special present is waiting for her in the barn.  I'm not telling what it is though!  You will have to read the book to find out if she gets that horse.  I have to mention that C's favorite part of this book is the mention of the outhouse that Holly and her family had to use.  Only boys will find potty humor in a Holly Hobbie book!

The Pirate Cruncher by Jonny Duddle is a fun book about Captain Purplebeard and his crew.  They set out to find an island packed with treasure, and they ignore all of the warnings along the way.  This book teaches a great lesson about greed and the trouble that can come from it.  It's also a fun read, with just enough pirate lingo to make it fun for the kids and tolerable for Mom!

Almost Unschoolers recently recommended two books that we read this week.

The first is Chibi, A True Story from Japan by Barbara Brenner and Julia Takaya.  This is a sweet story about a family of ducks in Japan.  C really enjoyed this book; the two of us held our breath as the ducks crossed an eight lane avenue, escaped from mean swans, and tried to survive a typhoon.

The second book recommended by Almost Unschoolers is Tsunami! by Kimiko Kajikawa.  Ojiisan, the oldest and wealthiest man in the village, watches a rice ceremony from his balcony and soon realizes that a monster wave pulling away from the beach is the beginning of a tsunami.  The villagers at the ceremony have no idea that they are in danger, and Ojiisan makes a sacrifice that saves hundreds of lives.  I definitely wondered if reading this book after C and R saw a little of the recent news coverage would frighten them.  They don't really seem upset by it.  I think it is difficult to grasp the reality of a tsunami, and I also think they may have categorized this event as something that happened on television.

I am linking this to What My Child is Reading at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.
   

PB & J Day

Today is national peanut butter and jelly day!  We will definitely enjoy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches today, and I just happened to find the perfect book on the library shelves for a special lunch time read.

The Peanut Butter and Jelly Game by Adam Eisenson is about Harry the Gorilla.  He impulsively spends all of his money on a baseball mitt he does not need and then finds himself with nothing to eat.  Harry craves his favorite meal (a peanut butter and jelly sandwich) and decides to borrow the ingredients from his neighbors.  Along the way, Harry learns some very important life lessons.