Show and Tell Friday

Most of you are not use to finding me here!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/solidrock/ I wanted to do a vacation from the past and needed to be able to load photos more easily. I have four blogs on Blogger...they are for our school activities mostly.

 

I hope you enjoy this post. Two years ago we went to California. Sort of a pilgrimage back home.This is one of our stops. Scotty's Castle in Death Valley California. I absolutely love this place.  My middle daughter is into architecture and was so taken by all the details and beauty.  All photos taken by my kids. ( have to give them the credit! They did a great job )

Click on the photo to enlarge.

The drapes are leather.

Electric Toaster

Info on Scotty's Castle:

http://www.nps.gov/archive/deva/Scottys/Scottys_main.htm

http://www.roadtripamerica.com/places/scotty.htm

http://www.inn-california.com/deserts/InyoC/deathvalley/scotty1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_E._Scott

Unplugged "Garden"

This week the girls were learning about Georgia OKeffee style flowers.  We did glue resist chalk drawings.

Step One: Trace outline of a flower ( or anything you want) with glue. Black construction paper is the most dramatic but we like using white as well.  Let dry at least 24 hours. Be patient as it is worth it!

Step Two: Color in with chalk. We used oil chalks. They are very bright and pretty!

Inspiration: Mini Zinnias from our Garden

Calla's  at Night ( below)

Inspiration:

Inspiration: Black Eyed Susan's from the garden.

Step Three: Seal with hairspray or light coat of clear acrylic.

 

Georgia OKeffee sites:

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/okeeffe.htm

When you take a flower in
your hand and really look
at it, it’s your world for the
moment. I want to give that
world to someone else.
Georgia O’Keeffe

Unplugged "Old"

I presented the topic to both my gals. Here is what they came up with!

Picture Frame made from "free" napkin holder, "free" thrift store item, cardboard, tape, glue, and paint. The ceramic lions are very old.

Our favorite thrift store always has some really cool stuff on their 'free' table. We love to see what we can make with these items.

 

  She used the tape and glue/paint method from a previous Unplugged idea.

  

Finger Puppets Made with an old pair of gloves. Mom helped with the glue gun.

 Capri Pants made with old hand me down pants. My kids get lots of hand me downs. I also work with the clothes ministry at our church. Sometimes the pants are too short or too wide ( bell bottoms!) so my gals like to make shorts or capris out of them.

 

Sunflower Update

  Visit http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/ for more nature study ideas.

I am happy to say that round two with the sunflowers seems to be a success! It may not look like much but we have had temps in the triple digits and not lost one sunflower! We have left weeds grass intact around the plants to help with watering less. The plants have tripled in size in two weeks.

Here are some garden shots:

  

Unplugged Plastic

Join http://www.unplugyourkids.com/ in other Unplugged plastic projects.

The following creations were made by my 11yo daughter. Because she is done with "school" I simply gave her the topic for the week and this is what she did.

Bookmarks using contact paper

Space Ship using 2 plastic petri dishes

Aliens inside the space ship made with plastic beads.

Caterpillar made with plastic weaving stuff and beads.

 

And because mom is always in "school" mode we looked up a bit on plastic.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/saving/recycling/solidwaste/plastics.html

http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/plastics.htm

Unplugged Sticky

We finished!

Glue Bead Necklace

Use washable markers only. DO NOT use permanent marker. 

You can use any shallow mold. My kids use lids of all sizes. The mold above was saved from a box of candy from Easter. Elemers white glue works the best. Other glues do not dry as clear.  We like to put a bead as a guide for a hole later but this step is not necessary as you can poke a hole with a large needle. The color shows up as it dries.

 

It is fun to watch them dry as they change in color intensity. My kids like adding beads and shells. Sand looks cool too.

 

Peel out slowly when completely dry. Be patient! Wait at least two days! Its worth the wait.

 

 

 

We make many things with these.

My daughter also uses them as plates for her Polly Pocket dolls!

Here is one of the many "stick" projects my younger daughter did this week.

" A Girl and Her Dog" made with wire, beads, wood, felt and a bit of glue.

 

Here  is a site with really awesome "glue" crafts.

http://www.elmers.com/idea/categoryFocus.asp?pc=2

Sunflowers Round Two!

Visit: http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/ for more Green Hours ideas.

The first batch of sunflowers did not survive. We planted them with our wildflowers the first time and they seemed to get crowed out and eaten before they could get big. So here are photos of try number 2.

We made seed pots with newspaper.

Planted with sunflower seeds and waited.

3 wks later

  We cut off the bottoms of the pots and cut up one side of the pot .  Most of the pots had roots growing through the bottom of the paper. We left the pot intact for planting.

They look so small in the ground. We pulled the weeds.

We put "collars" around each set of plants.

Hopefully we will have a beautiful view soon!