Shadow Puppet Theater

Well friends, the famous Phil did NOT see his shadow this week and although I would typically say hooray to an early spring, that sort of thing is frowned upon when you live in a resort town in the mountains so this year we are chanting, "long live winter!" (This is solely due to peer pressure on my part and I actually cross my fingers while shouting this despicable phrase—because besides being a symbol for good luck, finger crossing is also the internationl action sign which allows one to lie with impunity.)

 Because we say BAH to no shadows (*crosses fingers*) the boys and I assembled a few movable shadow puppets and put on a show or two...or three or four or five.

The puppets we used were designed by Meredith Wolff and downloaded from Martha's website. We thought these particular animals were perfect for the winter season but obviously the possibilities are endless when it comes to shadow puppet construction.

We have a rectangular cut-out in one of our walls that the kids use as a window to their playhouse (which is little nook under the stairs). As it turns out, the window makes for a lovely little puppet show stage as well.

To make a screen for shadow viewing, I cut a long strip of paper from a roll of tracing paper and taped the corners to the window from the backside. Next I hung a shop lamp overhead to backlight the screen. Then it was on with the show.

The kids spent a the better part of our Groundhog's Day participating in this activity which was great since it was way to cold to go outside. A must-do, indoor play activity.  

Okay, I’m off to start prepping supplies for the valentine making we will be doing this weekend (which might involve homemade heart shaped-crayons again). We might even whip up a batch pf last year's conversation hearts or some heart shaped soft-pretzels. I’ll be back next week to share a few projects we have been up to in tribute to this month of love. See you then!

Writers Kit and Topic Generator

One of my nieces has an interest in writing and making her own funny zines so for Christmas last year we decided to gift her a homemade writing/zine making kit. This gift idea gave me the opportunity to browse through my favorite isle in every store; office supplies! After gathering up the essentials, (pencils, erasers, scissors, glue stick etc.) I put together a couple notebooks using sketching paper, scrapbook paper for the covers and embroidery thread for the binding. My favorite part of kit however is the topic generator game I created for her that she can use for brainstorming in those moments of writers block OR just as a story starter in a little creative writing sesh.

The topic generator includes instructions for playing and three flip books labeled 1, 2 and 3. Each book has 24 pages with one idea of something to write about per page. Book 1 has 24 nouns or subjects (a turtle, a toaster, the Easter Bunny, etc). Book 2 has 24 actions to write about (doing somersaults, planning a party, playing chess, etc). Book 3 had 24 places or locations to write about (the moon, a shoe store, a candy factory). In total, the three books provide 72 different topics of things to write about in various categories. That being said, the books can also be used together to make an entire topic sentence. Using the books this way will enable the user to create hundreds of story starters.

Making a silly topic sentence requires three simple steps. 

Step 1: Flip open to any page of book 1 and write down the subject

Step 2: Flip open to any page of book 2 and write down the action next to the subject

Step 3: Flip open to any page of book 3 and write down the location next to the action

That's it! The user now has a topic sentence. The instructions also suggests adding prepositions in order to make a complete or proper sentence. So in the example shown here the sentence would read: The Easter Bunny playing chess inside a candy factory (the word "inside" being the preposition). Obviously the user can throw in a few adjectives here and there to give the sentence a little more pizazz. Maybe the sentence could read: The elderly Easter Bunny played chess with his imaginary pet squirrel in an abandoned candy factory. Make sense? Okay good!

After completing the game I packaged it up into a zip lock bag and added it to the rest of the kit. I wrapped a tag around the case as a giveaway to what was inside. I sort of wanted to keep this gift for my own writing sessions (I'm pretty nerdy about this stuff) but I kept the Christmas spirit and sent it off in the post.

Nativity Puppet

I just thought I'd share this handy way of telling the Christmas story...get it...handy? (He-he). The whole thing is made from felt and a one-size-fits-all glove. Of course you can adjust the characters as you see fit on your own glove. It also makes a great (frugal) gift for the kiddies.

Well Fed Villagers

I must say that the stone soup activity we had this month might be my favorite make to date—definitely in the top 3!

The kids became the town villagers as they participated in telling a version of the Stone Soup story by placing pictures of veggies in our paper pot.

After that we made the real thing starting with just a few large stones. Everyone contributed by adding their own ingredient to the pot (pics don't do justice).

I have to admit, I really wasn't sure we would have enough veggies to make a substantial pot of soup but the veggies just kept coming and coming before we knew it we had a feast of a meal that was actually pretty friendly to our taste buds!

Thank you to everyone for the fabulous and tasty make!

Those were some hungry old ladys!

We had a great turn out at the August “old lady” make.

For those who couldn’t make it, this is an easy project to assemble on your own at home. All you need is a brown paper lunch sack with a square cut out from one side, a clear sandwich bag to tape inside the bag where the hole has been created and collage materials to make your old lady come to life. You can email me for step by step instructions if you’d like.

For those of you who are already in possession of a very hungry old lady, try spicing things up a bit (if you haven’t already) by having your child shout out things that they think the old lady should swallow (ie: a car, an elephant, and shopping cart), you could even tear some images out of some old magazines to feed your granny. In fact my friend Becky turned me on to a fantastic cover of the song by Peter Paul and Mary. It’s very cute, funny and somewhat unique to the original lyrics as the kids shout out what they think the woman should eat. It’s on the Peter, Paul and Mommy Too album.

Our bag is getting a little worn from overuse but I am thinking about revamping it a little as Halloween is approaching by turning our little old lady into a little old witch. Besides eating a fly and spider she might be adding newt tails, frog legs and rotten apples to her diet. Maybe she could be an elf for Christmas and eat snowflakes and pine trees?

Also, if you would like something that is a little more durable and long-lasting try laminating your animal images and using a large brown paper bag from the grocery store instead of a little sack lunch.

P.S. Sorry for the lack of images, I think I need to strap the camera to my face so I won’t forget I have it.