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Sunday, September 27, 2009

Trees! Week 4 September 27- Oct 3


This week is all about Trees







Crafts:


Baker's Clay:
  1. Mix 2 cups if flour with 1 cup of salt.  
  2. Add about a cup of water until dough becomes stiff.
  3. Mold the dough into desired object, when finished, set it for drying.
  4. It will harden in the air. You can speed up the harding process by baking the clay at 350 degrees for one hour.  Time depends on the size and thickness.
Leaf Prints:
  1. Place a lump of clay on a flat surface. 
  2. Flatten the clay with a rolling pin, roll over the leaf and the clay at the same time.
  3. Lift leaf to reveal a leaf print underneath.
  4. Let the clay dry, then paint it with tempera or acrylic paint.
Nature Painting:
  1. Need a collection of nature for your child. Things like: Pine Needles, Acorns,  Pine Cones, Grass, Leaves, Flowers, Sticks
  2. Let your child use their nature collection as paint brushes. 
  3. Make sure you point out to your child the different markings each one makes.
Leaf People:
  1. Need a collection of all sorts of leaves. Different shapes and sizes
  2. Glue a Leaf onto a white piece of construction paper.
  3. Then let your child draw a face above the leaf, arms and hands on the side, and legs and feet on the bottom.  
  4. They can also draw a scenery around their leaf person or people. 
  5. If they want they can add real grass, flower for the sun or anything they want.
Waxed Paper Leaves:
  1. Place leaves between two sheets of waxed paper.
  2. Sandwich this packet between two sheets of newspaper.
  3. Press with a warm iron, sealing the leaves inside.
  4. Remove the newspaper and hang the decoration in the window for display.
Leaf Tree:
  1. On a piece of white paper,  draw a tree trunk with branches
  2. Let your child glue real leaves to the branches. 
  3. They can also add other things like a sun, grass, birds, whatever your child wishes.


Walnut Art:
  1. Take a whole walnut and crack it in half. 
  2. Take one half of the walnut and dip it in paint.
  3. Next, take the walnut with paint on it an press it on the bandana.
  4. Your child can use different colors on each half of a walnut.
  5. Let the paint dry.
  6. Your child can then proudly wear their art work.
  7. You also use the walnut paint on other items of clothing,
Nut Art Work
  1. Glue unshelled nuts of different sizes and shapes into a collage on a piece of cardboard.
  2. You can also make mosaics and sculptures with unshelled nuts.
Bottle Cap Apple Tree:
  1. Draw a tree trunk and branches on a sturdy piece of paper or cardboard.  
  2. Next, glue red bottle caps on the branches like apples or cherries.
  3. Then, your child can take a green crayon and fill out the tree like its suppose to look like
  4. Add more scenery to the background.
Twig Art:
  1. Gather as many odd-shaped, funny-looking twigs as you can find. 
  2. Old gnarled twigs are especially good.
  3. Lay out the twigs to form letters, designs, or pictures.
  4. Use the natural bends and twists of the twigs to help form the shape you want.
 Popcorn Tree :
  1. Break a pretzel rod in half and glue it to a piece of cardboard or a sturdy piece of paper. Or if you don't have a pretzel rod, draw a trunk with a crayon or marker.
  2. Begin gluing popped popcorn onto the cardboard piece to make a tree.
Handprint Tree:
  1. Let your child put their hands in finger paint and then have them place their hand on a piece of paper.
  2. Then draw a tree trunk under the hand. 
  3. Let your child decorate the rest of their picture.
Cotton Tree:
  1. Draw a tree trunk with a crayon or marker.
  2. Let your child begin gluing cotton balls to form a tree.
  3. They may then finishing decorating the background.
Nature Placemat:
  1. Take a piece of contact paper 18 x 24 and fold down in half.
  2. Then remove the paper up to the fold.
  3. Let your child place leaves, twigs, pieces of pine cones, grass, flowers that they collected from outside.
  4. When your child is done decorating, take the rest of the paper off and seal up their placemat.
 Leaf Candle
  1. Take a candle holder and apply glue all around it.
  2. Place silk leaves all around the candle holder.
  3. Apply glue all on the leaves 
  4. Then apply pieces of torn tissue paper of many sizes on the glue.
  5. Apply glue over the tissue paper and sprinkle glitter on top.
  6. Let dry.
Marble or Acorn Art:
  1. Place a piece of cardboard, any size, into a cardboard box
  2. Dip a marble or acorn into paint.
  3. Place the marble or acorn into the box and let your chid roll it around to paint the paper.
  4. Let your child keep this up until they are happy with their painting.
  5. Try to use fall colors for this project.
Tissue Paper Tree:
  1. Cut tissue paper in 1 inch squares.
  2. Let your child draw a tree truck with a marker or crayon.
  3. Then give your child a pencil or crayon and have then wrap a piece of tissue at the end of it.  
  4. Next, glue the wrapped tissue paper onto the paper to form a tree.
  5. You could do this for the trunk and other things they want in their picture.
Pine Cone Art:
  1. Take some pinecones and take them apart.
  2. Next, glue the pieces of pinecone, onto a piece of construction paper to form an animal, tree, numbers, letters, whatever they can think of. 
Leaf Rubbing:
  1. Lay a pile of all kinds of leaves by your child.
  2. Have your child lay a leaf in front of them.
  3. Place a piece of white paper over the leaf.
  4. Next, give your child a crayon and let them rub over the leaf to make a leaf print.
  5. Point out to your child all the different markings each one makes.
Nature People:
  1. Take a pinecone and cut the top portion off to form a flat surface.
  2. Next, glue an acorn on top of the flat surface. Make sure the hat part is on top.
  3. Next wrap pipe cleaners around the pinecone to form arms and legs.
  4. Draw a face on the acorn with a marker.
Leaf Book:
  1. Have a collection of every kind of leaf.
  2. Seal each leaf in contact paper. 
  3. Make a foam book just like you did for your Child's First Book.
  4. Glue every leaf on its own page.
  5. On each page glue a picture of what the tree looks like that the leaf is from.
  6. Make sure to write the name of the tree on the top of each page.
  7. You can also glue a picture of what kind of seeds or nuts fall off each tree. 


Activities:
  • Apple Picking:  Check your area for orchards. A lot of them are having fall festivals.  Ours had pony rides, craft fairs, kid games, petting zoos and cookouts.  Save some apples for next weeks projects.
  • Nature Walk:  Go on a nature walk with your child and make sure to take a bag with you for collecting leaves, acorns, pinecones, twigs, pine needles.  Also, ask your child to listen to nature. Listen to how the leaves sound like when they walk on them.  Listen to the birds singing, the squirrels making noise. Check out all the colors the leaves are now turning and explain to your child why that is.  Remember to save several pinecones for later crafts we will do in the next few months.  
  • Tree Rubbing:  When on your nature walk take a piece of paper and tape it to a tree trunk.  Next, have your child take a crayon and rub over the bark of the tree lightly.  Try out different types of trees and see what markings they make.  If you can write what kind of tree it was from.
  • For print-ables click here
  • Plant a tree
  • Lincoln Logs
  • Watch Leaves Fall:  Sit or Lay down in your yard or park.  Have your child count how many leaves fall down in a minute or pick your time.
  • Leaf Pile:  Rake up the leaves in your yard and let your child have fun jumping in the leaves. You can even join in.
  • Age of Tree: If your able to find a tree that has fallen down or a tree stump, try to count the rings and see how old the tree is.
Some of the crafts above can be found in the following book: "The kids' encyclopedia of things to make and do" by Richard Michael Rasmussen and Ronda Lea Rasmussen.

I also want to thank our local libraries and schools for some of the other craft ideas.



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