Spring Blossoms Workshop

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I looked out the window and what did I see? Popcorn popping on an apricot tree.  It’s springtime!  Just the right time to make a spring blossom picture!  Here’s what you will need:

• a sheet of light blue paper
• white pencil
• elmer’s glue
• fine salt
• brown paint
• light colored tissue paper cut into small squares.

Use the white pencil to draw some branches of a tree.  Paint your branches with glue (do a nice thick layer).

Sprinkle lots and lots of salt over the glue.  Let the glue dry and then shake the salt off.  (We didn’t have time to let the glue dry, so we had to be extra delicate doing the next step).

Paint the salt brown.  Let dry.

Lay a square of tissue paper onto the top of a pencil (the side without the point) and fold downward, forming a flower blossom. Dip the flat part into glue and stick onto a tree branch. Keep doing that until your tree is covered with flowers.  We glued little crushed up balls of tissue paper to the center of the flowers just to make them a little more colorful.

And there you have it, a beautiful tree with lots of spring blossoms! Achooo! Just kidding these trees are hypoallergenic!

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Did You Hear? Workshop

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Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Did You Hear? by Bill Martin, Jr and Eric Carle is a wonderful book about animals and the sounds that they make.  It’s rhythmic, it has lots of repetition, fun animals to imitate – it’s an all around great story! Check out FindSounds and Sound Bible to hear real sounds that the animal make.

Since this book was all about animals and the sounds they make, we made an kazoo in the shape of an elephant – and you can use it to trumpet like an elephant.  Here’s how to do it:

• You will need:
• colored construction paper
• Elmer’s Glue
• an old paint brush
• scissors
• a tp roll
• parchment paper or tracing paper
• the bottom of a can or a lid, slightly larger than the diameter of the tp roll
• googly eyes

1.  Use the lid to trace a circle on the parchment paper (or tracing paper).  Cut it out, cover one end of the tp roll and glue it on.

2.  Tear up a sheet of construction paper and use the paint brush to glue the paper to the side of the tp roll (paper mache style), making sure to cover the edges of the parchment paper only on the sides and not the part covering the end.

3. Draw 2 ears on construction paper, cut them out and glue them onto the side of the elephant’s head (you may have to fold a small flap in order to get them to stick more easily).

4.  Glue on 2 googly eyes.

5.  Now for the trunk: cut out 2 strips of paper about 1 cm wide, along the length (the long side) of a piece of construction paper.  Place the two ends together so that the strips for an L and place a dot of glue to hold the strips in place. Alternate folding each strip at a 90° angle to the other strip.  When you come to the end of each strip, glue down the ends (cut off any excess paper) and your twos strips of paper should now look like an accordion.  Glue this onto the elephant.  And tah-dah you are finished.

6.  After the elephant dries.  Put the open end of the elephant kazoo to your mouth and make a humming noise (but with your mouth opened).  This should make the paper at the end of the tube vibrate.  Now try and do the same thing making an elephant trumpeting noise.  It’s not easy at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s lots of fun!