Hayley dashed off a couple of poems the other day. I thought they were quite good!
Basketball
Basketball is fun
Bouncy, bouncy ball
Orange and black
Dribble, jump, shoot
Free throw!
Our team is in
the lead!
Defense
Offense
B-A-S-K-E-T
Ball!
Blue
Blue ocean
Blue sky
Birds and fish
Blue jeans
A lot of blue --
Blue everywhere --
Showing posts with label Literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Literature. Show all posts
Monday, February 23, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
James & The Giant Peach Day 2
Today we started our paper mache peaches. We are going to use them as props for a play so we need a whole peach for some scenes and a half peach for others (when James is inside the peach).
As we began readying the ingredients, I had a "guilty mom" moment as I realized that my kids have never done paper mache...and they are 8 and almost 10 years old. Ugh. Oh well...we are doing it now, right??
Hayley got right to work measuring ingredients; we used the standard flour and water recipe (1/2 cup water and 1 cup flour) and squirted in some white school glue to strengthen the paper mache just a bit.
Nick offered to help, cutting strips of newspaper into long, 1 inch wide strips.
Then it was time to build the peaches. Not surprisingly, Hayley balked at this. She is not a fan of wet, goopy substances. Come to find out in talking with DH last night, he never liked paper mache, either. No matter...Nick loved it and eagerly offered to help!
It took us nearly an hour but we finally got the first layer of newspaper on both balloons. Don't they look beautiful? We'll do the next layer tomorrow morning and are hoping that, if we place them near the heater, they'll dry quickly and we can throw on one last layer in the evening. Then comes more fun -- painting them!
As we began readying the ingredients, I had a "guilty mom" moment as I realized that my kids have never done paper mache...and they are 8 and almost 10 years old. Ugh. Oh well...we are doing it now, right??
Hayley got right to work measuring ingredients; we used the standard flour and water recipe (1/2 cup water and 1 cup flour) and squirted in some white school glue to strengthen the paper mache just a bit.
Nick offered to help, cutting strips of newspaper into long, 1 inch wide strips.
Then it was time to build the peaches. Not surprisingly, Hayley balked at this. She is not a fan of wet, goopy substances. Come to find out in talking with DH last night, he never liked paper mache, either. No matter...Nick loved it and eagerly offered to help!
It took us nearly an hour but we finally got the first layer of newspaper on both balloons. Don't they look beautiful? We'll do the next layer tomorrow morning and are hoping that, if we place them near the heater, they'll dry quickly and we can throw on one last layer in the evening. Then comes more fun -- painting them!
James & The Giant Peach Day 1
Hayley is reading Roald Dahl's James And the Giant Peach, a classic fantasy book for kids. I haven't come across a single person who hasn't read this little gem of a book, but for those who haven't, here is a short synopsis:
Seven year-old James is forced to live with his cruel Aunts Sponge and Spiker after his parents are eaten by a rhinoceros. A mysterious old man appear in the garden and gives James a bag filled with magical crystals, a gift that will change his life forever as he embarks on a fantastic journey involving a gigantic peach and some unusual new friends.
We have been working on a couple of fun projects related to the book. Yesterday, Hayley created her own character who might benefit from the old man's gift of magic crystals. A good lesson in creative writing, she wrote a biography of a young girl who ran away from her cruel mother, choosing to live alone in the mountains with her cat as her only company. She then drew a picture of the old man and the girl. When this was done, we added the magic green crystals.
After scooping a small bit of rice into a plastic container, she added a drop of green food coloring and shook it well.
Voila! Magical green crystals. She applied them with glue to her story and left them to dry.
Seven year-old James is forced to live with his cruel Aunts Sponge and Spiker after his parents are eaten by a rhinoceros. A mysterious old man appear in the garden and gives James a bag filled with magical crystals, a gift that will change his life forever as he embarks on a fantastic journey involving a gigantic peach and some unusual new friends.
We have been working on a couple of fun projects related to the book. Yesterday, Hayley created her own character who might benefit from the old man's gift of magic crystals. A good lesson in creative writing, she wrote a biography of a young girl who ran away from her cruel mother, choosing to live alone in the mountains with her cat as her only company. She then drew a picture of the old man and the girl. When this was done, we added the magic green crystals.
After scooping a small bit of rice into a plastic container, she added a drop of green food coloring and shook it well.
Voila! Magical green crystals. She applied them with glue to her story and left them to dry.
In her story, the girl could use the magic crystals to return home without her mother seeing her. Ah, the gift of invisibility!
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