Poems and Puppet Theatre only 2 days away! (HS J& J)

Here is a sneak peak of what will be seen at the 

Poem and Puppet Theatre

(...located down the hall and into the living room) 

in just a few days. 
(what a geek I spelled theatre WRONG...will correct soon)

A few poems that will be performed are:

Today I saw a Little Worm- by: Spike Millgen

Boa Constrictor - by: Shel Silver stein

and 

What are you?- by: unknown

*also there will be a few EXTRAS :).

(that I had to limit as they are more made up and full of fun goofiness)

Autty put together signs for each poem 

and by whom it was written. :)

Practicing alone and then for a sweet little audience of one. :) 

We decided that we needed curtains for the puppet stage 

and since Lydia is in charge of the puppet stage she sewed the little curtains. 

We then ran a thin rope thru the fabric we had sewn over and attached the two ends of the rope to  clothes pin we had clipped on top of the puppet stage. (I can show of pic of this next time)

We have a few last minute details to complete...the monkey puppet was my responsibility along with the sign for the puppet theatre. :)  So I am working on those today. :) Tomorrow will be practice day and putting it all together. It was really fun today to see each of the girls take total responsibility for their parts in this 'production'.  

So only two more days before the 'big' production and I think this rather large cardboard puppet stage will be in our living room until at least then if not a few days after. :)

 Be on the look out for the Poems and Puppet Theatre review next week...there may even be a clip or two. 

Part 1 of Poems and Puppets. The cardboard stage.
Part 2 of Poems and Puppets. Felt puppets.

In my west corner of Turkey ~ 

Becky

Our fall leaf people

We are enjoying the beginning of Fall weather here in our little west corner. 

So the next obvious thing to do is make 

Fall Leaf People,  you know those little creations that come from the fallen leaves. ;) 

We used a glue stick and a hot glue gun for the larger sticks.

Isaac loved this and made his creations without much help, except the hot glue gun. 

This one was mine. The kids called it the 'fat leaf fairy'. :) 

On the day that we went and collected these things I was determined to find a place away from apartments and not one of the two parks we go to ALL the time. It is very hard to go for nature walks here and I had a moment that day to feel bad about it or ask the Lord to help me find somewhere to go. We got in the car and I prayed. I was reminded of a little walking area that is REALLY small but it has lots of trees so off we went. It really was amazing to me how much kids just love to be out, they did not notice that it was really small and had no grass just dirt. They had a riot looking for bits and bobs for our creations. My attitude and determination make such a difference in the fun of our days. Also that day I was again reminded the Lord cares about my/our daily lives and that makes my heart full.

Enjoy the beginning of this glorious fall weather. 

Tea will be abundant at my house so feel free to stop by!!!

Learning to ask the Lord to help me 'use what I have' to create and enjoy life. 

In my little west corner,

Becky

Don't forget~Homemade Play-dough the rainy day necessity.

Just a reminder, in case you forgot ....

Homemade Play dough on a rainy day/cold winter day. 

The day we made play-dough my kids were engrossed for 3 1/2 hours~ 

Seriously if you have never tried to make your own play dough....go for it!

It takes 15 minutes to make with your kids and is inexpensive.

We made a double batch!

Here is my recipe 

given to me by my sweet friend Alyssa. 

I have been using this same recipe for  5 years. :)

(I do have to get to Alum from the States. )

I wait until the dough cools down a bit then I let my kids pick the colors and mix in the food colouring with their hands. Messy is fun and the coloring comes off after a few hand washings. :)

Seriously look how happy this little guy is! 

Using what we have to enjoy our indoor days. 

This time it's home made play dough...go ahead make a double batch life is short. 

So do you let your kids mix there play dough colours?

In my west corner,

Becky

linking up here

Napkin flower bouquet

Here we are at it again with our napkins and watered down paint.  

This time using an eye dropper and lots of differnt colors. 

When we made these flowers it was a cold snowy day and 

I found a lot of delight that my daughter made such a warm colorful sun.

Here are our napkins drying on our heater.

I wanted to post this because I love these colorful napkins of my kids bright creativity.

While we were waiting for them to dry the girls bundled up and left the 

warmth of our 5th floor to play in the snow, soon to be slush. 

I am guessing this is one of the last real cold hot cocoa days for this winter.  

This weekend we will be seeing 50 and 60s. :)

Here are our napkins flowers. If you remember we made them for our Cardboard town playhouses. 

However our little town has recently been recycled in the trash, but our flowers are still sweet and pretty so since spring is just a jump away,I kept them. :) Even though today is cold and rainy I am holding out for that great forecast this weekend. 

Little Cardboard town playhouses. 

Hope you enjoy our little napkin flower bouquet,

 tied up with scrap fabric as much as I do. 

In my west corner enjoying my kids and their creations. 

Becky 

ps. please do not loose heart there still is a giveaway planned and a colorful blog header coming this way...just an itsy bitsy delay. ;)

DIY Tissue paper from napkins

This post is super fun for me because it is a perfect 

example of our life and my 'use what you have' theme... We don't have tissue paper here and well I really like all the variety of colors and designs and all the crinkly fun tissue paper gives. A lot of cool crafty ideas from that light weight paper too. Anyway the other day we had been using some orange paint and I had a bit left over I didn't want to waste. So Lydia and I watered down the acrylic orange paint grabbed an eyedropper and went to work.

Who knew what these very pretty napkins were going to be used for but away we went.

We then let them dry over night and when they were finished drying they were a tissue paper texture and kind of crinkly.

We  had a stack of orange napkins hanging out on the counter for a few days.

Here is what we did with our stack of tissue paper like napkins:

Enjoy

We had a little friend over the other day and inspiration hit. I had JUST after almost 7 years in Turkey found clear contact paper.  This truly is a GREAT find for me. Plus it was so inexpensive!!  Anyway here is what we created.  

Anyone living in Turkey this craft is for you. 

Easy around the house items and everything can be found here.  

Happy Fall Crafting.

*I cut a rectangular piece of clear contact paper for each child

*I laid the sticky part up and put rocks on the sides to keep it down. Then the kids took the orange colored cut up napkins and placed them on the sticky part. 

*They then folded the contact paper together and pressed down.

*I cut a circle and they stuck on the eyes and drew the mouth. Ta da easy low expense fun. 

This is what we used:

15 minute craft

Napkins

watered down paint

eye dropper

Contact paper

Black construction paper or foam

tape

permanent marker for mouth

Another fun thing about this craft for us is we don't ever carve pumpkins here. So this was a fun pumpkin face idea.  I think I might do snowmen but just use white napkins. :)  

Tonight I am so grateful for the little things.  I really feel that since I have decided to be content with what God has given me here I enjoy the small finds so much more and I create a lot more and rarely think if only I had....(until I go back to the States and walk into Michael's or Hobby Lobby then when I return back to Turkey it takes me a month or so to be content with what I have. But man I sure enjoy those moments in those stores.) :)

Keeping to my 'use what you have' theme, recently I have noticed how many palettes  there are in my town.  The other day there was a stack outside our neighborhood grocery store. :) Oh hey a project is brewing in my mind. ;) Oh and stay tuned for a few more original fall projects I will post this week.

From my little corner to yours,
In love with my Savior.
Becky

I HAVE LEARNED THE SECRET OF BEING CONTENT IN ANY AND EVERY SITUATION, WHETHER WELL FED OR HUNGRY, WHETHER LIVING IN PLENTY OR IN WANT. I CAN DO EVERYTHING THROUGH HIM WHO GIVES ME STRENGTH." PHIL. 4:12,13

Salt dough ribboon necklaces

Giveaway, giveaway...don't forget the giveaway. Click here for pics and enter.

Today I am an early bird blogger.  As of the past two days there has been an undie wearing, sometimes naked little boy running around my house.  Potty training is in full swing and WOW, I forgot how tiring it is.  However I can say with much pride my almost three year old :) has been very succesful especially yesterday.  I am thinking 2 more days of intense training and we should be good to go. Oh and the big bag of M & Ms sitting on the counter is a great motivator for him and a consistant temptation for me. ;) 

So have you all ever tried salt dough?  I hadn’t until just a few weeks ago.  It is sooooo simple, and made with things that are inexpensive and usually in our cupboard. 

Recipe:

1 cup flour

1 cup salt

½ to ¾ cup water

We had a few friends over and so we divided up the dough and the kids went to town making all sorts of things, example: baby hamsters, rings, hearts etc.  After they made them we cooked them until they were really hard, allowed them to cool and then the kids painted their creations. 

 

I would say that I wouldn't do this now in the heat of the summer, this is NOT a project we will do again until it cool down.  No AC, here and close to 100 degrees these days. (ugh and eek) However if you have AC, why not. It is so simple and my kids loved it.

A sweet little model for these little pieces of art. :)

This is a token pic for the grandparents and me. :)

~~~~

Lately I have this thing with certain spots or certain items in my house making me smile. :) So I thought I would share one of my 'this sure makes me happy' moments:

My Kids Art in patchwork display

I love the color and the personalities in my kids that I see in the pics.
this art display is in my kitchen.

Remember the GIVEAWAY ends this Friday!!!!!!!

Click here to comment and win.

Off I go to get up my little kiddos and start another day with my underoo boy. Potty training here I come!  ~Becky

Investing with paperdolls and (a give away)

Investing in the Neighborhood School ~#3

(to check out 1 and 2 - click on the number)

Trying to find ideas for a 1st grade full of 25 children that I can explain in Turkish and is 10 liras or less was a little tougher for me this time.  However thankfully I was graced with an idea.

I wanted to remind the kids that we as individuals are truely unique, each of us with our own special fingprint and yet each of us as humans alike in so many other ways.

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We talked about our body, becasue it shows how much we are alike and yet how differnt we are.

We sang the song head and shoulders knees and toes in English with the actions and they LOVED it.

I shared fun facts like: we have about 206 bones in our bodies and approx. 5 liters of blood. Also this is when we talked about how each finger print (parmak izi) is differnt and unique, and how each of them are each unique and special.

I made little clothes and photo copied them on one sheet of paper. There was a set of boy clothes and a girls set. I passed out one sheet to each child according to their sex and then they cut the pieces out and traced them onto colored construction paper and then glued them on their paper doll.

The goal was for each child to make paper dolls of themselves.  We then went around the room and took their fingerprints that they then glued on back with their name and date.
 We did this as a reminder of their own uniqueness.

Here they are making and showing off their paper dolls. My daughter is in the bottom left corner. :)

Each child recieved:

A paper doll

Set of paper clothes

Half a sheet of colored construction paper

Small white piece of paper for finger print

Each child brought:

Glue

Wet wipes

Colored pencils/crayons

(some kids do not bring their items so I always have things on hand and encourge lots of sharing with seat partners)

For the finger prints:

I brought a small water bottle of water, paintbrush and some water paints for the finger prints. I used the brush in the water bottle to wet the black paint and then had the kids wipe their fingers with a wet wipe after we took their print. 

GIVEAWAY for Turkey dwellers :)

If you make it to the bottom of this post :) their is a fun treat for all those living in Turkey who follow my blog.  INVEST in others is part of my theme for this season so I want to invest by doing a give away for anyone who currently is living in Turkey.  

Come back Friday to see what I want to INVEST/GIVEAWAY to you and how you can win.

It is super super simple. (really super simple) ;)

~in my little west corner~ thank you for stopping by

becky

ps. those of you who don't live in Turkey and are feeling left out, no tears I have something fun up my sleeve for you really soon. :)

Investing in the neighborhood school #2

In April I prepared a fun project for

Autty's 1st grade class about Art.

(I am a little behind in some of my posting:) so this one is a month old)

I displayed 3 differnt types of art :

 Pointallism,  Brush Stroke and Cube art.

I then told the kids that today we were goign to be artist and we attemped to do pointillism painting with q-tips.

The kids really enjoyed it and took there time to make sure their pictures were full of dots.



Here I am explaining what we are about to do. :)
This dot to dot q-tip painting is an inexpensive craft for kids and teaches them to take their time and learn a new techinque.
This is a good group craft I think.

~ becky

Check out this link to see more dot to dot art by my daughter.:)

Also George Seurat is a famous pointillism painter, who developed the technique. His famous painting Sunday Afternoon On the Island of La Grands Jatte took him 2 years to paint and is comprised of millions of dots to form the picute. It is spectacular.