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

DIY Felt stick puppets for the Puppet Show (HS Journey & Journal #3)

Poems and Puppets will be our theme. 

We have picked out three poems from this lovely book; Poems for the Very Young, it is full of lots of sing songy poems that are super engaging. 

We are using felt, a glue gun and some doul sticks to make the puppets. 

I first had the kids draw out there puppets on a regular sheet of paper. 

They then cut out the picture and used it as their pattern on the felt.

I am trying to let the kids take the lead on this. 

They picked the poems and had to think through how many puppets per poem. 

I have placed Autty in charge of all things 'puppets' and Lydia in charge of the stage. 

Here they are testing out there first stick puppets. :) 

My remain nameless child who balked at this idea is warming up just fine and enjoying herself thoroughly. 

As of now we have 2 puppets down and 5 more to go, plus

memorisation and the completion of the stage. 

So far we work on this idea 2 times a week for the last 30 to 45 minutes of our morning...clipping right along. 

Poems and Puppets part #3....soon to follow. ;)

In our little west corner- creating puppets and memories. 

Becky 

You can check out how we made our stage here:  Part #1- Creating a Puppet Theatre

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

Stamp painting with pipe-cleaners- summer fun

I saw this fun idea Painting fireworks with pipe-cleaners on Pinterest a bit ago and today we put the idea to paper. 

Stamp Painting with Pipe-cleaners

You will need:

Pipe-cleners

paint

paper

An extra thing I did was put some extra pipe cleaners to let the kids

 make a few of their own pipe-cleaners stamps. This idea lasted my kids about 20 minutes. 

We have started something new at our house since school got out. 

We call our new idea Rotation Stations... this pipe-cleaner idea was at our craft station. 

I will share with you our Rotation Station idea with you soon...it has really been a help to me and the kids. More on that next time. 

Here is the original post I saw that inspired us. :) 

Source: Juggling with kids

Using what we have to create some summer fun- today it was Pinterest and pipe-cleaners. :)

In our west corner,

Becky and kiddos

2 (diy) iPads -Plus early reading Kindle and iPad app ideas

You gotta love kids ingenuity. :) 

Cardboard iPADs. 

Their idea. 

Love those sweet eyes popping out behind her work. :)

They took their iPADs to the park. 

Sharing an IPAD with their friend. 

A little story for ya...I was given an IPAD for Christmas by my husband. He surprised me completely!!!! We had decided not to buy gifts for each other this last Christmas because we just didn't have the funds after our long stint in the States. Well little did I know that the few odd jobs my husband did for a friend while in the States was a behind the scenes scheme for my gift. I was so blown away and humbled by my husbands CONSTANT ability to think of me and lavish his love on me. 

Ok that was the story...now jumping to the present. Our iPad has been such a great tool in homeschooling. Is it necessary? No. Is it helpful? Very. Living overseas and homeschooling has its challenges in getting the materials you want and need, especially books. iPad and kindle have been invaluable tools to me this past year. 

Early Reading recommendations for iPads, Kindle etc.:

I really have enjoyed this app for my two younger ones. It is NOT reading junkfood. This is truly a helpful app. and builds upon itself so that your kids are learning reading skills. I paid 3.99. To me excuse my cheapness, that is pretty high but I have not regretted it and it is one of the only apps I have paid for. :)

Also this site: ProgressivePhonics has early reading books for FREE. They are similar to Bobs Books but again are FREE and have a bit more script and more story. Plus let me add again they are free. ;)

The best part for me regarding these books is that they have formatted their books so that you can save the books they can be transferred to your iPad device or Kindle. This has been sooooo great for us. 

This site is worth the time and it has saved me money. 

One more tid bit is that I have found several free kids Kindle books by following: 

Free Homeschool deals

With much care to any and all who take the time to read these posts.  Hope this is helpful.
In our west corner.
Becky

Butterfly Study (geared toward ages 7-10)

For spring I wanted to do a study on Butterflies to welcome in the happy change of seasons and explore something that is related to spring. This study was not only fun but very eye opening to the wonder of creation and the creator. We all enjoyed it completely. I hope someone else can benefit from these links and resources.

Butterfly Study

Mighty book: Metamorphosis song  
This is such a peppy song that engages kids as to what that big word Metamorphosis means.

After the kids watched this a few times I told them that whoever could spell metamorphosis without making any mistakes I would give 50 kurus.

Butterfly lapbook
We included a lapbook in our study of butterflies. This one was great. We used several parts of it.

Butterfly Film

This video is $15.00 but it is excellent and the footage of butterflies is fabulous. We throughly enjoyed watching this. It was very informative and I personally learned a lot. It was however at times over my 6 years olds head and my 9 year old sometimes got lost in vocab but the photos and constant motion of the film kept them captive. Butterflies are truly a remarkable creation.

Trailar for Metamorphosis the beauty and design of butterflies

Butterfly Book and reading

We think Ms. Frizz is super cool and so this book was another purchase we made ahead of time. Easy to find online for very inexpensive.

The Magic School Bus #26

Butterfly Battle 

We recently discovered Ms. Frizz and the Magic School bus online with full episodes for free. We were  even more delighted to find one about Butterflys!!! Yippee for us and creative educational cartoons. 

Butterfly Food fun 

Nothing too exciting just simple ideas that makes us happy to eat a tasty butterfly that doesn't have warning colors. ;)

I made this. Lunch time

Kids made these. Snack time

Butterfly Craft

I got this ideas from a few different places, which of course I pinned so I could find them later. 

Gotta like pinterest for easy finding. 

My older daughter used wire and my son used pipe cleaner. 

My inspiration.

Here:

and Here:

Source:

Spoonful. Dragon fly craft

Source:

Clothespin butterfly craft

Our next step is to explore outdoors and discover butterflies in their natural surroundings. Now that Spring is really here I think we will start to see more and more butterflies. 

Edit May 21st 2013: I just recently found this great FREE Butterfly resource unit!! Worth your time.

In our west corner in awe of Gods design and creative working in nature.
Becky

Clothes pin dolls and sweet childhood

Found these little dolls the other day hanging around my girls bedroom. We made these 2 years ago!

Cute little peg heads don't you think? :)

My daughters creations.

Felt for the hair

tp tube cut and shaped and glued for the cowboy hat

scraps of ribbon and fabric for the clothes

Sharpies for the faces.

Oh the little things that make me smile. :) Childhood is one of them. Look for the sweetness in your kids childhood today, it is there!! 

In my west corner finding sweet little things in my home.
Becky

Cardboard Mixed Media art with kids

Hi all. Happy day after lovers day. :) 

Here is our novice ideas of mixed media art. :) Enjoy

Each child was given piece a of perforated cardboard.

I just peeled off the top part of the cardboard for this look.

I had them paint the base colour white. 

Autty is using a tooth brush here. :)

This part is pretty important I think!

Use a blow dryer to dry the different layers of paint it really helped keep us moving.

Then they used water colours over the base colour. 

One thing the kids really liked is holding up there cardboard and letting the water colours run down or across the cardboard to give texture to their pieces.

We used:

Acrylic white paint

Blowdryer 

Water paints

Lots of brushes (tooth brush, foam brushes, etc)

Alphabet stamps and black stamp pad

Markers (permanent)

Pieces of paper (scrap book paper, newspaper, etc)

Glue stick

Mod podge

Our Cardboard Mixed Media Art pieces:

I gave a few instructions and then really tried to let them create as they desired.

I also gave it a try the day before and here is what I came up with. :)

(I made this specifically for a friend

who is in need of wisdom.)

The verse on the piece is James 1:5

"If anyone lacks wisdom let him ask of God who gives liberally to all who ask for it." 

Truth is I am not a Mixed Media artist myself (shocked are you?) ;)...but I love art and these days have a special infinity for Mixed Media art especially. 

The electricity went out for about 15 minutes while we were working on this. 

Ode to my life in Turkey. It keeps life popping. 

The kids and I tried our hand with what we had: Cardboard! (of course) 

Thanks for peeking in at our humble pieces. :)

In our west corner of Turkey using what we have to create,

Becky

(Yesterday I went to Lydia's 1st grade class and did my first craft for her and her classmates. :)  I'll be starting up my 'Investing in our Neighbourhood' posts again soon. I love that they all call out Rebekah Teyze. :)) (Aunt Rebekah)