Sturdy for Common Things

Last Stop on Market Street Bus Craft

I’m over at Library as Incubator Project celebrating the 2016 Newbery winner and Caldecott and Coretta Scott King honoree, Last Stop on Market Street (public library | local bookstore) by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson. Learn how to make this delightful 3-D bus craft just like the one CJ and Nana ride in the book HERE.

The Tea Party in the Woods + Pie Art Project

There’s something eerie and otherworldly about walking in the woods in the wintertime. It is quiet, yet holds many secrets… Maybe even a bit of magic. The Tea Party in the Woods by Akiko Miyakoshi (public library | local bookstore) embodies this feeling perfectly. A young girl, Kikko, sets out to deliver a pie her father had forgotten to her grandmother’s house. Trying as quickly as she could to catch up to her father, she trips in the snow, ruining the pie. Kikko gets up and hurries after him nonetheless only to find that she ends up at an unfamiliar house where she learns she wasn’t following her father after all.

There it is. This image. How terrific is the mood in this illustration? That point when things are absolutely not what they seem? Kikko walks into an enchanting tea party welcomed by a guest list of animals of all shapes and sizes. Feeling nervous and excited, she explains to the animals that she was taking a pie to her grandmother’s but the pie was ruined on the way. The animals encouraged her to take an assortment of the pies they had at the party to replace the ruined pie.

The Tea Party in the Woods  is quiet and striking full of whimsy and wonder. The sequence of full-page spreads and bright yellow and red focal points in this visually appealing for beginning and early readers to draw conclusions about the story without reading the text. Kikko’s story is a delight and prompted a simple paper craft project and many hours of pretend play…

 

PIE ART PROJECT

If you’ll scroll up to the illustration of the animals preparing a plate of assorted pies for Kikko, that scene was what inspired this simple pie art project. “Each piece had a different filling of seeds and nuts and fruit and other delicious things gathered from the woods,” is the description of the pies in the story.  I thought about collecting materials found outdoors to be used for this project as a nature-y mixed-media creation, but my daughter wanted the pie pieces to look like the pies she likes to eat. Not like dead grass. Fair enough! Here’s how she made her paper pie collage…

PIE ART MATERIALS

• Pie Plate
• Variety of Colored Paper or Cardstock
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Glue Stick
• [Optional Embellishments (sequins, pom poms, etc.)]

You could also use a paper plate as the crust of your pie, but we chose different colors of cardstock we had on hand.

Place your pie plate in the middle of a piece of paper and trace around the bottom of the plate with a pencil.

Using another piece of paper as a makeshift ruler, divide the circle into sections. If you’d like, this is a good opportunity to talk about basic division and fractions with your child. Sneaky math! It’s everywhere! Once you’ve divided the pie up, cut out the pie along using penciled lines as your guide.

Snip snip snip. After the pie crust was cut out, kids can decorate with paper to their own imagination and/or flavor preference. Perhaps a piece of Peppermint Plum? Or Ginger Pumpkin? Maybe some Pistachio Crunch? Triple Cartwheel Peanut Butter Surprise? Whatever the flavor!   Now, you can stop here OR you can add some optional additional embellishments of your choosing. We had some sequins and pom-poms out already and those were readily applied to the pie.

Good enough to eat! Am I right? Art baked goodness just in time for a winter tea party of your very own.

 

PRETEND PLAY TEA PARTY

As in any situation where pie is involved, you obviously have to throw a party for the pie to be enjoyed among friends. Over the past few weeks there have been a many tea parties indoors where friends from all over the house are invited to enjoy the festivities and freshly baked pie. Awhile back I purchased a few tea cups, mugs, and saucers from Goodwill that have been put to good use ever since we brought them home.

Roar-y the Tiger couldn’t help himself and had to have seconds. The hostess was of the mostess and everyone was very well mannered and had a jolly old time.

And I had to share a picture of this friendly cat and dog guest duo, which were made from leftover pie scraps and other odds and ends from around the house. Glad these last minute guests could make it just in time for tea!

Don’t you love when a book sparks imagination?

 

 

**Source of book reviewed: Checked out at the local public library.

 

The After-Christmas Tree

When the holiday season has come and gone I don’t know about you, but I always feel a cloud of doldrums in it’s wake. Several months ago I found this gem of a book at our public library’s book sale, which has sparked a new tradition of transitioning out of the holidays and into the new year. The After-Christmas Tree by Linda Wagner Tyler, illustrated by Susan Davis (public library | local bookstore) is a delightful seasonal story about a family that extends the life of their Christmas tree after the holidays by decorating it with food for the winter animals. Quite taken with the story, it inspired our own After-Christmas Tree event, which turned out to be a festive and unique way to learn about the winter animals in our neighborhood…

I spy a Cardinal and two Grey Squirrels! We’ve had many wonderful moments making and watching our own After-Christmas Tree, which I’ll share about in a bit… First, the book!

THE AFTER-CHRISTMAS TREE STORY

The After-Christmas Tree starts with New Year’s Day and the Tyler family is reminiscing about all the fun they had during the holiday season, a season that seemed to had ended all too soon, but mom has an idea. After taking down all the decorations and lights from the tree, the kids made invitations for a mysterious “After Christmas Party”.  A party that starts with ice skating and fun outside transitions into a surprise for it’s guests. On the way home, guests were given a bag and asked to collect pinecones on the walk back to the Tyler’s home. When everyone arrives, an announcement is made that everyone is going to decorate the Tyler’s old tree with treats for the birds and wild animals so that they will have enough food during the winter.

Those chipmunks stuffing their cheeks! The illustrations in The After-Christmas Tree are soft and expressive throughout the story and I notice little details on repeat reads. When decorating a real tree come Christmas is the eco-friendly way to celebrate, what a wonderful way to ring in the new year by gifting a Christmas tree back to nature? We thought it was a nice gesture too, so we transformed our own tree into an After-Christmas Tree…

DECORATING AN AFTER-CHRISTMAS TREE FOR WINTER ANIMALS

The glow of a tree is the most enjoyable part of the season to me and I’m always sad to see our little beacon of light and merriment go. When my 5-year-old suggested we make our own After-Christmas Tree after reading the book one evening, I enthusiastically agreed. Just like in the story, we decided that pinecone bird feeders, popcorn garland, cranberry garland, was a good way to go. She helped string the cranberries and make the pine cone feeders, which were made by tying a string of yarn on the top of the pine cone, coating the pinecone with a layer of peanut butter, and then rolling it in bird seed. I made the mistake of trying to string fresh popcorn, but eventually learned that day-old popcorn is the way to go. Once we had enough food for our tree, a couple mornings after New Year’s Day we took our naked Christmas tree outdoors and draped our homemade garlands and hung our birdseed feeders. Oh Christmas tree!

At the bottom of the tree we scattered shelled nuts just like in the story. I also added large rocks in the tree stand so that the strong gusts of Kansas winds wouldn’t knock it over. Once we finished decorating our After-Christmas Tree and went inside, it didn’t take long for furry and feathered friends to find their surprise. It was always a mystery looking out the window…  What animal would we see enjoying their new year’s treat?!

Over the past several days, we’ve identified Grey Squirrels (lots and lots of squirrels!), Blue Jays, Northern Cardinals, a Downy Woodpecker, House Sparrows, Song Sparrows, a Carolina Wren, and a Dark-Eyed Junco (this book is especially handy for bird identification with kids), as well as whatever nocturnal animals that visited while we were asleep at night. Maybe a mouse or a possum? I wish there was more snow on the ground so we could’ve compared animal tracks. Maybe next year. Today, the tree is bare expect for a few pieces of red yarn and a half a strand of a cranberry garland. In the next couple days, I’ll pull the tree to the curb for our city’s tree recycling pick up. It enjoyed a good, long season of giving.

And I have it on good authority that my family aren’t the only animals that will look forward to this new tradition in years to come.

DIY Recycled Kid’s Art Calendar

 

Have some extra kids’ art laying around the house? This DIY Recycled Kid’s Art Calendar is a simple craft to talk about and prepare for the new year ahead! Plus, it’s a makeshift way to decorate your home or office with your child’s art. Here’s how it’s done…

Materials

• Child’s artwork
• Free printable monthly calendar (like this one or this one)
• Stapler

First, sift through the pile of your child’s artwork that has been piling up that you swear you’ll go through on day. I picked out this painting on a 18×12 piece of  paper.

Go online and find a printable calendar of the months of the year. I used this one, but anything you find to your liking will do.

Staple the calendar printout (make sure the months are in order!) to the child’s art project and hang for all to see and share throughout the new year!

This doesn’t have to be a recycled art work project– You could invite kids to paint or draw or collage or however they enjoy expressing themselves on a large piece of construction paper, watercolor paper, or poster board and then staple the printable calendar once the artwork is completed. Regardless if the art is new or old, this is a simple and artful way to celebrate the new year. After your calendar is done, mark important dates like birthdays and holidays and/or enjoy reading a story about the months of the year.

Happy New Year!

Wild Things in December

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Winter is here. The Winter Solstice arrived and went leaving a soft coat of snow that fell just before the month’s end. The girls couldn’t get enough of the snow, eating it by the handfuls. Since the snow came late this year, there was a little more time to discover the brown earth before it was covered in white. During one of our walks, Lorelei discovered a brachiopod fossil and is quite proud of her find. Fossils and dinosaurs is a popular interest in our home lately, so we’ve been extra attentive to looking at rocks all around. The other interest that’s taken off this month is snow crystals. We checked out W.A. Bently’s Snow Crystals a few days ago and the girls are often found on the couch flipping through photograph after photograph of snowflakes. I’m looking forward to seeing what discoveries and interests evolve in the year ahead.

1. December crystals
2. All is quiet
3. Making nature orbs
4. Dark dawn
5. Fossil finding
6. Winter walk in the wood
7. Gifts for friends, gifts for the birds
8. Celebrating the Winter Solstice
9. First snow
10. Unseen visitor
11. Snow breakfast

 

For past Wild Things adventures, go HERE. For new adventures, follow along on Instagram!