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Archive for the ‘teaching’ Category

Tuesday Craft

Posted in crafts with children, paper craft, school projects, teaching, toys, Tuesday Craft, tagged , , , , , , on May 21, 2013 | 2 Comments »

Kendamas have been a great hit in our school for the last months! A simple wooden toy with lots of possibilities – a bit like a yo-yo, the more you practice the more amazing your tricks are going to be. We have several at our house (including my husband!). I love the counterbalance to the usually omnipresent electronic devices and am amazed how crazy the kids are about this traditional toy.

P1140277 Anyway, one day a boy in the second grade came to school with two versions of his own home-made “kendamas”. He took cups and small plastic balls to assemble them. Very clever. He asked, if we could make them in class and I finally found the practice golf balls that work best for this. You can, of course, use simpler balls for this project – felted balls, paper mache balls, even just bunched up aluminum foil or paper with a string attached. But here is the luxury version:

You need: small cups (5oz.), paper, practice golf balls (in sports shops, mine were $2.99 for 12 of them), string, glue stick, scissors, colored pencils, a hole puncher (optional).P1140278Make a template by cutting apart one of your (probably many) cups.
P1140279 Trace this template onto a piece of paper.P1140280 Draw your very own design and cut it out.P1140281 Stick the made-to-measure paper with your design to the outside of another (whole) cup.P1140282 Punch a hole (or use a big needle, knitting needle, skewer.. to make a hole).P1140283 Cut a length of string (mine was about 20″ long) and, with the help of a crochet hook, pull it through two adjacent holes in the golf ball. Tie some knots.P1140284 Tie the other end of the string to the cup and there you have it: a sweet and simple toy – all home-made!

P1140285(Thank you, Luca, for your inspiration!)

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Tuesday Craft

Posted in crafts with children, school projects, teaching, Tuesday Craft, tagged , , on April 2, 2013 | 2 Comments »

Today we will make a little pipe cleaner bee (or two). For two bees you will need: one black and one yellow (or a nice sparkly golden) pipe cleaner, cut in half; white tissue paper; some sewing thread or string (optional); a small stick (optional).P1130813

Twist the black and the golden pipe cleaner together at one end  - just a tiny bit, so they won’t fall apart.P1130814

Take a regular pencil, hold the twisted end against the pencil and start wrapping the pipe cleaners around the pencil.P1130815

Wrap it all up.P1130816

Then push the coil together from both ends, so your bee is more of a bumble-bee and less stretched out.P1130817

At the end that was not twisted in the beginning push in the golden end and pull out the black end to make a little stinger.P1130818

Stick the two twisted ends back into the bee”s body on the other end to obtain a round shape (you don’t want pipe cleaner ends sticking out of the bee’s face, do you?).P1130819

Make a bow out of a small rectangular piece of tissue paper by twisting it in the middle.P1130820

Insert the bow between two pipe cleaners and push the coil from both ends again to tighten it (and hold the tissue paper in place – I didn’t use any glue).P1130821

Here is the finished bee – looks pretty realistic, doesn’t it?P1130822

Take a piece of thread and a needle and tie the thread onto the bee’s body. In class we ended up just tying the thread all the way around the belly, as the needle and thread business would have taken too long.P1130823

Tie the other end of the thread onto the little stick.P1130824

That’s it!
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And if you want to make 60 bees with 30 kids, this it what the materials would look like. The red and black in the front was intended for a boy who is afraid of bees and I didn’t want him to freak out, but he told me he was OK, because, of course, the bee wasn’t real. Well, how silly of me!

In the end they made all sorts of bugs and spiders out of the leftover black and some more red pipe cleaners I had in my bag. There certainly were a lot of insects in the classroom by the end of this activity.P1130827

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Book your party now…

Posted in crafts with children, felting, sewing, teaching, tagged , , , , , , on March 28, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

It is Spring Break and I used the more relaxed days to prepare some craft projects for children’s birthday parties that I will offer through Trezhers, the store that also sells some of my and my daughter’s work (and that of lots of other local artisans!). If you live in the area you can book a 90-minute class, bring your party over , make something cool –  and then maybe have ice-cream at Vic’s Ice Cream across the street…

Here are some projects to choose from:

Fabric-covered and embellished bangles (from sturdy cardboard tube cut-offs)

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Felted hair accessoriesP1130795

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Personalized name plates (mod podge on scraps of wood or thrift store plates)P1130801

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Felted sweater doll or tiny owlP1130805

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Pet rock in Altoid tin bedP1130789

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P1130790Well, I hope there is something for everybody. I am all excited to teach these party crafts. I love the exuberance of kids, and I am looking forward to sharing my love of making things!

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Tuesday Craft – Message in a Matchbox

Posted in crafts with children, paper craft, school projects, teaching, Tuesday Craft, tagged , , on March 19, 2013 | 4 Comments »

For making a cute matchbox message box, magic trick included, you need the following materials:

empty matchbox, glue stick, white (or other colored) paper to cover matchbox and write note for inside, piece of sturdy string (about 8″), two small beads (string should fit through hole), big pointed needle.P1130740 Here is the magic trick technique (because I forgot to do the design part first…):

Take the inside of your matchbox out and poke a hole through the middle of the outer part.
P1130741 Make the needle go through the second side of the outer matchbox, too, but don’t pull through just yet…P1130742 thread your needle with the piece of sturdy string and pull that through, P1130743 so it looks like this:P1130744 Now tie a bead onto each end of the string with at least a double knot, so that they don’t come loose, when you pull on them.P1130745 When you insert the inside box part again and pull on one of the beads and string,P1130746the box will slide out and reveal – well, nothing in this case, since I forgot to do this part first. Oops!
 P1130747 OK, so let’s think about what to put on the inside and outside of the box. Stick the white paper around the outside and draw away.P1130748Then do the part with the string and the beads (see above). Note that this is really the order in which it should be done.P1130749 I made the girl look as if she is throwing a ball, by placing the bead in her hand.P1130750 P1130751 P1130752When I explained to the second-graders what we were doing today, they instantly got it and came up with a variety of interesting things to write onto and into their boxes. Some examples were (“outside – inside”): “Free gum – not”; “I love – you”; “What is 2+2 – I don’t know”; “Are you an orange? – yes”; “Happy vacation – love, B.”

As usual they were enthusiastic and the whole project took exactly one hour to complete with 29 kids. Perfect!

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Tuesday Craft

Posted in crafts with children, school projects, teaching, Tuesday Craft, tagged , , , on February 13, 2013 | 1 Comment »

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I wanted to make something with just a hint of Valentine’s Day with the class today and it turned into this little heart “garland” out of pipe cleaners and wooden beads. The children loved it (boys and girls were equally enthusiastic), it was just the right amount of time and difficulty and tools (none!), and the right amount of being able to incorporate their own interpretation of the suggested result (put all the beads on one heart, add more hearts to the three, make single hearts on ribbons, hang two hearts into one etc.)

You will need: red and pink pipe cleaners; wooden beads and some pretty ribbon.

All in one pile for all the kids, like this…P1130574

or in a small pile for one person, like this. (I chose 4 beads per heart, but then didn’t use all of them)P1130575

I think it is pretty self-explanatory from here on out:P1130576 P1130577 P1130578 P1130579 P1130580 P1130581 P1130582 P1130583 P1130584 P1130585 P1130587
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Or, if you want to prepare the craft for 30 children, this is what that looks like…

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Happy Crafting!

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Tuesday Craft (Recycling #2)

Posted in crafts with children, origami, paper craft, school projects, teaching, Tuesday Craft, tagged , , on January 22, 2013 | 2 Comments »

We still have plenty of old calendars left in the classroom. The paper bag project proved to be quite difficult for 7 and 8-year-olds (we practiced and made more a second time last Tuesday). But, of course, it could have been my way of explaining it that didn’t help… Whatever the reason, today I wanted to make it a little easier and we are going to fold simple Cootie Catchers, or Fortune Tellers – with room for their own interpretation and imagination.

You only need a calendar page, a pair of scissors and a glue stick.

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Fold and cut the paper, so you obtain a square piece of paper.

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Make a fold the opposite way, so the paper square has a cross in the middle going from corner point to corner point.
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Now fold each of the four corners towards the center point (where your cross folds meet).P1130458 P1130459

Turn the whole thing over.

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Again, fold the four points towards the center point.P1130461 P1130462

Either write four different “fortunes” on small pieces of paper, or cut out pictures from magazines/more old calendar pages. You might think of a question (that the person you are telling the fortune to will have to ask), before working on the fortunes that the picture or phrase will answer. (For example, “What will happen to me this afternoon?”; “What will my next birthday presents be?”; “Who will I meet at the park next time?” – then look for pictures/phrases that can answer the question).

Open each of the four triangular flaps and stick your fortune down with glue stick.P1130463 P1130464

You can mark the flaps hiding the fortunes from the outside, so the person can pick one. I used numbers here, but you can do colors, or other little pictures, or letters.P1130465 P1130466

Next make sure you crease all the folds well one more time, before sticking the thumb and pointer of both your hands under the outside flaps.P1130467 P1130468 P1130469And now comes the fun part of telling your friends’ fortunes!

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Making soap

Posted in soap-making, teaching, tagged , on January 14, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Another mom and I were asked to make soap with the 8th grade class – as a chemistry demonstration as well as a fundraiser (selling the soap bars). We finally got together on the weekend to make a test batch, just so we would know how to proceed. We followed the very first basic recipe from Anne Watson’s book  Smart Soapmaking. It calls for pretty easily available ingredients. I happened to have lye in my pantry, because I also use it for pretzel making, but you can order it online from soap makers’ supply stores. I won’t go into further details with how to make the soap (you best follow a professional’s advice here), just one thing: don’t put the lye and water solution into an aluminum pot…we were so glad we had tried this at home (actually outdoors in the backyard), as the black smoke billowed from the pot and the mixture produced a gooey, rapidly hardening mass of grey matter that left us with the only option of throwing the pot and contents in the trash can. We started over with an enamel pot and it couldn’t have been easier to make this basic soap.

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After cooling and hardening for 24 hours in the milk carton.

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Ripping off the paper casing.

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Thick slices of soap. At this point the soap is soft like maybe a provolone cheese, so you can comfortably cut it.

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Now the little soap bars will have to dry, or cure, for at least a month. They harden and the longer you can let them harden, the better the soap. It was a very satisfying experience I would love to repeat. I am already tinkling of pretty packaging and labeling…but that will be left to the 8th graders. After all it is going to be their product.

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By the way, there is still time to leave a comment here, if you want to win some hand-made goodies in honor of KlaraLuna’s first blog anniversary!

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Tuesday Craft (Recycling #1)

Posted in crafts with children, paper craft, school projects, teaching, Tuesday Craft, tagged , , , on January 8, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

For today’s craft with the second graders we are re-using last year’s calendars to make little paper bags. I asked for donations and got a whole lot of beautiful magazine covers and calendars to last us for a while.

This is what you need: instructions with measurements so you can draft a template for the bag pattern on a piece of paper. I used this one here (second page), it is in German, but you can read the measurements.

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Due to the average size of my calendar pages I copied the template at 68% and then copied it onto card stock. This step can be omitted, if you make the template just for for own use. I am talking about 30 templates here, hence the copy machine.

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Other than this template you will need your calendar page (or any other thick paper – wrapping paper, an actual brown paper bag etc.), a pair of scissors, a glue stick, a pencil and a piece of old ribbon.

P1130250Cut out the card stock template and punch holes like this to mark the fold line. The folded edge will make the top of the bag sturdier and will make sure the ribbon doesn’t tear the paper so easily.

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Lay the templet on your chosen piece of paper and trace around it, include marking the punched out holes. Cut out the shape.

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Fold along dots along top, fold four bottom pieces at bottom edge. Fold paper four times in the other direction, between bottom pieces and upper edge dots. Unfold, then glue the top edge down.

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Glue the small side fold to the inside of one of the side panels.

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Apply glue to the two bottom flaps that have their corners clipped, assemble bottom with those pieces on top. Turn bag over and reach inside to stick bottom pieces together properly.

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Trace around the bottom of the bag on leftover piece of card stock and cut out. Glue to the inside bottom to make the bag stand up better.

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Punch holes along the top edge of the bag. I punched two holes each side, but you may go for just one hole, or holes on the sides, or no holes at all, but a fold over edge. All variations…Cut your piece of ribbon in half and pull through the holes, securing the end with a knot.

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In my case I think my ribbon was a bit too thick and it had those wire edges, which made the bag very top-heavy. I assembled a second bag out of a piece of scrap paper and added yarn handles. Again, the variations are endless, depending on what you have in your house and what you like best.

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Keep the template and next time you need a gift bag for a small birthday present – make one!

By the way: tomorrow is my first blog anniversary and I will have a give-away (because I really like the idea on other blogs I follow!). So come back tomorrow, if you want to win some hand-made Klara Luna goodies!

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Tuesday Craft

Posted in crafts with children, school projects, teaching, Tuesday Craft, Waldorf crafts, tagged , , , on December 18, 2012 | 2 Comments »

This is the last week of school before the Winter Break. For a lot of  children this means Christmas is close and they get more excited every day. However, not every family celebrates Christmas, some celebrate Hanukkah, some Kwanza, some nothing at all – but it will be Winter Solstice on Friday, December 21, for everybody, when the longest night and the shortest day mark the turn-around towards more light. I love this celebration! So in honor of solstice we will be making candles today.

You need a sheet of beeswax (8.5″ by 17″). This seems to be the standard size of one sheet, which I buy at the local beekeeping store in town. One sheet makes four small candles as described in this project. Furthermore you need gold-colored poster board (craft store). The one I used is silver on the other side, which is perfect. And lastly candle wicks, which you should get at the same place where you buy the beeswax sheet. If you wish to further embellish your candle in a seasonal way, add some red ribbon and evergreen bits from your backyard.

P1130149Draw the outline of a star on the poster board. Here I used a giant cookie cutter that I happened to have, but you can draw your own star or use any template you might have. Cut out the star.
 P1130150Cut the beeswax sheet into four equal pieces with an old pizza cutter, knife or carpet knife (beeswax is hard to get off a tool that you intend to use in your kitchen again). You end up with four pieces, each measuring 4.25″ by 8.5″.
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Cut a piece of the wick, so that it is slightly longer than the width of the beeswax.
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Place the wick on one end of the beeswax, pressing it down so it sticks to the wax a little.P1130153

Carefully start rolling the beeswax equally across, making sure to roll it quite tightly. Children might need a little help here.P1130154
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Mark the middle of the golden star and cut a cross, or a star (three cuts) a little bit bigger than the circumference of your finished candle. Bend down the corners you just cut and stick the candle through.P1130156

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Add whatever embellishments you like the best. You could take beads and press them into the wax. Or cut shapes out of colored wax sheets (beeswax or other) with small cookie cutters and press into the candle. Add little bells, gold ribbon….you get the idea!
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HAPPY SOLSTICE!

I have to add, of course, that you should never leave a candle burning unattended. Also make sure you secure the candle to a surface with a drop of wax or put it into a candle stick.

 

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Out in public

Posted in crafts with children, felting, school projects, sewing, teaching, wool felt, tagged , , , , , , on May 31, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

This is how the tree wall hanging looked outside the classroom door during Open House last night. We got plenty of positive comments and the students were proud to show their parents.

Due to the wind I had to come up with a makeshift solution to weigh the piece down. Matches the subject, don’t you think?!

Now it is back in my house waiting to get its final fabric  backing and hanging loops. I want it to be done by the end of the summer vacations, because the tree is going to adorn one of the walls in the 6th grade classroom next year.

Have a happy last day of May!

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