Fireflies II

To end our camping theme, we sat around our pretend fire and told some ghost stories. (Remember the Teeny Tiny Woman?) Then I looked up and pretended to see a light flashing, and then more, and soon hundreds of flashing lights. The kids figured out that I was seeing fireflies! I already have a firefly craft that I love.

I attached them to flashlights and the kids could make them glow.

You can read about that craft here. But I decided I wanted to make it a little different this year. So I got glow-in-the-dark paint from Michaels and some plastic spoons. I used the same wings as my old craft, but changed the body into more of a peanut shape. And I got rid of the antennae. It was always a pain to cut those out anyway!

The kids glued the wings to the bottom of the firefly body.

Then they painted the spoon either yellow or green. I forgot to get a picture of this step, but I'm sure you can figure it out! During nap time, I gave all the spoons a second coat of paint so they would glow better. When dry, I used a glue dot to attach the body to the spoon.

And I also used a small, thin pipe cleaner to make antennae. I poked it through one end and back through on the other side of the head. Sometimes the spoon handle stuck out,

so I just took a scissors and snipped it off.

Here are some of the kids "charging" their fireflies in our bathroom (the only place that would get dark enough to see them glow).

I took a picture when the lights were off, but you couldn't see anything glowing. In person you could, though, and that's all that matters. They thought it was "so cool!"

Fun Fact: Some female fireflies can lay hundreds of eggs, and the eggs can give off a steady glow!

Marshmallow Constellations

I mentioned in this marshmallow stamping post that I'd be doing another project with marshmallows this week. With our camping theme, we also are talking a little about the night sky. We have a space theme planned for next week, but I wanted to give the kids a little "preview" of what's to come. We learned about constellations today. I brought in a telescope craft that I made with a class years ago. We covered paper towel tubes with white paper and used stamps to decorate it. Then I added black to the top and bottom.

One end was covered in 4 layers of black tissue paper. I used a big safety pin to poke holes in it to make the big dipper. (You need to make the dipper's handle on the opposite side for it to work.)

When you look through it, toward a light source, you can see the big dipper!

The kids all had a chance to look through it. I wanted to do this craft with them, but there was no way I could get enough paper towel tubes in time. Maybe next year. If I do, I'll share it with you all again and go into a little more detail.
After we learned about some constellations, the kids made their own constellations using mini marshmallows and toothpicks. You've seen this many times, I'm sure, but I will show you anyway.

That's my example and I cheated by making a real constellation. But I told the kids they had to invent their own! So I put out the marshmallows and colored toothpicks (I think colored ones look so much cooler than regular toothpicks) and the kids got to work.

Once the constellation was put together, the kids picked up each marshmallow and squeezed out a tiny bit of glue under it.

I asked each child what the name of their constellation was and I wrote it on the paper. Then I wrote "Discovered by" and the child's name. Some examples:

"Barn"

 "Rectangle-Square"

And my favorite, "Funny Dipper"

I can't wait for my space theme next week. The kids are going to learn so much!

Fly Swatter Painting - Take 1

I've seen some awesome art made with fly swatters lately, like on Reading Confetti. I wanted to do it, but kept putting it off. Well, with camping week I thought it would be perfect. You know, because of all the pesky bugs! I found these fly swatters at Target in the dollar bins. They came in packs of two.

So cute, right? They are almost too adorable to kill a fly!

I decided to do this project on a day we were using the pools and sprinkler. That way if the kids got full of paint, they could wash off in the water! Unfortunately (and this explains the "take 1" from my title), it was an incredibly windy day. So we collected some rocks to keep our paper weighted down. I had one child come over and try it while the rest were cooling off in the water. I put some drops of paint on the paper (the flies),

and told her to swat 'em!

She was very gentle at first, so I told her to really smack those flies!

It turned out great! I called another child over and while he was working on his, the first paper blew away. That was just one of the many times I had to chase it across the lawn. So I gave up. I promised the kids we will try again on a less windy day. Here's what I learned, though:
1. I would never do this inside. Paint splattered everywhere.
2. I wouldn't trust an art smock to protect the clothing or the child from paint. It got on their faces and hair! Luckily, the pool was right there.
3. I'll say it again -- NOT ON A WINDY DAY!
But the two pieces of art we got from it are beautiful, so I will definitely try again.

Hmmm, maybe fireworks for Independence Day? Ooh, on black paper with bright colored paint! Think it would work?
UPDATE:
See our Take 2 here!

Painting with Marshmallows

Last week I had the kids collect some sticks from the playground. I had planned on using them as paintbrushes. But then yesterday I got the idea to put marshmallows on the ends of the sticks! And a brand-new (for me) art project was born.

So I put some marshmallows on the ends of the sticks,

and put them in bowls of shallow paint.

For the mini marshmallows, I just used toothpicks. You could go one step further and buy those jumbo marshmallows and have three different sizes, but I was happy with my two. I can make rice krispie treats with the leftover big ones and I'll be using the leftover mini ones for another project later this week. The kids were very excited to be painting with marshmallows!

They all used them like stamps, dabbing them up and down.

I thought it was fun! I even showed the class how they could make a picture with them (see the first picture of this post), but most kids just did the dots.

I did have one child that made a sun and flower, though. He said he just used his imagination!

So there you have it. Marshmallow stamping. Looks like fun, doesn't it?

**Linking up to the parties on my sidebar!**

Dramatic Play: Campsite

To go with our camping theme this week, I brought in a little tent. It was given to me by my sister several years ago. I put little lanterns (from Culver's, also given to me by that same sister long, long ago) inside so the kids could read books.

You can see I also put out some lincoln logs for the kids to make a fire. And I made some fishing poles out of wooden dowels, yarn and paperclips. The kids can turn them around and use the other end if they want to roast marshmallows!

The four little fish that I printed out and laminated are on the side of the tent. And I hung up some of my stars from my space theme so the kids could sleep under a starry sky. (I wish there was a light right above dramatic play so I could hang more stars up, but I just put the rest on the wall.)

The class is really enjoying it. Here's a couple cuties cooking their freshly caught fish over the fire!

It's not the greatest dramatic play campsite ever, but I thought I'd share it anyway. The area is very small and I have to put everything away daily because we have other classes in our room in the mornings. So this is just enough to give the kids a special place to play without a huge time-consuming project for me!

Handprint Campfires

We started our camping unit today. I brought in a little tent for the dramatic play area. The kids can go fishing and roast marshmallows and tell ghost stories around the fire! I will show you that tomorrow. Today we used our handprints to make a little campfire.

The kids started by tearing brown construction paper into strips. Then they glued them to the bottom of white paper. (I would have loved to do this on black paper to make a night-time fire, but the paint wouldn't have shown up.)

They glued their fire logs in overlapping positions. Once they were done with that, they could do the fun part -- make the fire! I put orange and yellow paint onto paper plates. The kids just had to press their hands in the paint.

Then they made a bunch of handprints above the logs.

I love how each one looks different.

They had a lot of fun with this project!

**Linking up to the parties on my sidebar!**