Woven Hearts Craft

Some of the kids are fighting springtime colds...(having just gotten over pneumonia), so I didn't want to send kids out into the cool weather, so I suggested to Amy that she find a craft that the 3 littles would enjoy. She came through with a great art lesson for us all.

At first Amy had the kids experiment and practice with different paintbrush strokes and color mixing.
It took alot of concentration to get the brushstrokes just right.

We used cardboard from the backs of cereal boxes.

Working of swirls.

Four pieces of cardboard were painted and then two were cut into hearts and the other two were cut into thin strips.

Amy used an sharp knife to cut slits in the hearts, being careful to leave an edge around the heart.

Begin weaving strips into the heart.

A job well done on a slow Saturday afternoon.

Week 4--4Real Craft

This week Mary G, from St. Athanasius Academy, provided us the week 4 craft directions for the 4Real Learning Craft of the Week.

This weeks craft is simple paper weaving. We haven't done this before and everyone enjoyed it.

In fact some very big children are still working on theirs right now.

Now, if you are 5 years old there is nothing simple about paper weaving. It took Gracie a lot of direction to get the hang of the whole concept of this craft.

Mark is 20 months older than Grace and he caught on immediately. There must be a developmental stage that kids go through between 5 and 7 that make this idea click into focus.

But, you can tell by the pride in Gracie's face that she is very proud our her accomplishment.

Today just happened to also be the day that a package arrived from Montessori N' Such with our new wood cut food box. Mark made his weaved mat red and white so that is could be used as a place mat for his fruits and vegetables.

We laminated the mats so they will last longer. (please ignore the cute baby who was saying "cheese" during this picture)

I wanted to take a picture of our wavy weaving but this is as good as I could do---I wonder why?