Kiwi Crate Review

I was approached recently to test and review a sample crate from Kiwi Crate. After looking into it, I was pretty excited to receive my Kiwi Crate because I knew Buttercup would just love it.

Well, a couple of weeks ago we got our package in the mail and Buttercup wasted no time opening it and exploring everything inside.

The theme of our crate was Dinosaurs! We were elated, since Buttercup is absolutely nuts about Dinosaurs.

 

There are three separate projects; dinosaur fossils, dinosaur feet, and a dinosaur tail. The crate also includes dinosaur cards with basic facts about different types of dinosaurs. These have dinosaur foot prints on the back for a coloring activity. Along with these cards there is a blank one for your child's own foot print!

 

The best part about the Kiwi Crate is that it includes everything your child needs to do the activities, felt, markers, paper, sticks; they even sent us a pair of child safe scissors. I thought that was awesome.

We got to work on  making fossils as our first project. Buttercup rolled out the dough (which will harden to resemble rock) and she used the toy dinosaurs from the crate to make imprints in the dough. Then she used sticks to make her own dinosaur skeleton fossil (instructions included).

 

 

Buttercup couldn't wait to do another activity and chose to make dinosaur feet. She cut felt in different shapes to decorate these little pull string bags that would be used to make the feet. She cut out felt for the dinosaur toes and used markers to decorate. She proudly wore her dinosaur "feet" all day and now they're in her closet next to her other shoes.

 

We can't wait to work on our next project - making the dinosaur tail!

I just love the idea of getting these great projects right in my mail box. I don't have to think about what we're going to do next or to worry if I have the right materials for our project. Kiwi Crate has made mom's life a whole lot easier!!

The Kiwi Crate is geared toward kids between the ages of 3-7. It is $19.99/month with free shipping.(I think that is such a great deal for the amount of stuff you get!) For more information, click here.

Disclosure: I received a sample Kiwi Crate to test out, use and review. The opinions expressed in this review are solely my own. I did not receive any compensation for this review.

1st Grade Art Project Idea - Tissue Paper Butterfly

Here's a very simple art project idea. I remember when my oldest daughter was in school and she used to make all sorts of art projects with tissue paper. So I've been thinking of doing something similar with my 6 year old. I finally went out and bought a pack of tissue paper in assorted colors. I got mine at a dollar store! The only materials you need are glue, tissue paper, a white sheet of paper, a pencil and a sharpie.

We started by drawing our butterfly. Then we traced the drawing with a Sharpie to make the borders very visible. After that we just started ripping small pieces of tissue paper, crumbling them and gluing to our picture. We did them in a pattern, but it can be done randomly as well.

If you are ever looking for a last minute or quick and easy art project, this is it!! Since it is Spring right now, this colorful butterfly fits right in with the season. I think this project would make a great rainy day activity also. Other tissue paper art ideas are flowers in a vase, a garden scene with birds, trees and flowers, a rainbow or a flag.

My daughter had so much fun "creating" her butterfly. Here are some pictures!

Earth Day 2012

Every year I am amazed at how little attention Earth Day receives in the United States. We are one of the world's worst offenders when it comes to the environment. Yet when it's time to raise awareness it seems people prefer to ignore the issues.

This year, I decided to get my young daughter involved in a small way. Recycling is not something new in our household, so my 6 year old is used to separating glass, tin, plastic, etc. But I wanted to do more. I wanted her to understand why we do those things and more importantly, I wanted to give her a sense of empowerment. I want her to know that every effort counts, that every paper we recycle makes a difference.

We started by reading "How to Help the Earth- by the Lorax". It is a Step into Reading level 3 book which was perfect for her to read by herself. Then, we talked about what we do at home to help the Earth. She noticed that there were more ideas in the book that we currently don't do, but would be able to easily incorporate into our daily lives. I loved the fact that she was proactive about suggesting changes.

The following day, we read the book once more and then we made our own Help the Earth chart to remind us of all the little things we can do. I wrote the list and she cut out pictures from magazines that illustrated our "to do's". We had great fun and since the poster has been up, we've talked more about what we're doing and she is also helping me to remind the other family members to "comply" as well.

Do you do anything special to help the Earth? I'm always looking for new ideas, I'd love to hear your comments!

                               

1st Grade Art Project - Shadow Art

Since we've just finished our Science lesson on shadows, I decided to follow that up with an art project.

We set up a work area in our kitchen, where I placed a lamp (to create the shadow), a Wegman's can of beets (the only can I had), and a sheet of paper.

My daughter outlined the can on the sheet of paper, drew and colored her depiction of the can and made the shadow.

Simple, but fun! Here are the pictures.

1st Grade Art Project - George Seurat and Pointillism

For our next art project, my daughter and I chose George Seurat. We liked the idea of exploring a new style of art and pointillism sounded like fun.

We took out a library book on George Seurat.


We read it over a period of 2 or 3 days. These biographies, while they are for children, are difficult to read for a 6 year old. So we take our time reading. I do a lot of the reading, pausing to ask questions and discuss certain things.

My daughter loves to look at the art work on the pages. She especially likes to read where the painting is displayed, ie Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. When she finds paintings displayed in NY or Philly, she gets super excited and we plan a trip to see the art work.

Ok, so then it's time to do our own art project. Even though, George Seurat liked to paint things he saw around him, realistic things, like people at a lake, we decided to take a couple of things from the kitchen and paint those.

My daughter placed some fruits on our kitchen counter. She then outlined the fruits on her white paper. We chose the colors, remembering that Seurat, would never mix colors, instead he would place colors close together on the canvas to give the illusion of a new color. For instance, if he wanted to use the color orange, he would place dots of read and yellow very close together, giving the audience the appearance of orange.

Here are some pictures of our George Seurat art project. My daughter enjoyed it and did tell me when she finished that pointillism is hard work!





I am including some information about George Seurat and Pointillism for your reading pleasure and reference.

George Seurat was born in Paris, France in 1859. George wanted to make his paintings different than anything he had seen up until that time. He thought about painting in a unique way; he thought about it from a scientific perspective. He wanted to use color, lines and shapes to convey feelings to the audience. If he wanted the audience to feel warmth, he would paint in a way that the canvas shimmered with warm tones, thus giving the audience that feeling. If he wanted to convey a cooler feeling , he would use darker colors and shadows. George Seurat worked slowly on his paintings, some of them taking more than a year to complete. For his painting, Une Baignade, Asnieres, he would go during the day to the lake and make lots of sketches. Then he worked late into the night in his studio on those sketches. His most famous painting is Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. This is a perfect example of dots of paint mixing together right in front of your eyes to create warmth and coolness. Even though, George Seurat only lived to be 32 years old, he created a style that influenced many famous artists of the time, like Gauguin, Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec.

Cherry Blossoms!

Cherry Blossoms will be in full bloom in April. Nothing says spring like blooming flowers and few flowers bloom as beautifully as cherry blossoms. As a kid my parents would take me to see the cherry blossoms. Now as a parent myself, I want to continue the tradition of welcoming the spring with a visit to see the cherry blossoms with my own children.

In order to get excited about spring (we don't need much, warm days, picnics, flowers), I decided to have my 6 year old do a cherry blossom art project. I got this idea while I was on the internet. I came upon this site (I wish I could remember the name). You know I am big into giving credit for other people's ideas. I thought I had saved the url, but I have not been able to find it. Any way, I just loved the simplicity this project.

All we needed was a large piece of white paper, brown and pink paint, a 2 liter soda bottle. We don't drink soda, so we used a 1 liter water/seltzer bottle instead.

I made an outline of the tree trunk and branches with paint (to make it easier for my daughter to paint). Then she painted the trunk and branches brown. Then we poured pink paint onto a paper plate and my daughter dipped the bottom of the water bottle in the paint and touched it to the paper. We got a nice pink flower. My daughter then randomly place pink flowers around the branches. It was a lot of fun to make and her art work is now decorating our house and bringing spring inside!

Here are some pictures of our project.

1st Grade Art Project - Edward Hopper

As I posted last week, our lesson on Georgia O'Keeffe was a success. So now, it's on to our next project. I also mentioned that we would be doing paper snowflakes, which I think is perfect to decorate our "school" (actually my office turned homeschool). But that will have to wait.

The beauty of homeschool is the flexibility it allows me as the teacher and my daughter as the student. For instance, the two of us were at our local library last week and as we browsed the titles, my daughter recognized a book and pulled it from the shelf.

It happened to be a biography on Edward Hopper. The interesting thing about that is we had just seen his work at the Whitney Museum in New York a few days earlier. We were both intrigued by his style and when she picked his biography, I thought it was a perfect segue to our next art project.


A note about Edward Hopper: He was an American artist known for portraying everyday American life and the average American. His work is realistic and colorful, and well balanced.

I haven't fully planned out our lesson, but we will start by reading his biography. Then, we will discuss Hopper's paintings that are shown in the book. We will continue to explore his work online. And I'm sure we will do some activity, not sure what yet.

UPDATE: Our discussion of Hopper's work included talking about the shadows he uses in most of his paintings to show depth, time of day, distance, height, etc. Once we talked about it, my daughter was able to look at other Hopper works and see those things for herself. She really liked the colors he used and the realism of his work.

So on a sunny, but cold day, we took our paper and pencils and took a walk in our neighborhood. We found a place to sit and my daughter made a drawing of what she saw. The drawing portrayed life in our small town by showing the street lamp and building under construction.

Overall, it was a very good learning experience!

Art Projects and Homeschool

Art is definitely not my forte, but it is part of a well balanced curriculum in any school. So it should also be part of a homeschool curriculum. I've been doing a lot of research on the topic. How do I teach art to a 6 year old? How do I make it part of homeschool? What is the best way to integrate art with other things we are doing? These were a few of the questions I had. I came across some good ideas, but nothing really made sense to me. It seemed that some of the ideas were either too childish or too advanced. I don't want my daughter to just sit in front of a white sheet of paper and draw randomly. That's ok for afterschool but for an art class I was looking for something more structured. I wanted structure for me, as the teacher. Some guidelines that I could follow to make teaching art fun, productive, and educational.

I still haven't really found anything I can use. It's a shame because there is so much information out there for homeschool parents in general, but for this particular topic, there's not much. So, as with almost everything I do, I decided to come up with my own plan.

I am homeschooling a 1st grader who is naturally interested in art. That is a huge plus. I picked a couple of artists and/or artistic styles. I made a list. I am going down the list and trying different things.

My first artist was Georgia O'Keeffe. I picked this one on a recommendation. Looking back I would not have started with O'Keeffe in first grade. I think her style is too complex for first graders. I've also never been a big fan. But since homeschooling is not about me, I decided to give it a go.

First, I talked to my daughter about the artist in very general terms. Then we went to the library and got a biography about Georgia O'Keeffe (a children's biography). We looked through the book at first, then I began to read my daughter the story. Even this children's book was way too long and complex for a 6 year old. I read the story sometimes changing the words, making it simpler to understand. We did not read the whole book in one sitting.

On a different day, we read some more. At that point, we just talked about O'Keeffe and her art. I asked questions and my daughter answered in her own words. I encouraged her to talk about the art and how it made her feel. This part of the lesson was great.

Then, we went on the internet and looked at some more of Georgia O'Keeffe's art. I told my daughter to pick one that she really liked. When she found a purple flower, she was set. I then gave my daughter some paper and pencils and told her to make her own O'Keeffe flower.

I am very pleased with the outcome of this set of art lessons. I believe that in 1st grade, children do not need to know art in detail or know the names of artistic styles, etc. I believe at this age, children need to be introduced to a variety of styles in a supportive, creative environment, so they can explore their own tastes and abilities.

Next we are going to make paper snowflakes!! I can't wait.

If you read this blog and would like to contribute ideas, please do so! I welcome them. That is the purpose of this blog. I want to exchange information with other parents that are out there homeschooling and having their own experiences.