St. Patrick's Day Crafts

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

This year we have not done much for St. Patrick's Day. (Sorry to my late Irish grandmother.) However when we went to the library on Thursday they had a free St. Patrick's Day craft set up. It was an easy paper plate hat. While Hazel made one I made three (one that Hazel insisted we bring home and two for some of the librarians to wear). The next day Hazel made another one while her friend made one since the craft had not been cleaned up and we had all been there for a free puppet show.

This is Hazel's first one. She started to copy what I did on the ones I was making but had some very creative ideas of her own.

This is the one Hazel insisted we bring home that I made. To make these you cut almost a full circle out of the paper plate center and fold it up then decorate. The librarians provided the cut out shamrocks, tissue paper, pipe cleaners, curling ribbon, sequins and silver sparkly pom poms and markers, glue and scissors. We had a lot of fun. 

Here is the one Hazel made on Friday. She did not put as much time into it, but she likes it just the same.

We have also been enjoying some St. Patrick's Day and Irish books. Here is a collage of books we have read this year and/or last year. I realized earlier this month I never shared the books we read for last year's St. Patrick's Day, so I'll share them now.

• Leprechaun Tales by Yvonne Carroll
• The Leprechaun in the Basement by Kathy Tucker
• Too Many Leprechauns by Stephen Krensky
• The Irish Cinderlad by Shirley Climo
• Daniel O'Rourke by Gerald McDermott
• Fair, Brown and Trembling by Jude Daly
• The Luck of The Irish by Brendan Patrick Paulsen
• St. Patrick's Day by Gail Gibbons
• A Fine St. Patrick's Day by Susan Wojciechowski
• That's What Leprechaun's Do by Eve Bunting
• Finn McCoul by Brian Gleeson

I also wanted to provide you with the crafts we have done for St. Patrick's Day in the past.

• Paper Plate Leprechaun and Leprechaun Trap
• Leprechaun Peg Doll
• Craft Stick Leprechaun
• Needle Felted Pot of Gold (Chocolate) Coins
• Painting with Shamrocks
• St. Patrick's Day Bracelets and Necklaces
• Ireland Map Coloring Page
• Felt Leprechaun
• Pipe Cleaner Shamrocks (Never posted these, but thought I would share them)
• Bead Rainbow and Needle Felted Rainbow

Finally, last March as part of Around the World in 12 Dishes, we "visited" Ireland. Here are the Irish Recipes we made.

• Irish Chicken and Leek Pie
• Irish Cheese Toast (with snap peas)
• Irish Soda Bread
• Irish Stew
• Irish Chicken and Leek Pie (pictured again) with salad

For more fun St. Patrick's Day crafts, recipes, and activities check out:

• Sharing Saturday 14-9
• Sharing Saturday 14-10
• Sharing Saturday 14-11
• Sharing Saturday 14-8
• Sharing Saturday 13-11
• Sharing Saturday 13-10
• Sharing Saturday 13-9
• Sharing Saturday #11 St. Patrick's Day Edition
• Sharing Saturday #9
• My St. Patrick's Day Pinterest Board

Sharing Saturday 14-11

Thank you to all the Crafty Moms and Teachers who shared with us last week!! There were so many wonderful ideas shared. But before I give you my features, I wanted to share with you my past posts for Pi Day which was Friday, March 14! There are many ideas there to celebrate Pi Day as well as some great lessons I use to use as a teacher. Now onto our fun features!! I am providing a few with two pictures so you can see the details that I fell in love with!

Friday Fruit Exploration: Blueberries

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

Our fruit explorations continue. This time we checked out blueberries!! If you missed our first fruit exploration we explored strawberries.  We added a new element to our fruit explorations-- a fruit exploration journal! I write the name of the fruit and Hazel draws pictures of the outside and inside and sometimes I draw pictures too. Then we come up with words to describe the fruit.

First here are some facts about blueberries. A serving size is one cup (hmm, I could eat several servings in one sitting).  A serving contains 84 calories and of that 4 calories from fat. They have 14 grams of carbohydrates of which 10 grams are sugars and 2 grams are dietary fiber. They provide 16% of the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C, 2% of iron and Vitamin A. With the powerful antioxidants in them blueberries can improve nighttime vision, may improve motor skills and may reverse the short-term memory loss that comes with aging or age-related memory diseases and may reduce the risk of infection. (Source: Driscolls)

For our exploration we examined the outside of the blueberry with Hazel's magnifying glass. We noted the smooth texture and the pointy bumps at the top. Next we examined the interior of the blueberry. Sorry my pictures are not very clear of the inside.













 
We noted the small seeds inside as well the yellow inside with a red rim.



The next part of our exploration was reading some books on blueberries or at least with blueberries in them.

I have discovered that picture books or books at Hazel's level do not exist that share the nutritional value of the fruits. There are many about fruits in general without going into much detail about the nutrients. However there were many fun blueberry stories. One of the books has only poems and includes one with blueberries in it. The last book is not a picture book either. We did not actually read it. The other ones we really enjoyed though.

Our craft was inspired by Little Page Turners Potato Blueberry Stamps. We used fingerprints instead of potato prints though I like the texture of the potato prints a bit better. This was a fast and easy craft though. Our plan is to make some blueberry jam tomorrow. We ran out of time today. Hazel also wants to make some strawberry jam. For both we are going to use frozen fruit this time. Hopefully they will come out all right.

Blueberry Picking a Couple of Years Ago

 Here are some more blueberry ideas:

• Low sugar/sweetener blueberry jam
• Blueberry applesauce pancakes
• Traditional blueberry jam
• Blueberry picking and blueberry pie
• Pumpkin blueberry pancakes
• Blueberry oatmeal bars
• Banana walnut blueberry pancakes
• Pumpkin blueberry muffins
• Banana blueberry muffins
• Play blueberries
• Fruit Pinterest Board

Craft Kits and More from Oriental Trading

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Spring is on its way. Yesterday it was in the mid-50's and it felt amazing you. We had to get outside even though Hazel stayed home from school because she has been sick. Of course now we have rain coming that will turn to snow. Ah, New England weather--gotta love it or hate it! Needless to say we have been a bit stir crazy and cannot wait for spring, so we decided to try some of Oriental Trading's spring craft kits.

Octonauts: To the Gup-X DVD Review and Giveaway

Disclosure: NCircle Entertainment gave me a copy of the DVD free of charge and is supplying the one for the giveaway free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.

Having gone from allowing Hazel to watch very small amounts of television to watching much more after switching schools, I tend to really pay attention to what she is watching. One of her favorite shows is The Octonauts on Disney Junior. What I like about the show is it teaches something about underwater creatures and to protect the underwater life. I believe this show is where she got the idea of exploring underwater creatures. If you have missed them, we have posted two of our underwater explorations thus far: jellyfish and sharks. The show is based on books written by Meomi and we will be reviewing one of them during this giveaway as well!

Coloring Page Source

Since I know Hazel loves the show and I like her watching it, I jumped at the chance to review and giveaway a copy of the newest Octonauts DVD from NCircle Enterntainment. Octonauts: To the Gup-X is being released on March 18th. You can pre-order it from NCircle or Amazon. The suggested retail price is $12.99.

Octonauts: To the Gup-X contains six episodes including "Great White Shark", "Coconut Crabs," "Bowhead Whales," "Whale Shark," "Monster Map," and "Flying Fish." It also has a bonus feature of a close up of the Gup-X. Overall the episodes are child-friendly ways to explore the underwater world and learn about sea life you may never have heard of. For our underwater creature explorations I turned to the library for some books on the creatures and included the creatures in these episodes. I found some of the creatures.

We read these books to learn even more about the creatures. "Monster Map" has an octopus in it for the creature. The first time we watched it, Hazel was scared of the "Great White Shark" but I found after learning more about them, she was not as afraid. I think the more exciting thing is when she saw the cover of Deborah Muzzola's Whale Shark book, she told me it was about whale sharks. She is learning what the creatures look like.

To go with the video we made an Octonaut hat. I was going to make one out of fabric for her, but I wanted her to have a part in making it. I had seen a tutorial to make a sailor's hat out of a coffee filter and cardboard at Cut Out and Keep. Since our coffee filters are missing right now, we used a paper bowl. Hazel used her water color paints and painted the bowl. Then we made a rim with cardboard and construction paper. The hardest part was attaching the rim to the bowl. I glued it and then put some tape on it as well as clothespins until the glue dried. I enlarged one of the pictures over at Disney Junior for the Octonaut symbol on the hat.

I also made Hazel some peg dolls of a few of the characters. She cannot wait for me to make the rest of them, but for now she has Kwazii, Peso and Captain Barnacles. They are three of her favorites.

She has also asked me to make a full outfit for her. She decided it should be Captain Barnacles since he has the most clothes and she wants the tool on his belt. Looks like I have some sewing to do.

Needless to say we loved the DVD. Hazel has watched it several times which is a lot for her with any DVD since she usually wants to watch the shows on television and not a specific DVD. If you are looking for a DVD that will appeal to either boy or girl and will also educate them a bit, this is a great one! Now I get to offer you a copy to win for you own thanks to NCircle Entertainment. Just follow my Giveaway Rules and do what the Rafflecopter says.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Virtual Book Club for Kids: Ava's Poppy by Marcus Pfister

It is time for Virtual Book Club for Kids again! For those that do not know about Virtual Book Club for Kids, I have joined with an amazing group of bloggers to present books from a selected author each month. We then host a blog hop for anyone to add a post with an activity or craft to go with a book by our selected author. This month's author is Marcus Pfister. The amazing blogs that bring you this fun book club are:

Shark Exploration of Underwater Creatures

Today we continue our underwater creature explorations with sharks. Now we are giving you some of our activities and books that we use in preparation of our reviews of a book and DVD on The Octonauts. The review of the DVD including a giveaway will be on Tuesday!! If you missed our first underwater creature exploration, you can check it out on jellyfish.

Sharing Saturday 14-10

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week and to everyone who visited and shared the love with comments!! I had a crazy week, but did enjoy being inspired by the amazing ideas shared last week. If you haven't had a chance to check them all out, you should!! Here are a few of my favorites!!

Lent Craft & Activity Round Up & Meatless Recipes for Ash Wednesday

Since today is Ash Wednesday, I thought I would do a round up of Lent activities and crafts that we have done in the past. This year I have convinced Hazel and Steve to give up candy with me. We will see how we all do. Last year I gave up chocolate and I was only really tempted once. All candy will be much harder though.

 

1) Lenten Cross Puzzle for Lenten Table
2) Lent Prayer Bracelet--The Pearls of Life
3) Lenten Tree on Lenten Table
4) Resurrection Garden
5) Easter Egg Grass
6) Tissue Paper Cross Craft

Then since Steve is Catholic and cannot eat meat on Ash Wednesday or Fridays during Lent, I put together a round-up of our meatless main dishes. Since we do not eat fish, it is often a pasta dish with cheese. However now that Hazel is on limited dairy, I am not sure what I am going to do this year.

1) Rainbow Stew
2) Growing Vegetable Soup
3) Gazpacho
4) Harvest Apple Soup
5) Pasta Salad
6) Vegetable Baked Ziti

What do you do for Lent? For more Lent and Easter ideas check out my Pinterest Board and stay tuned for what we do this year!

Jellyfish Crafts, Exploration and Book

Recently Hazel asked to explore under the sea creatures. I think this fascination comes from watching The Octonuats on Disney Junior. I am really excited to be reviewing an Octonaut DVD and book in the next few weeks and giving away a copy of the DVD. To build up to our reviews, I thought I would do some under-the-sea creatures first. Today's creature is the jellyfish.

Photo taken on visit to New England Aquarium

We started our exploration with the book: Nature's Children: Jellyfish by James Kinchen. Jellyfish have been in the waters for millions of years before the dinosaurs. They live in seas and oceans all over the world including the Arctic waters. They have no brains and no eyes and its body is made almost entirely of water. The various types of jellyfish vary in size with the smallest being about half an inch across and the largest being six feet across. The tentacles on the large ones can be 117 feet long. Their movement comes from their body opening and closing like an umbrella. They can shift their body into different shapes to get into tight spots. The book suggests using a water balloon to see what their body is like. We did this.

Jellyfish also can sting. The stingers come from the tentacles. A sting from a sea wasp can kill a human in less than fifteen minutes. Jellyfish use their stings to capture prey and to defend themselves against enemies. The book describes each sting like a hollow harpoon that uncoils itself fifty times the original length. Poison flows down to the harpoon. Adult jellyfish are called medusas after the Greek myth.

Photo from visit to New England Aquarium

The life cycle of a jellyfish is very interesting. A female jellyfish can produce thousands of eggs. Each fertilized egg becomes a larva. The larva has no mouth and looks nothing like the adult jellyfish. The larva drifts until it grabs hold of a rock or seaweed. It rest there and changes into a polyp. Now it can hunt and eat. It has tentacles and is building up its food reserves to see it through its final metamorphism. Each polyp breaks off like a stack of dishes and becomes many medusas. 

Photo from New England Aquarium Visit

After reading this book and doing our water balloon experiment, we made some jellyfish crafts. There are many out there, but we decided to try ones with clear plastic cups with sheer ribbons and large white cupcake liners with glitter ribbons. We started with the cupcake liners. I cut lengths of the ribbons and then we taped them at the half way point to the inside bottom of the liners.

We were happy with how they came out. I liked that you could see how they would open and close to move in the water.

For the cup ones I cut long lengths of ribbon and then gave Hazel the tape. She decided to tape them singly to the inside sides of the cup. I taped the middle of mine together and taped that to the inside bottom of the cup. They both came out nicely.

Afterwards I hung them from our kitchen light. The ribbons are a bit long, but I like them. I put the long ones to the middle of the table so they wouldn't get into anyone's food.

For more on ocean life crafts and lessons check out:

• Beach Trip and Beach Play Mat
• Wild and Free: Dolphins, Whales and Manatees
• Cinderella Penguin or Antarctica
• Pinterest Beach Board

March Happenings

This month promises to be a good one. However the beginning is a bit crazy. A good friend has her young son (less than one) in the hospital, and I have been helping with her older son's care, so if I miss a few days this week you will know why. This month will be filled with fun activities, crafts and reviews plus a giveaway!! I know I am excited for spring and cannot wait for it to get here. We will continue our Hawaii escape posts until then. I am also looking forward to Easter and the preparation of it with Lent. We will also continue our Friday Fruit Explorations and Hazel has been asking to do some under the sea discoveries, so expect to see some of that as well. It is so fun to have her at an age where she is asking questions about things and we can do some research together on them.

Now for our monthly clubs and posts. This month  for Virtual Book Club for Kids, the author is Marcus Pfister. Do you know his books? They are amazing. The first book I was introduced to of his is The Rainbow Fish. My sister had given it to us as a hand-me-down. She had bought it for my nephew when he thought he should be given things by strangers because of his cute looks. It is the perfect book to deal with that issue. So many of Marcus Pfister's books help teach life lessons. A little about Marcus Pfister: he was born in Bern, Switzerland and still lives there. He became a graphic artist. In 1986 his first book, The Sleepy Owl, was published. Then in 1992 when The Rainbow Fish burst into the international book scene, he stopped his work as a graphic artist and focused solely on his book authoring career. (Source)

Hazel and I have been enjoying so many of his books and we are having a hard time choosing which one to pick for the club post. It will be one on this collage though.

Update: Here are our posts: Ava's Poppy and Hopper Hunts for Spring and an older one on Rainbow Fish.

March begins a new season for Around the World in 12 Dishes. It is hard to believe we have been through a year of it already. We had so much fun joining in this journey, that we have signed up for another year. Here is this year's schedule:

Our first stop is Iceland! This summer my sister happened to take a trip to Iceland, so I have a few of her beautiful photos to share!!

I also wrote an introduction to the country for the Around the World in 12 Dishes blog, so I will not be sharing as much of the country's background here and will just provide a link for you to the introduction. That will give me more space for our crafts and such. Here is the cover for this season's passport pages. You can begin your exploration of Iceland with the placemat and passport pages. Join us the week of March 17th to see our Icelandic adventures!

So stay tuned this month for St. Patrick's Day crafts, Lent crafts, spring crafts as well as our fruit explorations, under the sea crafts and explorations, Iceland, Marcus Pfister, and a few reviews including some on The Octonauts. I hope you will join us!!

Sharing Saturday 14-9

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! There was a little technical problem on the part of Linky Tools and I apologize for it. Apparently they were upgrading there servers and had a hard drive crash. It was the one with the images for the linky parties. Of the three back-ups only one was good and it did not include anything from 2014. Thus why all the images for the Linky Tool link parties for 2014 are gone. However the few that linked up after this issue still have their image and all the links still work. However I did still pick many features to share with you and highly suggest you check out some of the great ideas even without the pictures.