Multicultural Monday #3--A Perfect Prize and Some Resources

So this week as I was trying to think what I wanted to share with you for Multicultural Monday, I got a very nice package in the mail. Around Earth Day, I entered the contests on Natural Kids Team. Well, I won one of their amazing giveaways (again). This time it was from The Enchanted Cupboard. It ties in perfectly with The Colors of Us project that we did last week! So I wanted to share it with you. It is called Dolls of the World and Earth Box. And I have to say that Hazel loves it and couldn't wait to start playing with it.

Some Felt and Felting Projects

Happy Mother's Day!! 

 

I found this wool felt bowl on clearance at Michaels awhile ago. I actually bought two--one brown and one blue. I thought the brown one would make a neat bird's nest. I finally got around to making Hazel some birds for it. I needle felted her a light blue one following the directions in Beginner's Guide to Needle Felting by Susanna Wallis. I haven't added the legs yet which they used metal and I wasn't sure I wanted to. Then I tried to copy one with wings out. He has a white stomach, but I didn't get good pictures of it. This bowl is one I picked up the other day and am thinking I will make some more birds and give it as a gift to Hazel's teacher for the end of the year.

I'm not sure why we were using plastic balls in there, but I figured they made good eggs until I get something to be the eggs.

We also found these wool felt purses and wool felt flowers on clearance. I sewed the flowers onto the purses. Hazel wants the blue one, but I figured the purple can be for a friend when we get invited somewhere and need a small gift.

Then you may remember a couple of weeks ago I featured a Felt Rainbow Sorting Game from One Perfect Day at Sharing Saturday. Well I cut one out for Hazel. I used the Eco felt since I didn't have all the colors in the wool felt.

I wish I had more time to make all the wonderful ideas I see at Sharing Saturday and on Pineterest and everywhere. Don't you?

This is where I link up...

Sharing Saturday #19

Wow, we had so many wonderful ideas shared last week!! Have you been back to check them out? You should. I know I had a really hard time picking features because so many of them were so creative and I wanted to try them all. I'm always amazed by your creativity.

Exploring at the Wildlife Sanctuary and Painting

On Wednesday we had our class at the Mass Audubon Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary. We skipped our class at Drumlin Farm this week since Hazel claimed to feel like she was going to throw up on our way there, however half an hour later she wanted lunch. I'm not really sure what happened, but she seems fine now. Anyway, at the Ipswich River Sanctuary we jumped in puddles and chased the other 3-year olds. Oh, and Hazel made a friend and held hands with her on part of our walk. I took a picture of them, but did not get the mother's permission to post it on line, so I won't. After a short walk we went back to the vernal pool to see if we could see some frogs this time. And we did!! We saw two different ones. The first one pictured above was pretty brave with all the kids around. Then one of them got a bit too close and he jumped in the water, but he stayed where we could see him with his eyes out of the water the entire time.

A little ways down we saw a big bull frog. He had different coloring than the first and was sitting on a log (again until someone got a bit too close).

While checking out the second frog, we saw a fast moving turkey (many of the kids missed it by the pool) and one of the kids found a slug. He even stuck his eyes out for us!

Then it was time to go back to the Nature House for our craft. On our way back through the field we saw the turkey again.

Then for our craft we made bird nests out of air-drying clay and grass. Then the instructor gave us a bird for it.

Then we ran some errands and came home. After lunch we finished our fairy garden and did some painting.

We have been reading the book Brown at the Zoo by Christianne C. Jones. It starts by talking about the colors--primary and secondary and that brown is a tertiary color. It then talks about how you can make it. The book goes through all the things that are brown at the zoo. It is in a series of books about colors. We decided to try to make brown in the different color combinations with Hazel's paints. Basically you can mix the three primary colors or you can mix any two colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel (red and green, yellow and purple, or orange and blue). We tried to make different shades by mixing the different colors. Some combinations worked better than others, but it may be the proportions we (Hazel) used.

Then she wanted to do some more paintings from The Color of Us. So we mixed yellow, white, black, and red in different proportions to explore the colors we would get. I let Hazel have a bit more control with the mixing this time.

Then we started over with some new mixtures and got this.

Then Hazel wanted to paint with blue. She said these were blueberries, but I thought it could also be pictures from The Dot by Peter Reynolds. We kept saying we were going to make some dot paintings, but never quite got to them.

Then she asked to use watercolors and she came up with the following. I think she had blueberries on the mind!

Just a reminder that Sharing Saturday will start tonight and you can visit the wonderful posts shared last week still, and Happy Family Times will end tomorrow, so go link up. And I'm still hosting a link party for Mother's Day gift ideas.


This is where I link up...

Fairy Garden 2012

Come to the side of our house, and you will be greeted by a lovely planter of flowers, but if you look closely you may see a little more.

 You may see the fairy house and pond and if you are really lucky you may see our little fairy, Elizabeth, (Hazel is naming just about everyone Elizabeth these days) dipping her feet in the pond to cool off or tending to her garden.

Last Friday I posted about The Magic Onions Fairy Garden Contest. Over the weekend, Hazel and I planted and started working on her garden. I love this idea of bringing some of the fantasy world to live. It gets her planning and thinking even more than she already is with her imagination.

First, we went to the store to pick out some flowers for the garden. She wanted a red geranium, some orange marigolds and various pink and purple petunias. We also bought a large pot to plant them in and start our fairy garden.

We filled the pot with dirt. and then found some sticks to make a fairy house and we used a piece of bark for the roof. We also used an old cupcake liner container to be a pond by the house.  then we planted the flowers where Hazel wanted. Then she added some rocks to be a path. We also added a small fairy that is meant to decorate a flower pot (she has a hook to hang from the edge on her back).

Hazel decided it needed some acorns and pine cones. We put the acorns around the pond. At this point Hazel got distracted and didn't really finish. She talked about pine cones and shells. So we waited a few days and finally added them.

We decorated with the shells and pine cones and we also used some shells as seats by the pond and in the flowers.

Now we will share at The Magic Onions to enter the contest. I hope you will join us in entering.

This is where I link up...