A Conversing Parrot

The parrot who answered questions.

        During the government of Prince Maurice in Brazil, he had heard of an old parrot that was much celebrated for answering like a rational creature many of the common questions put to it. It was at a great distance; but so much had been said about it that the prince's curiosity was roused, and he directed it to be  sent for. When it was introduced into the room where the prince was sitting, in company with several Dutchmen, it immediately exclaimed in the Brazilian language, "What a company of white men are here!'' They asked it, ''Who is that man?" (pointing to the prince). The parrot answered, "Some general or other." When the attendants carried it up to him, he asked it, through the medium of an interpreter (for he was ignorant of its language), "Whence do you come?" The parrot answered, "From Marignan." The prince asked, "To whom do you belong?" It answered, "To a Portuguese." He asked again, "What do you there?'' It answered, "I look after chickens." The prince laughing, exclaimed, "You look after chickens!'' The parrot in answer said, "Yes, I; and I know well enough how to do it;" clucking at the same time in imitation of the noise made by the hen to call together her young. The prince afterwards observed that although the parrot spoke in a language he did not understand, yet he could not be deceived, for he had in the room both a Dutchman who spoke Brazilian, and a Brazilian who spoke Dutch; that he asked them separately and privately, and both agreed exactly in their account of the parrot's discourse.

Mimic

        A priest once brought up an orangutan, which became so fond of him that, wherever he went, it was always desirous of accompanying him. Whenever therefore he had to perform the service of his church, he was under the necessity of shutting it up in his room. Once, however, the animal escaped, and followed the father to the church; where silently mounting the sounding-board above the pulpit, he lay perfectly still till the sermon commenced. He then crept to the edge, and overlooking the preacher, imitated all his gestures in so grotesque a manner, that the whole congregation were unavoidably urged to laugh. The father, surprised and confounded at this ill-timed levity, severely rebuked his audience for their inattention. The reproof failed in its effect; the congregation still laughed, and the preacher in the warmth of his zeal redoubled his vociferation and his action; these the ape imitated so exactly that the congregation could no longer restrain themselves, but burst out into a loud and continued laughter. A friend of the preacher at length stepped up to him, and pointed out the cause of this improper conduct; and such was the arch demeanor of the animal that it was with the utmost difficulty he could himself command his gravity, while he ordered the servants of the church to take him away. 

The orangutan mimics the priest.

Template of Apples on A Branch

      Children will like to cut and color the kind of apple that they know. Then the teacher may choose the best apples of one variety for the class to arrange on a branch, which has been previously cut and taped on a window or stapled to a bulletin board. If desired the leaves may be cut separately from the large pattern below.

Large pattern of an apple branch with fruit and leaves.

Presidential Paper-Cuts for School

       Below are a selection of presidential paper-cuts to use in the classroom. These include symbols, profiles of presidents Washington and Lincoln, plus an outline of the Old Capitol Building.

Click on image to download the largest file.

Presidential Clip Art for Students & Educators

Description of Clip Art Pages: above is a selection of black and white clip art for former President Abraham Lincoln, below is a selection of black and white clip art for former President George Washington, both sheets include monuments, portraits and historical events

Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

The Tale of the Jack-o'-Lantern

The Tale of the Jack-o'-Lantern

A Jack-o'-Lantern played some pranks
One moonlit Hallowe'en,
He started out all by himself
Determined to be mean.

He scared a tiny pussy cat,
A little puppy, too.
He made a cunning baby cry -
A dreadful thing to do !

He laughed and thought of other schemes.
Oh, he was bad that night.
His one idea was what to do
To bring somebody fright.

At last the joke was turned on him,
He chased a pussy cat.
It was a witch's pride and joy,
But how could he know that?

The big black pussy turned around.
It arched its back and tail,
It launched its long sharp claws at him
With snarls and long-drawn wail.

Its mistress witch then came to sight
And whacked him with her broom.
So that is how one pumpkin head
Was cracked unto his doom.

Pilgrims and Turkeys for Bulletin Boards

Simple large turkey pattern.

        These vintage outlines of a turkey and children dressed as Pilgrims may be used on your bulletin boards, walls or as window decorations. 

• Visit the Crayon Palace blog to find similar resources of Native Indigenous People and Pilgrims also here
  

Simple figures of pilgrim children.

Large Clock Face Pattern for Classroom Use

        A large clock face for teachers to print out and use with students in their classrooms. Comes with large and small hands to identify hours and minutes of the day on a traditional clock. Help young students practice reading time.

• Here is another printable clock face with solid black numbers...
• Small printable clock faces for doll crafts
  

Punch a hole in the middle of a clock face mounted on cardboard. Cut out hour and minute hands and punch holes on the ends. Insert a brad into all three holes and bend it at the back. Now students may use the clock to practice telling and writing time.

Halloween Window Decorations

Big cut-outs of a vintage jack-o-lantern, flying bat and black cat.

        I've restored these vintage, Halloween patterns for teachers to use in the decoration of their classroom windows, or on Bulletin Boards. If you need something festive for the walls in your room or in the school buildings halls, wherever these may be needed, educators are sure to need a few patterns to enlarge, cut from construction paper and apply to their room decor.

3 cut-outs of classic jack-o-lanterns for teachers plus Autumn leaves

5 Simple Halloween Crafts: Templates Included

       Some of the following crafts need adult supervision while a glue gun is in use. Please read through the instructions entirely before making the crafts with very young children. The crafts below are intended for decoration excluding the spider puppet. The spider puppet is for children five and up because of the stick. If your students or child can be responsible when playing with something pointy like this, it may be given to a 3 or 4 year old.

My version of this craft has an inner support and a stand.

A Shredded Paper Pumpkin Craft: My version of this old craft includes tubes and a stand for support so that it may be stored and kept from year to year without it getting smashed. Just wrap it in tissue and store it alone or with things light weight in nature. If you've measured the necessary lengths of the tubes in advance, this project can be made for students in first grade and up.

Supply List:

• orange, brown and green construction paper
• wooden or cardboard one inch diameter circle shape
  
• black marker
• white school glue

Step-by-Step Instructions for The Pumpkin:

1.  Roll lengths of tube using paper or cardboard to make both the inner support of the pumpkin shape and the stem of the pumpkin. You can do this step before or after you cut the strips for the pumpkin. The inner tube for the pumpkin should measure a couple of inches shorter than the length of the strips, so that the tips of the strips can be bent and glued to the top and bottom of the inner tube. This is how the shape of the pumpkin will be kept in place.
   
2. Cut strips of orange construction paper 1/2 inch wide, all equal in length. 
3. Cover the inner tube with orange construction paper to "hide" it from view.
   
4. Glue each strip's ends to both the top and bottom of the inner tube.
   
5. Glue the wooden or cardboard circular disk to the bottom of the woven pumpkin. this will help the pumpkin to stand on it's own.
6. Glue on the stem, after covering it with brown paper. 
7. Draw vein details with a fine tip marker, onto the stem.
8. Cut a small green leaf to glue to the top of the pumpkin. Add veining on this if you prefer.
   

Left, pictured are the tubes rolled from cardboard to give the "shredded paper pumpkin support.
 Right, see the gluing process. I'm firmly pressing the paper ends on top of the tube.

Left, I bent a few of my strips without the tube between in order to determine the length of tube
 that I would need for support between my strips of orange construction paper. Right, here you can
 see the end result after I have randomly "woven" the orange strips above and below the inner cardboard tube.

A cute little ghost peers through the window.

The Ghost In The Window Craft: A simple preschool/kindergarten level craft for Halloween.

Supply List: 

• 6 wooden craft sticks all the same length
• two googly eyes
• white school glue
• white and black construction paper
• brown acrylic paint
• ghost template below
  

Step-by-Step Instructions for The Ghostly Window:

1. Glue four wooden sticks together in the shape of a square.
2. Glue a cross piece on top of the square and wait for the glue to dry.
3. Print out the ghost in the window template, cut it out and then trace around it on top of white construction paper.
4. Glue the little ghost on top of black paper and paste on it's google eyes.
5. Then paste the ghostly view to the back side of the wooden window frame.
6. Paint the window frame brown.
   

A Black Batty Candy Container: You will need the following supplies for the bat: black construction paper, two googly eyes, the paper template for it's wings and one recycled toilet paper roll. Any child in Kindergarten through third grade will enjoy putting this project together for friends and family.

The back side and front sides of the cardboard tube candy container shaped like a bat for Halloween.

Left, recycled cardboard tubes. Center, painted tube for the bat body of the candy box.
Right, tracing around the wing template for the black batty candy box.

Step-by-Step Instructions for the Candy Holder:

1.  Paint a recycled paper toilet roll solid black.
2. Print out the template for the batty wings from below.
3. Cut the template and then trace around it on top of a black piece of construction paper.
4. Cut out the wings.
5. Pinch one sides' end of the paper tube shut. Use glue to make this permanent. You may need to use a clamp to hold this in place till the glue dries.
6. Hot glue the googly eyes in place near the top of the candy container where the bats head would be.
7. Pinch together the bat's pointy ears on opposite ends of the tube. This will create a crease in the cardboard while you are working. 
8. Apply a bit of shaping along these creases to "make" the closure for the candy box. 
9. Slip in some candy corn or wrapped candies into the tube shaped box if you prefer. Searve up this super sweet, batty box treat at a Halloween party!
   

The assembled recycled ghosts with curled paper trim.

Recycled Paper Ghosts: Paper recycling craft intended for early learning students through second grade. They will learn how to cut, trace, curl and paste!

Supply List:

• white school glue
• white recycled papers
• black marker
• small scissors 
• two ghost templates (below)
  

Step-by-Step Instructions for The Paper Ghosts:

1. Print the templates from below on white paper.
2. Cut long white paper strips and glue these to the backsides of the cut ghost bodies.
3. Take a pair of child scissors and curl the ends of the strips.
4. Use a black marker to make silly faces on the ghosts heads.
   

A Pom Pom Spider Stick Puppet: The supplies you will need for this craft are: two pom poms- one larger than the other, two googly eyes, one 6-12 inch wooden dowel, hot glue and gun and black construction paper. If making this with a young student, use store bought pom-poms. If your students are older, have them manufacture the pom-poms themselves.

Steps for assembling a pom-pom spider puppet.

Steps for making your own pom-poms.

Step-by-Step Instructions for the Spider Puppet:

1. Cut cardboard disks like the ones pictured above and wrap black yarn through the hole and around the shape.
   
2. Trim the pom-pom off the card.
3. Knot the clippings together tightly according to the illustration.
4. Make two pom-poms, one slightly larger.
5. Glue a wooden or cardboard disk to the end of a dowel or chop stick. 
6. Then glue on eight tiny paper spider legs equally distributed about the disk.
7. Hot glue the larger pom-pom on top of the disk and legs.
8. Hot glue the smaller "head" pom-pom to the end of the larger.
9. Hot glue on the google eyes.
   

Above are five ghost templates and one bat candy container wing. Three of the ghost patterns are
shown above. The templates for paper ghost chains will be covered in a later post and linked
back to this sheet of patterns.

Pets Tell Halloween Stories for Kids:

• Trick or Treat! Topi the Corgi Halloween Special
• When wiener dogs go trick or treating...
• Spooky, Sneaky Arlo the CAT!
• Dust Buddies by Mad Artist Publishing CGI & Films

How kids can quill a jack-o-lantern picture...

The finished Halloween picture, with quilled
3D jack-o-lantern.

        Learning to quill with construction paper is much easier than it looks. This cute little jack-o-lantern is made up of dozens of rolled construction paper strips glued within a pumpkin shaped outline. I've featured him here on top of his own construction paper fence. Little ones may also add more "spooky'' spider webs to their Halloween picture once the paper quills have dried.

Supply List:

• ample supply of orange, construction paper, shredded
• white acrylic paint or white pencil
• black marker
• black paper for background, brown paper for fence, green for leaves, brown for stem, red for pumpkin background
• white school glue

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. You can either cut strips of construction paper by hand or use a paper shredder for the craft if a large number of students are making this project. In either case you will need to make the strips of paper approximately 1/2 inch in width and the remaining length of the paper you have on hand. Not all quilling is regular, especially when teaching little kids. I intentionally made this sample using irregular cuts of paper and I think is looks very cute.
2. After cutting the paper in strips, wind it around a pencil, remove it and then roll it between your finger tips. Squeeze is tiny bit of glue onto the end of the paper roll in order the get then ends to stick and hold the quill in place. Now repeat this step many times until you have enough quills to glue on top of a larger picture and make a design. 
3. An important thing to remember while working on this project is that it takes some time to complete and that the glue must dry before the quills will even remotely adhere to the background. Be Patient!!!
4. I cut out strips of brown construction paper for the fence and also used brown strips for the quilled pumpkin stem. 
5. Use a black marker to draw "wooden" veins in the fence if you'd like.
6. I quilled green for the leaves, pinching the ends to make an oval shape. (see details below)
7. Then I quilled jack-o-lantern facial features using black paper and glued these on top of the orange quills.
8. After the construction paper dries, use a white pencil or paint to add spider web details to make a scene like the one show here.

Details showing what the rolled or quilled construction paper looks like when finished. 

• Quilled paper snail craft by Crafty Morning
• Easy paper quilling turtle made with construction paper by Twitchetts
• God's Rainbow Promise Quill Craft from the thinkingkidsblog

Weave a spider's web for a spooky Fall craft...

Sample spider web weaving craft above.

       Little ones can learn simple weaving skills with this Halloween spider craft. Teachers may choose to offer any number of Fall color combinations as far as craft supplies are concerned. As you can see by my samples. I've also shown here a variety of wooden craft stick sizes for the project.

Supply List:

• Popsicle sticks or coffee stirrers
• white, black, or orange yarn
• black, white or orange acrylic paint
• plastic spider (sold in bulk at dollar stores, optional)
• white school glue
• paint brush 
• sheet of sandpaper
  

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Make sure that the wooden surfaces of your craft sticks are clean. If these have any residue from prior use, because the sticks may be recycled, clean them up with a small piece of sandpaper.
2. Use white school glue to stack the craft sticks on top of each other in the shape of spokes on a wheel or like "stars." 
3. Let the glue between the layers dry thoroughly so that the webs formed by the layering become sturdy. 
4. Paint these shapes solid Fall colors: black, orange and white. Let dry
5. Now young students may weave the yarn about the wooden craft sticks to make their spiders's webs. 
6. The teacher may use a hot glue gun to paste a inexpensive plastic spider in the center of each child's web.
   

Left, are the "star like" shapes or spokes of a wheel formed by stacking wooden craft sticks and gluing them as you go. Right, I have painted each sample in the colors of Halloween: black, orange and white.

• Weave Indian Corn for Autumn Fun
• Weave trees for painted paper plate landscapes
• Weave a paper dress for a paper portrait