Sunday, June 1, 2014

Octopus Clock Craft

My teacher's sample of the octopus clock made from a paper
plate, magic markers and a bit of industry. The long "hand"
of my clock is one of the octopus tentacles, the smaller
"hand" mimics a piece of kelp or coral. Please pin the
photos only not templates, so that folks will have
 a reason to pay us a visit!
      This little paper plate craft is so easy to assemble.  Simply print, cut and paste the octopus parts as they are seen below. I backed the "arms" of the clock with cardboard so that the project might be crafted with durability. Punch a hole in each clock arm piece and also in the center of the paper plate. I used the pointed tip of my scissors to make a hole in the plate. Then I inserted the brass brad through all three holes and bent back the prongs on the backside of the paper plate. Now my students will be able to spin the "arms" or "hands" of the clock to mimic those of a real clock.
      I have included two options for the project so that teachers may either use my own solution for the coloring of the project or give their students simpler unadorned versions so that they can come up with their own unique interpretations of this paper plate craft.

Craft Supplies:
  • large white paper plate
  • variety of magic markers 
  • printed template of octopus (blank or decorated)
  • white glue
  • scissors
  • hole punch
  • printed numbers 1-12
  • brass brad
The clock as it appeared in black and white before I colored it. I printed out the numbers 1-12 in
 a classic font and pasted these around the edges of the paper plate to mimic a real clock face.
Here are a few closeup shots of my paper octopus clock craft.
Make sure to click directly on to the templates in order to download the largest versions for printing.

More Octopus Crafts:
More Time Telling Crafts:

Author Cheryl Block discussing award-winning "You're Blushing,
 Little Octopus," a children's picture book with a heart-warming story
 based on science and packaged with a CD-ROm as entertaining
as it is educational.
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Friday, February 21, 2014

Spring Kite Ideas for Classroom Teachers

       Kites are not only interesting playthings, but they were also once used in meteorological observations, in carrying messages, in photographing landscapes and, to a considerable extent - in advertising. Even today, it is not uncommon to see over a large outdoor assembly, a number of kites bearing advertising banners on their strings.
       Kites have been known since earliest times and in certain countries are still a very popular amusement among children and hobbyists. In Japan kites strong enough to lift a man were made over 600 years ago, in order to spy out the force of an enemy in times of war. Not only the youths of Japan but the adults, also, enter into kite-flying with great zest, and some of the kites themselves are beautiful and elaborate productions, decorated with the highest art. In China the kite-flier often has a number of kites in the air at once, all attached to a common string, and the greatest skill and patience are necessary to keep them separate or disentangle them when they have been blown together by a strong wind. Fish, butterflies, dragons and birds are imitated in kites by the skillful Chinese, and many of these peculiar forms have found their way into the hobby and toy stores of the United States.

Artifacts & Art for enhancing kite and flight lesson plans From this blog:
More Kite Crafts for Kids:
Kite Bulletin Board Ideas:
Magazines and Newsletters for Kite Enthusiasts: The Science and Math of Kites: How to Properly Fly a Kite:
Blogs:
     (I will be restoring and building a new kite index here during the month of September, 2024. Maintaining backlink indexes such as this one requires much time and effort. This listing has needed updating too often in my opinion . . . 
      Since the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, many folks have abandoned and/or neglected their webpages. 
       I thought some of you might be curious as to just how many changes have taken place over a brief interval of four years. So I will show my progress as I work to restore what has been lost. 
       There are more young students on the web than ever; if any webmasters are interested in helping to restore this topic for children, please upload materials to your webpages for them!)

Today, I remove dead links... I have lost a total of 74 active links since the last update!
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Thursday, February 20, 2014

"Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom" in My Classroom

A simple ABC craft using the popular "Chicka, Chicka, Boom Boom" story by Bill Martin Jr.
      I taught this simple craft to three year olds at our school. Although our school is a private one, this would also be an easy craft to assemble and teach at a public nursery/early learning center as well. "Chick, Chicka, Boom, Boom," by Bill Martin Jr. is a very popular book in secular schools. I've listed the directions and supplies below and also have included a palm leaf pattern for those of you who would prefer that your students color their branches instead of cutting these from green construction paper.
      Cutting the palms would be an appropriate task to be included in this little lesson if it were done in a first or second grade classroom. Students in these grades should have been using scissors long enough to be able to cut curves and fringe the edges of paper without cutting them entirely off altogether. 
"Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom" cover

 Craft Supplies:
  • ABC stickers
  • green, black and brown construction paper
  • markers
  • white school glue
  • scissors (optional) 
  • palm leaf pattern
  • sandpaper (for the cocoanuts!)
Step-by-Step Directions:
  1. Teachers may download and print the pattern in multiples prior to the lesson. Cut these out in advance for students who have yet to become very familiar with using scissors.
  2. Cut also tree trunks from light brown construction paper and round cocoanuts from sandpaper.
  3. The students should color their palm leaves first.
  4. Then glue these onto their black background paper and then glue the trunk on top.
  5. Then students may color their palm tree trunk.
  6. Give each student a variety of alphabet and number stickers to peal and stick onto their "chicka, chicka, boom, boom" picture. The pealing of the stickers is an important manipulative skill to teach three year students. This requires young children to practise small motor skills in order to complete the task successfully. Encourage them to peal the stickers by themselves and give them lots of praise when they accomplish it on their own.
Three year old children can easily complete this little craft.
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Monday, February 17, 2014

A Family Tree Craft for Grandparent's Day

The tissue paper tree collage has yet to be attached to the hand-colored family tree above. In this art project the
grandparent  colors one half of the art project and fills in the child's family tree while his or her grandchild
 crafts the tissue paper tree that will be attached to the top half of the picture with either a narrow
swatch of paste or a brass brad allowing the tree to rotate and reveal the family diagram below.
Teachers will need to collect the following supplies for this art project:
  • Green and brown construction paper
  • white school glue
  • green and yellow tissue paper
  • a print of the simple family tree below, one per student
  • one copy of the heart tree pattern to create a cardboard stencil from
  • scissors
  • colored pencils
  • brown crayons
  • staplers
  • brass brads and a hole punch (This is an alternative method of attachment instead of staples.)
Directions:
  1. Cut the heart shaped tree and trunk template after sizing it roughly to cover the family tree graph in a Word Document File.
  2. Cut the heart shaped foliage from green paper and the trunk from brown. Your students may glue the trunk on the heart after coloring it with crayons or markers and then glue it to the tree. However, I would glue these two together in advance for younger preschool students.
  3. The young student may then crumple colored tissue squares and glue these to the surface of their construction paper tree while his or her grandparent fills out the basic family information as shown below in red type. 
  4. The grandparent may either color the family tree alone or with the help of their grandchild before stapling together the tissue paper covered tree. Staple the two together to create a flap, just at the upper portion of the tree tops, so that the tree may be lifted up to reveal the graph.
Here you see that the family tree jpg. is enlarged inside of a word document before it is printed out on a
8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet of white typing or drawing paper. On the far right, the tree has been filled out
and colored by an adult. This may also be done by the child if they prefer, however, it is important to
give the child lighter colored pencils to color the birds so that the family names will not be fully
 obscured from view.
On the far left, I have cut 150 trunks and heart shaped folia to assemble the trees for young students
ahead of time. All they will need to do is crumple tissue paper and glue it to the tree's surface and
 color the trunk with a brown crayon. Crafts sometimes need to be preassembled a bit in order for
them to be successfully completed within a limited time allotment.
I have stapled the tree on top of the colored print so that the small birds may nest quietly beneath
the student's artwork. Now Henry will have a nice keepsake to remember Grandparent's Day.
A simple Family Tree Graph showing how one child
 is related to both sets of his grandparents.
Print one simple family tree graph per student for grandparent(s) to fill out and color.
The pattern for the heart shaped family tree that will need to be sized to cover the
above drawn graph sufficiently. You will need to "tweek" it a bit and print it out at
different sizes until you are satisfied with the fit.
More Family Tree Lessons:
Young students at our school completed a simpler version of
the same project idea with their own parents and grandparents.
After finishing early a little girl views the members
 of her own family tree on a cell phone.
This young girl has so many family members that she
had difficulty pasting them all onto such a little tree.
Look there's no space left to color in the tree!

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May Day Festivites

      What a varied and versatile holiday is May Day, meaning of course, the First of May--an occasion which has significance of one kind or another in a number of different countries. For some Americans probably the greatest prestige comes from the circumstances that May Day is also "Dewey Day," meaning the anniversary of that memorable spring morning when navel hero, Commodore George Dewey, took his fleet into Manila Bay and dealt the blow which did more than any other single incident to determine the outcome of the Spanish-American war. To be sure, it was not the custom of the nation to indulge in spectacular observances of "Dewey Day," but there was a general display of the flag on residences and public buildings in honor of the occasion and it was a favorite occasion for banquets and speech-making over 100 years ago.
"May Day" - Cartoon depicting Moving Day
 (May 1) in New York City in 1831
      To go at once to the other extreme in cataloguing the functions of May Day it may be noted that May Day is also "moving day," meaning the date on which expire most leases of residential property and when, in consequence, there is a general flitting to and fro of the folk who live in rented houses and in apartments or flats. In some communities April 1 is more generally observed as "moving day" than is May 1, but in most sections of the country the later date is preferred. In more recent years too, custom has given October 1 some significance as a moving day, but for the great majority of our people who move only once a year, at most, May 1 still has the call as a fixed festival for the shifting of household shrines.
May Day Demonstration in 
Stockholm, Sweden, 1899
      May Day is a date marked for its own by organized labor not only in the United States, but pretty much throughout the civilized world. In many cities there are on this day each year monster parades of the union labor organizations, and it has long been accepted as the most auspicious occasion for inaugurating great general strikes in the various trades. Some May Days have been rendered memorable by riotous disturbances, but during the past few years the observances of the holiday has, for the most part, passed of quietly.
      In the early half of the 20th century, American children looked forward the May Day as a holiday event. There were May-pole dances and frolics of various kinds in the parks if the weather permitted and these were so organized as to enlist the participation of the local kindergarteners and preschoolers. When the weather or other conditions prevented the festivities in the open air, special exercises were held in the school rooms. In short, May Day was for the whole body of American young people an occasion of relaxation and jollity, but for all that there were so many frolics, dancing parties and social gatherings on the date, there was one discordant note in the dearth of weddings. May 1, and, indeed every day in May, would seem to be ideal of weddings , but the old superstition that May marriages were unlucky restricted the number of brides on May Day and on the thirty days that followed.
Example of a Ribbon Dance. The larger Maypole in the
 background is used by older children. The main
village maypole is too tall for dancing.
      May Day, although not always, of course, known by that name, is one of the oldest holidays on the calendar. In the church calendar the first of May is the combined day of St. Philip the Apostle and St. James the Less, but the festivities which mark the day in Great Britain, France, Germany and other  countries are what may be termed the direct descendants of the ancient Roman Floralia and the Druidic feasts in honor of the god Bel--the Baal of the Scriptures. Indeed, the origin of the holiday seems to date still farther back in the history of India and Egypt, and in both of those ancient countries the May-pole was a recognized and conspicuous emblem.
Histories of May Day
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