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

20 Facts About The Caterpillar/Butterfly

       Caterpillar. Mrs. Sigourney has written a child's poem about a butterfly, in which the beautiful insect sings as it flies through the sunny air, "I was a worm till I won my wings." Truly the ancients never conceived a myth more beautiful and wonderful than this familiar story of nature - the life history of the butterfly. 

Stages of the caterpillar and butterfly.

1. The lovely, winged creature is the fourth and last step in the development of the insect, and the caterpillar is the second, for it is the larva, or worm, that hatches from the egg. 
2. A study of the origin of the word caterpillar shows that it means, literally, hairy cat. 
3. Everyone is familiar with the woolly kinds, and the name, so far as they are concerned, is not inappropriate. 
4. There are, however, hairless kinds, the skin of which is often beautifully marked lengthwise or crosswise, or covered with rings and eye-spots.
5. When the tiny caterpillar first emerges from the egg it proceeds to eat, for this is to be its chief duty during the larva stage. 
6. The eggs are always deposited where plant food can easily be reached. 
7. Before very long the skin of the worm becomes too tight, for it does not increase as the body grows larger.
8. Accordingly the caterpillar soon crawls out through a split which occurs near the front end; that is, it molts (see Molting). 
9. This process is repeated four or five times, and in each case a new skin has formed under the old one.
10. The body of a full-grown worm is usually divided into twelve rings or segments, and each of the first three rings bears a pair of five-jointed legs. 
11. There are also short leg- stumps on the abdomen, which disappear when the last molting takes place.
12. On each side of the head there are six eye-spots; the head also bears a pair of short, three-jointed feelers, besides jaws and other mouth organs. 
13. Glands, some with unpleasantly odorous or stinging secretions, frequently occur on the skin.
14. There comes a time when the caterpillar ceases to eat and begins to prepare for the so-called pupal, or resting, stage. 
15. The caterpillar stage lasts two or three months in temperate regions, but it may be of two or three years' duration in Arctic lands. 
16. The quantity of food eaten is used to nourish the pupa. 
17. Moth caterpillars spin a casing of silk about them, and form cocoons, while the pupal stage of butterflies is passed in a hard skin covering. 
18. Butterfly pupae are called chrysalids. 
19. When the pupa reaches maturity the outside casing splits open, and the butterfly comes out, rather crumpled and weak at first, but soon ready to spread its wings for a happy life in the sunshine. 
20. The same processes of development occur in the life history of moths.

More About The Caterpillar/Butterfly:

• "He Is Risen Indeed!" Butterfly Coloring Page
• Create a Butterfly Yarn Picture
• A butterfly maze puzzle by kathy grimm...
• Craft a Butterfly Mask
• Life Again! and The Cocoon
• The Butterfly Poem
• A Living Butterfly paper craft
• Handy Little Butterflies
• Craft a Very Hungry Caterpillar
• Craft a Pom-pom Caterpillar SWAPS

Little Danny Donkey

Little Danny Donkey
by Helen Cowles LeCron

I hate to talk about it, 'cause
it's sad enough for tears,

But --little Danny Donkey didn't
like to wash his ears!

At breakfast every morning
Danny's mother sent him back

To do his washing over 'cause
his ears were simply black!

They say he's doing better now--
and oh, I hope it's true!

I'd hate to be so lazy and so
careless! Shouldn't you?

The Lady-Bug Rebus

Lady-Bug
by Gertrude A. Strickler

       Long long ago a lady-bug washed out her children's clothes. "But where to hang them up to dry," said she "O goodness knows!" It happened that a spider's home was in the grass close by, and on the spider's silken line, she hung them up to dry. Then Granny spider laughed "Ho! ho! those lady-bug's clothes are mine because they're in my web" and then she took them off the line. A measuring worm was looking 'round as on a leaf he stood. He saw it all and called for help, as loudly as he could. Then to the rescue cam a wasp, and tho he had to tug, he took the clothes from Granny's grasp and back to Mrs. bug. The clothes were torn but Lady-bug patched up the holes with black. And since that day each lady-bug wears holes upon her back...

• A Thanksgiving Acrostic
• A "Quotable" Christmas Acrostic

The Interrupting Owlet

The Interrupting Owlet
by Helen Cowles LeCron

When Mother Owl and Father
Owl are talking busily
About old Uncle Blinker in the gnarled
old maple tree,
Or Cousin Drowsy Hoot-Owl in the
oak across the way,
Or stylish Old Miss Snowy Owl, I
much regret to say
That naughty little Downy often inter-
rupts the two
To ask them, "Who'd you say it was?
Say! WHO, Pa? WHO, Ma?
WHO?"

Though Mother Owl has told him that
the question's impolite,
And little owls should never interrupt
on any night
When parents talk, it doesn't seem to
do a bit of good!
For Downy still continues, as no
thoughtful owlet would,
With "WHO, Pa? Who Ma?
Who'd you say?" and "Tell me,
folks! Aw! Do!"
And "WHO'D you say it was? Aw,
Ma! Say! WHO, Pa WHO,
Ma! WEHO--OO?"

Paper Cuts of Farm Animals

        Below, I have restored a few paper farm animals: horse, cow, goat, duck, rooster, sheep, dog, bunny, pig and cat. These may be freely used by students and teachers for the classroom. Silhouettes on my blog are not to be redistributed by alternative websites and are not meant to be sold or purchased.

These paper cuts of animals found on the farm would make great design
elements in a classroom or any other art project a young
student might need them for.