Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Phases Of The Moon Work

Origami Follow Up



I just had to share these adorable little creatures some of the children made from their origami creations. When given the tools and the freedom, a child's creativity never ceases to amaze me.

Dragon Puppets

As the children eagerly and patiently work on the "Big Dragon" project getting ready for our Dragon Dance New Year's Celebration we have been making little dragons of scrap craft foam, cardboard, and paper. I was trying to find a use for all our little scraps and whipped this work up on the fly as our class seems to be a bit dragon crazed. I made a 3 part pattern from a piece of cardboard box, added two holes and some brass tacks ot make the dragon move, and added sequins (everything is better with sparkles).

Lunar New Year Lantern Making Activity
















Laterns are a traditional Chinese New Year decoration hung to chase away bad luck energy. Our children have been decorating our classroom with these simple latern decorations. The folding and scissor cutting strengthen small motor skills too!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Origami Cat and Mouse

I find that the two dimensional images in an origami book can be quite challenging for young children. So to simplify the instructions I make each step from a separate piece of paper and mount it on card stock. I bind the cards with a ring clip to make it easy to flip. Here are two example we currently have out on our shelves. The mouse (or hamster) which is fairly simple and the cat which is very simple.