Eastern European Firebird Art Project

Today I am sharing my daughter's art project from this week. She used colored pencils, markers, and oil pastels to create her masterpiece, the Eastern European Firebird. She's thinking about creating a new one using just oil or chalk pastels next time in hopes to make the feathers glow and stand out more. She listened to and read the folktale about the Eastern European Firebird's glowing feathers that light the way through darkness before working on the project. The Firebird is a popular folktale in Ukraine and Russia. 

I will link this post up at the Homeschool Blog Link Up, Life at Rossmont's Wordless Wednesday, Blogging Through the Alphabet, Virtual Refrigerator, and Tots and Me Wordless Wednesday. Thank you for visiting! 

Russian Matryoshka Dolls

My daughter recently learned about Russia and the history behind the Russian nesting doll tradition. This lesson was combined with folk art painting techniques. She learned two painting techniques: Creating comma brush strokes and the use of a medicine dropper for painting dots. Alyssa utilized these painting techniques with acrylic paint when creating her symmetrical Russian Matryoshka Doll masterpiece.

I will link this post up at the Homeschool Blog Link Up, Life at Rossmont's Wordless Wednesday, Blogging Through the Alphabet, Virtual Refrigerator, and Tots and Me Wordless Wednesday. Thank you for visiting! 

Canadian Geese Art Project

My daughter just finished another art project this week. This particular project utilized a mixed media approach. She used a black marker, oil pastels, and watercolors to paint her masterpiece. Her artwork contrasts a loose watercolor approach with sharp black lines. She researched information and read books about geese before working on her project. She learned about the Rule of Thirds and how the arrangement or placement of the birds can create a sense of distance.

Canadian Geese

I will link this post up at the Homeschool Blog Link Up, Life at Rossmont's Wordless Wednesday, Blogging Through the Alphabet, Virtual Refrigerator, and Tots and Me Wordless Wednesday. This week the Blogging Through the Alphabet Linky is focusing on Letter C. Come link-up your post! Thank you for visiting! 

African Crowned Crane

Did you know that African Crowned Cranes roost in the trees of Uganda and Ghana? After researching information about these interesting birds, Alyssa learned that they are also great dancers. She recently captured the joyful dancing of the African Crowned Cranes in her colorful masterpiece below.

I will link this post up at the Homeschool Blog Link Up, Life at Rossmont's Wordless Wednesday, Blogging Through the Alphabet, Virtual Refrigerator, and Tots and Me Wordless Wednesday. Thank you for visiting! 

Virtual Refrigerator: Hawaiian Frog Art Project

Keeping things simple this week. I just wanted to share one of my daughter's art projects. I am always impressed with the results. I love the vibrant color selections Alyssa chose for her Hawaiian Frog. The main art medium for this project were oil pastels. She watched an ArtAchieve video lesson which guided her through the drawing steps. The project took her about an hour and 15 minutes to complete from start to finish.

I will link this post up at the Homeschool Blog Link Up, Virtual Refrigerator, and Tots and Me Wordless Wednesday. 

  

Grab a virtual magnet and add your link here to share your child's art or your arts and crafts how-to posts. Please visit the other blogs and admire what's on their Virtual Refrigerators

Cambodia Woven Placemat

My daughter just finished studying Cambodia using her Let's Go Geography curriculum. These featured crafts are great to do when it is too hot, cold, or raining outside. I am amazed at the amount of information she is retaining with this program. She's taken the initiative to independently study each country and complete the featured crafts. The featured craft for this week was a Woven Placemat. Cambodian women have been weaving silk to pass down to their daughters for many, many years since the ancient times. This project taught her how to weave paper into a placement.

First, we gathered the necessary supplies to complete the paper weaving project. She needed colored paper, scissors, tape, and a glue stick. I printed the straight-lined base pattern from the Printables section on dark blue colored paper. The curriculum author offered two base pattern options. Alyssa also choose several other contrasting colors for her project. She cut horizontal strips about 1 inch wide. Then, the base pattern was folded on the center line. She cut each line, but did NOT cut all the way to the edge of the paper. Next, she weaved the strips of paper through each cut. She alternated going above and below the base strips. My daughter trimmed some ends of the paper strips and taped them down on the backside to keep them in place. Finally, she wrote Cambodia on the project. The author suggests that you that you cover the project with clear contact paper if you wanted to create a placemat, but we skipped this step.     

I will link this post up at the Homeschool Blog Link Up, Life at Rossmont's Wordless Wednesday, Virtual Refrigerator, and Tots and Me Wordless Wednesday. Have a wonderful day! 

Grab a virtual magnet and add your link here to share your child's art or your arts and crafts how-to posts. Please visit the other blogs and admire what's on their Virtual Refrigerators

Gokstad Viking Ship Geography Art Craft

The featured craft from our Let's Go Geography curriculum last week was the Gokstad Viking Ship. Alyssa researched information about this ship using the websites provided. Norway is well-known for their prominent Viking heritage. She learned many other meaningful factoids during her research session.

Let me tell you a little bit about this art project. First, we gathered white, brown and blue shades of paper for the Viking ship. I printed the template patterns from the Printables section of the curriculum on the different colored paper for her to trace. The sails were printed on white, the ship was printed on brown, and the ocean waves were printed on blue paper.

My daughter cut out the waves and glued them in place starting in the middle of the page. She worked her way down the page. She also colored and cut out the sails. She colored the vertical stripes red and white. Then, the brown entire ship was lightly colored darker and decorated. She wrote Norway on the bottom of the page.

I will link this Gokstad Viking Ship Craft post up at Blogging Through the Alphabet Linky. G is the letter of the week so come join the fun and link up your post. I will also link this post up at the Virtual Refrigerator Linky and the Homeschool Blog Link Up.

Ecuador Butterfly Craft

We are continuing our journey through our Let's Go Geography curriculum. I wrote about my beginning experiences and opinions with this curriculum on my blog, A Learning Journey, about a month and a half ago. Ecuador's featured craft displayed the beauty of the butterfly. Ecuador is known for having many more different species of butterflies than any other location around the world. The curriculum provides an educational website link for children to research and explore butterfly pictures.

Let me tell you a little about this week's craft. First, we gathered the necessary supplies for the project including black construction paper, white cardstock, black pipe cleaner, scissors, glue stick, and acrylic paint.

I printed the butterfly template on white cardstock for my daughter from the Printables section of the curriculum lesson plans. Then, she folded the template on the fold line with the design face up. She also folded the black construction paper and placed it inside the folded butterfly template.

Next, Alyssa cut along the dark lines of the butterfly. She glued the white butterfly pattern on the black paper to give it a background.

In order to make a symmetrical butterfly, my daughter painted one side of the butterfly and then folded it so that it would paint the other side of the butterfly. Touch-ups were needed to fill in white spaces. She continued using this painting technique for most of the project except for the outside borders which were painted by hand.

The last step of this project was for her to fold the black pipe cleaner in half in order to create butterfly antennae. She placed the butterfly inside the folded pipe cleaner and twisted the top. Alyssa wrote "Ecuador" on the butterfly.

I will link my Ecuador Butterfly post up at Blogging Through the Alphabet Linky. E is the letter of the week so come join the fun and link up your post. I will also link this post up at the Virtual Refrigerator Linky and the Homeschool Blog Link Up.

Poison Dart Frog Featured Craft

We are still working through our Let's Go Geography curriculum and we recently finished the South America unit. I wanted to share with you one of the featured crafts from that unit which centers around Colombia's Poison Dart Frog. This week at Blogging Through the Alphabet we are focusing on the letter D so I chose Dart Frogs as my blog topic.

A short paragraph about the Poison Dart Frogs was provided as part of the curriculum. She learned that these Colombian frogs secrete a poison on their skin that you can't touch as a defense mechanism to warn off predators. She also learned that in ancient times, the poison was placed on the tips of arrows or darts when hunting for food or utilized in warfare. Alyssa also used the educational website link to research more information about them. 

In order to make this craft we needed white and green paper, scissors, glue sticks, and crayons. I printed the leaf template on green paper and the poison dart frogs were printed on white paper. After researching images of poison dart frogs, Alyssa colored the dart frogs. She was fascinated by the colorful designs of all the dart frogs. Next she folded, cut out, and glued the frogs to the green leaf template. That's it . . . it's a super simple craft.   

I will link my Dart Frog post up at Blogging Through the Alphabet Linky. D is the letter of the week so come join the fun and link up your post. I will also link this post up at the Virtual Refrigerator Linky and the Homeschool Blog Link Up.

Belize Armadillo

Last week I shared a Haitian Market Art project with you from Alyssa's new homeschool geography curriculum. This week she finished another neat project. We were studying Belize and the featured craft was an armadillo. The author, Carol Henderson, also provided the user with the step-by-step directions, artwork printables, and a link to learn more about armadillos in Belize. We are familiar with and have seen many armadillos, because we live in Texas.

The Armadillo of Belize is a easy craft suitable for all ages. It took her about an hour to complete this project. We gathered the materials needed using the supply list. We did NOT have any Bubble Wrap so we used a small, round sponge brush to create the armadillo armor. 

• White and Brown-Toned Cardstock Paper
• Grey or Brown Paint
• Bubble Wrap or Round Sponge Brush
• Crayons
• Scissors
• Glue Stick 
• Tape

The first step was for me to print the the artwork printables on sturdy cardstock. The printables are provided for Let's Go Geography users in the Printables section of the file. The armadillo was printed on brown-colored cardstock and the background was printed on white cardstock.

The next step was for Alyssa to color the background as a dry, earth scene using blue, green, and earth-toned brown colors. She wrote Belize at the top of her paper using a red crayon.  

Then, she cut out and assembled her armadillo using tape and a glue stick.

She dabbed the brown paint on the armadillo's armor using her round sponge brush. The armadillo will need a few minutes to dry before handling it.

My daughter used a glue stick to attach the armadillo to the colored background.

Featured Craft:
Armadillo in Belize

I will link this post at the Virtual Refrigerator Blog Hop and Sometimes Wordless Wednesday at Tots and Me.