Peg Doll Animals

I'm still being inspired by Margaret Bloom and her new book, Making Peg Dolls, well actually I guess her book blog tour. Last Friday, Anna Branford was the book tour stop and she shared some adorable animal peg dolls. Now of course there is more to the story. Last Thursday when I went to pick Hazel up from school, I saw a bluebird fly by in the long driveway to the school. Now a bluebird in the winter is very unusual here, but its brilliant blue wings and reddish pink breast made me certain it was. Now remember this is the day before the blizzard hit here. Poor bird. Anyway, I went inside and was talking to the teachers about the bluebird and one of them mentioned how seeing a bluebird always makes her and her husband happy. That night I told Hazel a story about Happy the bluebird at bedtime. Then I saw the bluebird that Margaret Bloom made at Anna Brandford's site and I was inspired. I decided to make a bluebird.

Now I was a bit lazy and glued instead of sewed the head and such. But I am happy with how it came out. Next I decided on a robin. Yes, with all this snow I am thinking about spring.

Plus Hazel got the book How Robin Saved Spring by Debbie Oullet for her birthday. This is a wonderful book that tells the tale of Lady Winter and Sister Spring and how the animals try to wake Sister Spring when Lady Winter uses her magic to keep Sister Spring sleeping so she can stay reigning the world. In the story you find out why some animals hibernate and why the maple tree gives sap for syrup and other wonders in nature (like why the robin is red breasted). Last year I needle felted her Lady Winter and Sister Spring dolls, but I don't think I ever shared them with you.

Then wanting to get away from birds, I decided to make a red fox. A fox has been in a few of our stories as of late, so I thought she would appreciate it. One of her favorite play things is to use her peg dolls or even Barbie dolls to make puppet shows and tell stories. I love her creativity!

She has asked me to make a seagull, pigeon, chickadee, gold finch, cow, horse, parrot, ... next. I guess I better get some more peg dolls.

For my previous Margaret Bloom inspired peg dolls visit here.

Painting

While we were waiting out the Blizzard of 2013, we had a fun day painting. The next day we had a fun day playing in the snow--well Hazel got to play while I attempted to shovel. 

We gathered different items to paint with and then stuck to mostly Valentine themed colors. We used some sponges and paints from a princess art set she got for her birthday and then added some more colors and fun things to use like toilet paper rolls, cotton swabs, recycled bottles (sitting in our recycle bin), flowers, thumbs and fingers, and some rollers. Then we just experimented and had fun.

We shaped the toilet paper rolls in different shapes--heart, circle and oval. Oh, and I had saved a net bag to try as well.

We loved seeing the different shapes and textures each thing gave us.

Can you guess how we made the different shapes?

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--Chinese Cinderella

In honor of the Chinese New Year, I thought I would share the Chinese Cinderella. Now, I have read in several sources that the oldest, written version of Cinderella came from China. It was recorded in Yu Yang Tsa Tsu (Miscellany of Forgotten Lore) written by Tuan Ch’êng-shih around 856-860 AD. (Source) I have found two slightly different versions to the story in picture books, but the main parts are the same. First we will look briefly at China.

Happy Chinese New Year!!

Gung hay fat choy. (I wish you good luck and happiness.) Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year. 2013 is the year of the snake. Here are some ideas that we are doing to celebrate.

Dragon Parade by Steven A. Chin is a wonderful picture book about a Chinese man who moves to San Francisco and opens a grocery store. It is based on a true story about how he brought San Francisco a large celebration for the Chinese New Year including the first dragon parade in the Land of the Golden Mountain (America).

I posted earlier in the week about the Chinese instruments we made. With these instruments we will make some noise to scare away the evil spirits and parade around the house. There is also a link to Daria's giveaway of beautiful tingsha hand bells.

We will also have a dragon parade and lion dancers at our parade with our homemade puppets. The top one is the dragon and the bottom three are the lion dancer (each view).  The dragon puppet idea came from Enchanted Learning. The lion dancer puppet came from Activity Village. I wish I had used larger pieces of construction paper for the middle part of this one. Hazel loves them. She gave the lion dancer orange eyes, so they are a bit hard to see on the front.

Then we decorated the dining room. I saw the snake cut-out at Activity Village (the snake coloring page next to it is from there as well since it was the model of the snake for the cut-out). The dragon is also from that page since they used it as a pattern for a paper cut craft. I decided after doing my snake, to stop there with the cut crafts. The other snake coloring page is also from Activity Village but a different page. The snake mobile which we used as a decoration for our chandelier instead of being a mobile also came from Activity Village.

Then we made a Chinese themed dinner. We used the two Chinese recipes from The Kids Multicultural Cookbook. We made a ginger honey chicken wings recipe and a peanut noodle recipe. Then of course we ate them with some green beans with soy sauce on them and ate with chopsticks. We are hoping to make some fortune cookies later today or this week. The snow removal has taken up much of our time so we have not gotten to as much as we hoped.

Finally, I made Hazel some simple felt dumplings and felt fortune cookies. I found some simple fortunes on-line and printed them out and then followed the tutorials on Kaboose. I did not use hot glue for either and did not find they took long. In fact I'm hoping to have Hazel make a few herself. For the dumplings I gathered them up for a minute or two to make the fluted edge. I used a clothespin for the fortune cookies to get their shape. If we make more, I'll take some pictures and provide you a bit of a tutorial on how we did it.

How are you celebrating the Chinese New Year?

Sharing Saturday 13-6

Another amazing week of things shared!! Thank you to all who shared with us. If you have not had a chance to check out the 85 wonderful ideas, please go visit them. And now for my features!! Please remember to visit Having Fun at Chelle's House for her features as well!!

1) From Buggy and Buddy: Butterfly Pencil Valentines
2) From Little Wonders' Day: Valentine's Day Family Fun Night
3) From Seeking Shade: The Teddy Bear Book Inspired Giving to Homeless
4) From S.O.S. Mom: Personalized Candy Hearts
5) From An Idea on Tuesday: Bringing Nature Inside
6) From Life on the Gravelly Road: Watercolor Thank You Notes


Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! If you were one of the ones picked as a feature here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

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From Your Hostess: This week I shared an African Cinderella book and activity, some peg dolls after being inspired by a new book, some Chinese instruments to use at our Chinese New Year celebration (thanks Daria!!), and a strawberry heart muffin experiment.

 

 

Now for This Week's Party 
 
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