Category Archives: Themes

Jun3

Twice Upon a Time: Rapunzel, The One with All the Hair by Wendy Mass

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IMG_0140Twice Upon a Time: Rapunzel, The One with All the Hair by Wendy Mass, paperback novel, 205 pages, published by Scholastic Inc. in 2006.

Rapunzel is an ordinary girl turning twelve when a witch arrives at her home and whisks her away as payment for a deal made with Rapunzel’s parents before she was born. The witch locks Rapunzel in a tall tower in the middle of the forest. The room is bare, there is no door, and the only window is so far from the ground she would probably die in the fall, and Rapunzel is all alone.

Prince Benjamin is also trapped, not physically, but by the constraints of being heir to the throne and all the responsibility that comes with it. His father wants him to act more like a man and begin his king training, while his mother is somewhat over protective, and doesn’t even let him visit the nearby village. Benjamin’s cousin, Prince Elkin, comes to stay with them frequently, and he often tries to get Benjamin into trouble. The two of them set out on an adventure for a horde of treasure guarded by a troll, but they find something completely different. And in the process Prince Benjamin finds a tall and solitary tower in the forest.

This is another book in Wendy Mass’s Twice Upon a Time series, in which old fairytales are retold in a new and refreshing way. Following both the side of Rapunzel and that of Prince Benjamin, this version of the old tale is interesting and different. The characters are well written and likable, with faults and quirks, giving them a sense of realism. There were parts of this story that made me laugh too. I enjoyed this book very much.

I have given this book to my second grader to read, and though she is only at the start, she already likes it. Most suited to middle and upper primary school children to read independently, younger children may also enjoy having this story read to or with them. A wonderful twist on an old tale.

 

 

 

Jun2

Wooden Peg Dolls

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Wooden pegs.

Wooden pegs.

A friend gave me an old tin full of wooden dolly pegs recently, which are just perfect for making little dolls.

L and A each took a peg, and then went through our fabric scrap bag to find something to make some clothes. A made her doll a dress by wrapping a strip of floral fabric around her peg. I helped her tie a thin ribbon around the doll’s waist. L used two strips of fabric to make a shirt and some shorts.

A's lovely hair.

A’s lovely hair.

They used some craft doll’s hair to give their dolls lovely flowing locks. I had to help A gets her hair glued down so that it only covered the back of the head. L also had a bit of trouble getting the hair onto her doll, as once it hit the glue, it stuck to her fingers as well.

L drawing on a face.

L drawing on a face.

A added some pipe cleaner arms to her doll, and L made shoes out of pipe cleaners for her doll. L decided her doll did not require arms. They both used markers to draw on a face, but A’s went wrong, and she ended up colouring the whole of her doll’s face in black. So we added some tiny googly eyes on, which make the doll look a bit scary, but A was very happy with it.

L also added some details to her doll’s outfit using the markers. She said this doll would be the perfect size to use as a worry doll. L sometimes likes to use a worry doll to help keep herself calm when she knows she will be in a stressful situation, such as going to the dentist or having a vaccination.

A's doll.

A’s doll.

L's doll.

L’s doll.

 

Jun1

Twice Upon a Time: Sleeping Beauty, The One Who Took the Really Long Nap by Wendy Mass

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IMG_0142Twice Upon a Time: Sleeping Beauty, The One Who Took the Really Long Nap by Wendy Mass, paperback novel, 172 pages, published by Scholastic Inc. in 2006.

Most people know the old fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty, who is cursed by an evil fairy to and sleeps for 100 years. Sleeping Beauty, The One Who Took the Really Long Nap is a new version of this favourite tale, told alternately from both the side of the princess and the side of the prince.

Princess Rose is endowed with many gifts from her fairy godmothers as a newborn, but the oldest and meanest fairy in the land curses her instead to prick her finger on a spindle and die. The last of fairy godmothers can lessen the curse but not lift it, so when Princess Rose pricks her finger she falls into a deep and prolonged sleep, one which will last 100 years.

The Prince has worries, not least of which is his mother who is part ogre, and needs to feed on fresh meat twice a month. He grows up alone, with a page his only friend, but when he leaves, the Prince is on his own. He spends many hours and days wandering the forest near his castle, and he stumbles across an old castle that is completely overgrown with trees and vines. He attempts to gain entrance to this castle, but the vines won’t yield. The prince is determined to discover the secrets of this old castle.

An old tale retold and refreshed, and a very enjoyable one at that. The basic skeleton of the original story is retained, with the details expanded and tweaked to create a new version that is fun and engaging. Telling the stories of both the Princess and the Prince was a unique way to add dimension, and is done very well. The reader is introduced to the characters not just of the Princess as a beautiful girl waiting and her Prince Charming who dashes in and rescues her gallantly. The characters have depth, and flaws and realism, and I could conjure them in my mind throughout their adventure. There were also moments of humour, and I found it to be an entertaining read.

This story is most suited to middle and upper primary school children, but I think my second grader would enjoy it a lot too. Explanations of some things like pages, squires and spindles might be required for younger children, but that just adds to the experience of reading with your child.

This is the second book by Wendy Mass that I have enjoyed this year, and I will be looking for more by her in the future.

 

May16

Mosaics Rainbow

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This rainbow was made using cardboard mosaic squares. A made arches of glue and then placed the squares onto the glue to create the rainbow. It took a while for her to do this, but I think it is a lovely rainbow.

Placing mosaic squares.

Placing mosaic squares.

This turned out to be an excellent activity for A’s fine motor skills, as she had to pick up a single mosaic square, and then carefully place it where she wanted it. Sometimes she had to lift a square up and place it down again if she missed, or move them about in the glue to get them into position. She was getting a bit tired towards the end of the rainbow, and I helped her finish the last arch of red squares.

Sticking on some clouds.

Sticking on some clouds.

A chose to make clouds using cotton balls. She packed the cotton balls in so the clouds are very fluffy.

When it dried, the paper under the rainbow became a bit crinkly where the glue had dried. As is A’s tendency, she did use rather a lot of glue, but it looks fine on the wall next to some of her other rainbow pictures.

May16

Jellyfish Picture

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Our pile of glitter and metallic glues.

Our pile of glitter and metallic glues.

We have a tub of glitter glue and metallic glue tubes that the kids use on all sorts of projects. I like using glitter glue over glitter as it is generally less messy (unless A leans in it and then spreads it all over the place…or dangles her hair in it), and it’s easier to place exactly where we want it. The downside is that the kids (especially A) put it on so thick it takes ages to dry, and we often need to leave our projects at least overnight to dry.

Drawing on her waves.

Drawing on her waves.

Today A used the glitter and metallic glues to draw a jellyfish picture. She started out painting fish, but they morphed into jellyfish. She also wanted to add an eel, but it grew tentacles and became a jellyfish too. She drew waves with some blue metallic glue, and sand with yellow glitter glue. There’s also some seaweed done in green metallic glue.

I like how glittery this picture is.

Drawing sand at the bottom of her picture.

Drawing sand at the bottom of her picture.

Making a jellyfish.

Making a jellyfish.

 

May16

Pipe Cleaner Rainbow

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Placing the pipe cleaners.

Placing the pipe cleaners.

Another rainbow made by A. This time she glued pipe cleaners onto some paper to form a rainbow. She chose the order of the colours, and I helped by applying craft glue (the bottle is almost empty). A bent all the pipe cleaners into arches herself. When she was finished placing the pipe cleaners, I used sharp scissors to cut the bottoms of the inside colours to even the bases up a little.

Making clouds.

Making clouds.

Gluing the clouds on.

Gluing the clouds on.

Rolling the pipe cleaners up like spirals to form the clouds was A’s idea, and I think it worked well. She rolled up some white pipe cleaners for this.  I was impressed by how carefully and neatly she did this.

Once she had some clouds finished, she glued them at the bottom of the rainbow.

Painting the sky.

Painting the sky.

Having made the rainbow on white paper, A decided that it should really be in the sky, so the paper should be blue. I suggested she could use some watercolour paints to paint her sky. A liked this idea, so out came the paints. She carefully painted around the rainbow and clouds, making a lovely blue sky for her rainbow.

May12

Flower Bouquet

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L’s bouquet.

Fabric flowers.

Fabric flowers.

I bought these fabric flowers on a bit of a whim, with no idea what we might use them for, I just liked the look of them. Seeing all the flower bouquets in the lead up to Mother’s Day made me think of our fabric flowers, and how we could use them to make our own bouquets.

Two flower shapes on one stem.

Two flower shapes on one stem.

Each of the flower shapes have a little hole in the centre of them, just perfect for threading onto pipe cleaners. We cut some green pipe cleaners in half, and used these as the flower stems. There were three sizes of flowers in the pack, and the kids used these layered from largest to smallest on their stems. Some of their flowers had only one flower shape, while others had three layered on each stem. We twisted the end of the pipe cleaner over on itself at the centre of the flowers to prevent the flowers from coming off their stems.

Placing the flower shapes onto a stem.

Placing the flower shapes onto a stem.

Once they had finished making their flowers, they bundled them together, re-arranging them into a bouquet with all the flowers facing out or up. We bent some of the pipe cleaner stems to help shape the bouquets. Once they were happy with their bouquets, we tied them up with ribbons.

A's bouquet.

A’s bouquet.

L and A combined their flowers into a vase for the dining room table, where they look very pretty.

 

May12

Paper Bowl Spider

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IMG_9905A harmless spider made using a paper bowl and some pipe cleaners.

Painting the bowl.

Painting the bowl.

Hole punched side ready for legs.

Hole punched side ready for legs.

First A painted the bowl on the outside, and once that was mostly dry, she turned the bowl over and painted the inside of the bowl. She used a thick black paint. Once the paint was dry, I used a single hole punch to make four holes down each side of the bowl. A inserted half a black pipe cleaner into each hole, bending them a little on the inside and taping them down. I helped A to bend these legs into the shape she wanted, with little feet.

Adding googly eyes.

Adding googly eyes.

I thought googly eyes on the top would finish off the spider, but A wanted it to be a red-back spider, which are quite common here, so she also added a red feather to the back of her spider. A said that this spider is the Mummy spider, and she has asked to hang it in her room with her baby egg carton spiders.

May9

Pom Pom Rainbow

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A is into rainbows at the moment.IMG_9867

Sorting pom poms.

Sorting pom poms.

I got out our tray of pom poms, which contains many pom poms in various sizes and colours. A first sorted through them to find the pom poms she wanted to use, placing them in piles of like colours. She chose to use six colours in her rainbow, and to place it on clouds. The clouds are made of cotton balls as A thought they were fluffier, and more cloud-like than the white pom poms we had.

Placing a line of pom poms.

Placing a line of pom poms.

A asked me to place a line of craft glue on her paper in the shape of a rainbow. She carefully placed the pom poms onto the line of glue, one at a time, making an arch in one colour. Then she worked on the next colour, and the next until she had her rainbow complete. Placing the pom poms using her pincer grip was good for her fine motor skills.

Sticking on the clouds.

Sticking on the clouds.

Once all the pom poms were placed onto the paper, A put some glue at the bottom on each side of the rainbow. This is where she placed the cotton ball clouds. I thought it looked very good like this, but A decided that it needed some birds (some birds turned into a lot of birds!).

We have put this one up on our wall. It looks a little lonely at the moment, but we are planning to make some more rainbow pictures to go alongside it.

Rainbow picture with birds.

Rainbow picture with birds.

May6

Using Fabric Markers

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L's beach scene singlet.

L’s beach scene singlet.

A's colourful singlet.

A’s colourful singlet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_9843The kids love to draw, so using fabric markers gave them the opportunity to create an artwork on a piece of clothing and wear it. Before they started, I placed a thick piece of cardboard inside the shirt to prevent the colour from going through to the other side of the shirt. Then I pegged the shirts to the cardboard to keep them still, making it easier to draw on.

Singlets stretched out on cardboard ready for drawing on.

Singlets stretched out on cardboard ready for drawing on.

 

A drawing on her singlet.

A drawing on her singlet.

L drawing on her singlet.

L drawing on her singlet.

Each of the kids had a singlet to draw on, and I told them to draw anything they would like. L drew a lovely picture of the beach, with people swimming, and some boats. There were also lots of seagulls, and people playing on the beach. A chose not to draw a picture, but rather used all the colours to make lines and squiggles all over her singlet. Both of the kids enjoyed making a drawing to wear.

The colouring page under the shirt.

The colouring page under the shirt.

After completing their own freestyle drawings, we tried another type of drawing. This time I printed off some colouring sheets from the Crayola site, as suggested on the back of the markers pack. L chose a picture of a dinosaur, and A chose a picture of a unicorn. I placed the colouring sheet under the shirt and traced the outline of the picture, and then let the kids colour them in. L did a very nice job colouring in her dinosaur, even adding some red blood to its teeth.

The traced dinosaur.

The traced dinosaur.

L colouring her dinosaur.

L colouring her dinosaur.

The outline of A's unicorn.

The outline of A’s unicorn.

Once the drawings were complete, we left them to dry thoroughly before heat setting them with the iron. This involved running the hot iron over the design from the opposite side for a few minutes. After which I washed and dried the shirts and singlets, and the kids could then wear their creations.

L wearing her dino shirt.

L wearing her dino shirt.