Psalm 23

Wow, it has been ages since I have posted anything on here!
The Fall/Christmas time always is fully packed with my photo biz schedule and family things.  So I on purpose did not do any blogging.

But here is something I ran across today.  And I post it now, probably 4 months after we did it, and this little art project/lesson has really stuck with them.
I taught them the first verse of Psalm 23 doing this little quick lesson.
I read them the Psalm, then we talked about each part of it, then made a song book about it.  We even talked about David who wrote the Psalm.  Here is out final product.
And to this day, they still know this verse....

 Ella's is the one on the left.  I did the letters like that so she could practice her letters.  And I drew some notes so she could also cut them out and glue them on the cover.  Dean's, I just wrote it for him.  Since any mark he made then was chicken scratch.

The rest of these pics are of Dean's song book.  I gave him cotton for the sheep and cut out the waters.  But for Ella, I let her cut out waters and grass and mountains.

We still have these and they like to play with them and recite the verse every now and then.
Really easy and simple...
Here is what you would need:

-construction paper
-pen
- scissors and glue stick
-cottton
-tape or staples to fasten the book together

Puppet time!

We made puppets!  Cloth and paper.  Check it out here.
I posted the pics on my family blog.
Scroll past pictures of the kids to get to the puppets.

Here are the materials I used:
Paper puppets:
-stiff paper
-markers, crayons...whatever makes a mark
-packing tape
-large Popsicle sticks
These puppets we are using for a Noah's Ark lesson.  We are collecting animal puppets to fill an ark we painted.  Post to come!

Cloth puppets:
-felt like material, you can find it in a fabric or craft store
-thread, buttons, needle, sewing machine if one

I am not including instructions on how to make these.  It is pretty easy cheesy.
For the cloth puppets here are instructions.  They are but trickier.  Er...more tricky...

Making Collages!

I love love love making collages.  And for kids it is so easy and fun to do!
Pretty much the definition of a collage is : an artistic composition made of various materials ( paper, cloth, anything!) and all applied to a surface using glue.
But really, a composition is not needed at all to make these projects pieces of art!
What I love about them, is that they can be as abstract as you want.  And of course, for kiddos, abstract is all you are going to get!
 ( I took pics of their collages, but I cannot find them on my computer...errr....  Just image one inserted...HERE.)  :)

Supplies:
-paper or a thick cardboard paper like surface.
- all kinds of material like construction paper, tissue paper, buttons, cloth, cotton balls, Popsicle sticks, anything you can find really!  I love to take paper scraps from other art projects and save those little pieces. Thy come in handy for collages
- glue or glue stick.  Glue stick are best for the little guys
- crayons, color pencils and pencils

Lay out all the materials and pieces of odds and ends and help your little one to get started.  Begin by asking what they what to make a picture of.  Encourage them by suggesting something.  Like a house, or sun and ocean.  Then start tearing paper to look like those shapes.  The more you do, the more elaborate the pictures can become.  For my little 2 year old, I just let him go to town without any instruction.  And he always makes a colorful masterpiece he is so proud of.
The beauty of collages, that it is all Art!
Have fun!  And make one yourself!
So fun!!!!

Funny story:  Ella was saying that we could not see lightening bugs outside unless they were lit up because they are collaged.  Ryan and I were like,.." they are what?"
"They are collaged!".  Then we died laughing.  She was meaning to saying camouflaged!
We corrected her, then she said, "nope.  collaged. ".  Then she starts doing a jig in a circle, " collage, collage, collage!".  Yes, I have brainwashed her with Art...

Plating Lima Beans

We did a little Lima Bean project.  It was fun and really easy.
I bought some Lima Beans and we germinated them in plastic bags then later planted them. 
I also got her a new investigation drawing journal so she could keep track of the progress of the seeds.

Here is what we did over the course of a week:
Step 1:  I checked out books about seeds and germination and we read them for a few days.  Talked about them and I drew a diagram of the stages of the life of a seed.

Step2: I bought some Lima beans and we drew them in our investigation journal.  Along with the plastic bag and paper towel.  Then we added water to the paper towel and put it and a seed in three bags.
We kept two bags in the sun, and put on in a dark place.

Butterflies Part II

 We got our live Caterpillars in the mail and got to see them come out of their Chrysalis's.
It got lost in the mail for a while, so when we got them they were already in their cocoon stage starting coming out as butterflies the next day.  So I was unprepared to see butterflies emerging on my kitchen counter.  But we made them as comfortable as possible.
The kids got to hold them...they loved it!

Butterflies Part I

 We started studying butterflies and caterpillars.
But before we got our live caterpillars, we looked at some books from the Library and borrowed.
We read about them.  I showed her pictures on line.
We even found some outside one day and held them.
One afternoon we drew and painted some butterflies.  It was also a great chance to talk about God being the Creator.
Here are our paintings....

I drew the butterfly and told her that we were doing to create our own butterflies like God does!

So I showed her how I could make any shape I wanted inside the wings.  Then she did the next one.  

I love that she put ears on her butterfly....

Bible Drill

Did you ever do Bible Drill growing up in church?  I grew up Baptist so Bible Drill was always a nervous/fun experience.  As well as performing "Father Abraham" on stage with an audience.  Eek.
Well, on most mornings when I have my devotional after the kids are up, we have a "Reading Time".  I read the Bible and the kids read books quietly ( quietly is key) in the room next to me.
Well that almost always bombs.
They are always interested in my Bible and coffee.  Or they want to sit in my lap and draw in my journal.
So a way to help them to obey and stay in the other room, AND get to join in what I was doing, I started a Bible Verse box for Ella Reese.

If there is something that we are working on that day or week.  Like being patient, or kind etc....we would find what the Bible says about it.  Then on some index cards I would write out the verse and then she would draw a corresponding picture to help her remember the verse.
We do not do it every morning.  It becomes boring to her if we did it every day.
But here are some of the ones we did.

And as the day continues, or later that week...I will remind her of the verse we studied and I have found that it has helped her to remember God's word better.  As opposed to it just coming out of my mouth.

 This is Ella and Dean in the picture.

 Whenever I draw people or Bible people, I will draw a cross on their heart to help explain that when you Love God Jesus is in your heart.
So Ella Reese put crosses on our hearts.  That is our family if you can't tell.  We all look more like zombies....