Watercolor Number Chart - Math & Foreign Language

Watercolor Number Chart

To make a number chart:


1.  Obtain a piece of watercolor paper, a ruler and a white crayon.

2.  Decide how many numbers you want on your chart.  The chart shown here features "12".

3.  Draw lines with the white crayon and ruler.  Draw the numbers in the spaces.

4.  Prepare a space for your child with watercolors, brushes, rags, and a jar of water. 

5.  Allow the child to select colors and paint all over the paper.  When the number appear, watch the delight in your child's eyes!

6.  Allow to dry and put between heavy books, if needed.  The chart should be ready to use the following day.

Ideas for using the chart:

1.  Learning the names of numbers.  Use shells, gems, stones, pearls or bean bags (depending on how large the numbers are!) to play games.

2.  Learning the names of numbers in foreign languages.  Put a stone on a number and ask the child to tell it to you in the foreign language.  Or, say it in the foreign language and the child will place the stone on the correct number. 


3.  Use pieces of paper to cover up numbers to show divisible groups, or pieces of yarn to put in-between groups of numbers.  In this example, you could divide the paper into 3's, 4's, 6's.

Other ideas?  Feel free to leave a comment! Thank you to Suzanne from the amazing blog, down in the meadow for the inspiration (she also has a lovely Etsy shop)!

Moving Picture Books

We made our first moving picture book!

In the book Pentatonic Songs by Elisabeth Lebret, we learned the song "The Dwarves". We played it on the lyre and sang the three verses together.

Following instructions in the book Moving Picture Books with Movable Figures by Brunhild Muller, we began making our book.

Materials:

1. Stockmar beeswax crayons

2. White paper

3. Cardstock (construction paper or think cardboard work also work) for the covers, and a thin piece for the handle of the dwarf

4. Yarn

5. Scissors

6. Glue

Since there were three verses to the song, we decided to make three pages. First, Mommy, Joey and Wilson drew three background pages, then three foregrounds, all on white paper. We cut out the the foregrounds, then glued just the right and left edges to the backgrounds.

Next, Mommy drew two pictures of the same dwarf facing opposite directions, cut them out, then glued them together with the thin piece of cardstock in-between.

Wilson and Joey made a "twizzler" out of 4 pieces of yarn (twist two sets of two pieces in one direction, then twist them to each other in the opposite direction, tie a knot).


Mommy wrote the lyrics to the song on white paper and Joey colored them in, using colors that matched the background of the picture pages.


We drew the covers, glued the pages back to back, then punched two holes in everything along the left side.

We used heavy books stacked on top to help keep everything flat while the glue dried.

Once the pages were dry, we tied the twizzler through the holes and knotted them so that the book would open and close easily. We practiced moving the dwarf in each page while we sang and played the lyre. What fun! We definitely will make more moving picture books in the future.

Making Crayon Scribblers

Well, we've seen a lot of other people make "scribblers", so we decided that it was about time to try! The kids found a large box of old crayon pieces and got to work taking the paper labels off. We worked on this a little bit at a time over about 4 days.

A muffin tin was placed on the table, and everyone got to create their own color combinations.


We preheated the oven to 300 degrees and watched the crayons melt pretty quickly! Once they looked like they had reached a liquid state, we took the tin out of the oven, let it cool for a few minutes, then placed it in the freezer for 1/2 hour.

Our first batch came out OK...most of them broke. We realized that we might have let them melt too long and freeze too long, so we watched the next batch a little closer.


The second batch came out better and only a couple of the scribblers broke. Our third batch was perfect!


The kids had fun drawing with their scribblers (even the broken pieces!). What a fun way to reuse old crayons and make something that is beautiful and artistic.

Block Crayons

We love our wax, block crayons! Following the book Coloring with Block Crayons (and a DVD of the author), we have been exploring how to use the different parts of the crayons, and how to blend the three primary colors to make other colors.

This week, we made a circle, starting with a cloud of yellow, blue and red, and then creating the other colors of the rainbow when the colors met and blended. Wilson kept his drawing in a circle. Joey decided to bring her colors inward and create a brown center. Ricky moved his colors inward and outward to form a rounded triangle.

We keep our crayons in a beautiful case that Joey and Mommy made from naturally dyed alpaca felt. We created an e-pattern with instructions and pictures so that others can make their own! Joey embroidered a pretty leaf on the front, and added silk ribbons that we dyed with blueberries and onion skins as ties. We are also selling them as custom orders to people who request one through our Etsy shop.

Here is a poem that Mommy read while we made our rainbow circles (from A Child's Seasonal Treasury, by Betty Jones):

Rainbow Fairies

Two little clouds one spring day,

Went flying through the sky;

They went so fast they bumped their heads,

And both began to cry.

Old Father Sun came out and said:

"Oh, never mind my dears,

I'll send my little fairy folk

To dry your falling tears."

One fairy came in violet, and one in indigo;

In blue, green, yellow; orange and red,

They made a pretty row.

They wiped the cloud tears all away

And then from out the sky,

Upon a line a sunbeam made,

They hung their gowns to dry.

Leprechauns Came!

We were thrilled to see that not only was our shamrock soup eaten up today, but the leprechauns left us a thank you note! The beautiful mushroom table has begun to curl up around the edges.

We enjoyed using block wax crayons to make rainbows (using only primary colors and blending) and displayed them on the window. Wilson also played a bit o' the Irish harp for us!