America! Native American necklaces!

 

Next up, simple native American necklaces!

I found some pendants to colour (on the crayola website), which the kids took great care to do perfectly! And, then we dyed pasta in order to make our 'beads'. Threading the beads was another activity the kids loved, so this project was a winner all round!
  Add all the beads together with the pendant....Da~ Daa~

America!!! Dreamcactchers!!!

  

 This was a simple activity that really took off. The kids loved the idea of making their own dreamcatchers after watching this story (it didn't matter that it was in French)

It was relatively easy for my class (4-6 years) to complete this by themselves, although for the star, some needed help, others wanted to just do it themselves and in other case, I guided their work. it was a lot of fun!!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U79mP52Qf6Q

America! Kachina Dolls!

In Arizona, there still exists the Hopi tribe (about 10,000 people) and one of their traditions is a Kachina doll carved from wood. Children are offered these every year until they are 10 years old.

There are many different types and we thought we would get involved and make our own..  

on paper, and a head mask too!!

more paper mache!!!

...which was a lot of fun for the kids to wear!

What a fun artistic project!

America! The Flag!

 We always start the month with a flag representing the country, but it would be boring to do the same style paper activity each time.

This month, for America we got our hands and feet covered in white paint and had a lot of fun!

(NB - we were out of large sheets of white paper just that day, otherwise, we would have gone crazy with red and blue paints!!!)

Earth Day Update!

Our cuttings have grown roots and are long enough to plant!

It is important that the roots aren't too long and curled into each other, but the ivy plant is so hardy that it is difficult to make a mistake!




 We used toilet paper rolls as our planters too so there was also a sly lesson about recycling in there too. The kids found it funny more than anything else!Planting was easy and fun for the class. Of course we made a little mess, but it was great to see them getting into the spirit and pushing down on the soil, not minding the dirt at all!

MeXICo~! Piñatas!

 I started out with an awesome plan - mini piñatas all round, plus a class piñata PLUS some for our school picnic at the end of the month.

Sadly, it was all a bit much.
These were the designs for the mini piñatas, taken from a cookie cutter shape originally and enlarged. (If you have heaps of time, there are some AWESOME and yummy rainbow cake piñata recipes out there....!)

In the end, this burros design became a hanging decoration!

And with the help of these cheap downloads, all those mini burros were still put to good use!
https://happythought.co.uk/product/cinco-de-mayo-digital-scrapbooking

We continued on with these - aiming for a star shape, but unable to find party cone hats!!

There were a few questionable moments with breakages and the like, but we kept on trucking!





In total, we have made about 6 pinatas - way too many, but worth it. The class did more than their fair share of work too!

Next - the healthy snack filling¬¬!! 

It worked a treat - at our Cinco de Mayo party and at the school picnic...almost too well! Tip - Don't make the pinatas toooooo strong!!!

MeXICo~! Papelo Picado!

 This was such a simple craft and perfect for my class! Simply fold the paper into four and cut the patterns you like!

We are preparing for a Cinco de Mayo style party and these are our decorations!