Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational: February 2014

Friday, February 28, 2014

Dale Chihuly-Inspired "Glass" Sculpture

I've seen loads of melted bottle Dale Chihuly-esque art projects for kids on Pinterest that looked amazing, but this project really piqued my curiosity. My son and I HAD to try it.

If you're not familiar with Dale Chihuly, the world renowned glass artist, spend a few minutes with all the eye candy Google can locate. His works of art are almost surreal. If you don't drop a few "oohs" and "aws," I'll be shocked.

I showed my son some of Chihuly's work and we got started making our own translucent sculptures.

Our Supplies

12-gauge aluminum craft wire
Klutz Window Art paint

Paintbrush
Scissors

Needle nose pliers

Plastic sheet protectors

Cardboard

I cut down a few pieces of cardboard and slid it inside the plastic sheet protectors. This was our work surface.

Then we used the scissors to cut sections of 12-gauge wire, long enough to form an oval that would fit on the sheet protector. We twisted the wire around each other to close the loops. I used the pliers to tuck the ends under.

We made three loops. And then we bent them into random amoeba-like shapes and flattened them so that the wire touched the plastic sheet protector as much as possible.

Now came the fun part: the paint! My son and I squirted the paint heavily along the inside edge of the wire shape. NOTE: It's important that the paint touch the wire. If it goes over, that's fine; you can always trim the excess when dry.

Then we worked to add LOADS of paint to the interior of the shape. We blended colors with a paint brush, making sure the paint was thick enough to be puddling in all places.

When our shapes (his, mine, and ours) were done, we gently moved the pieces (which is why you need a hard work surface) to a place where they could dry for 24 hours.

And we waited.

The next day when my son came home from school, we were brimming over with excitement. Before we got back to our art project, we watched a video about Dale Chihuly, his studio, and the amazing works produced there.

Then he peeled the now dried painted wire forms from the sheet protectors and then embraced his inner sculpture, to shape the malleable piece into a standing form.

We shaped and reshaped. It was so fun! I placed our glass-like sculptures on the window sill where they pick up the light beautifully.

This idea came from Dick Blick Art Materials. Check out their video tutorial!

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Paper Polyhedron

This is the coolest paper craft we've ever done. Cut paper and add a little patience and a lot of determination and you've made yourself a paper polyhedron ball.

Here's what you need for this project:

10 pieces of cardstock paper

Template to print on cardstock

Scissors

If your child's cutting skills lack precision, you may need to cut the pieces from the template for them (they'll need 30 pieces). My son is eight years old and not only struggles to cut along the lines, but lacks the patience to cut 30 pieces.

So I admit, I did all the cutting.

And it took awhile.

Before my son got home from school, I played with the pieces. I'm not going to lie. It took me a little while of fiddling and a few moments of intense staring at the pieces to figure out how to assemble them.

Here are some tips to (hopefully) make this project easier for you and your child.

Start by making a star, hooking five different pieces together around one hook/joint (see the top right photo in the collage below).
Every joint will connect either three or five pieces.
When you add new pieces, you will have to tuck the new piece under existing hooks when you attach it.
The pieces are NOT flat. Each piece (when attached) billows out in the middle.
If it doesn't seem like there's a logical way to connect pieces together, look at the joint. Whenever we got stumped, we realized there were four pieces connected at the joint and another piece needed to be attached there.
The last two pieces will be awkward to attach because space is limited. You may have to bend the paper slightly.

Remember, that this is a collaborative project for you and your child. Two minds are better than one. And the project will be more fun - and less frustrating - when you work together.

My oldest son was intrigued but nervous. The more he attached, the more his confidence grew. And when we were done, he was ecstatic!

I don't blame him. The result was sure impressive!

Monday, February 24, 2014

After School Linky Party (2-24)

Welcome to the After School Linky Party!

It feels great to be back online after my vacation. Thanks to all the bloggers that linked up great ideas

and activities last week. It's such a treat to see what y'all share.

Here are some of the highlights.

DIY Number Line at Fantastic Fun and Learning

Family or Classroom Postal Service: Encourage Writing by Sending Mail at Frugal Fun 4 Boys

Newton's Laws of Motion … Simplified at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood

Color Mixing Icicles from Life with Moore Babies

Hockey Game Using Money Skills at Learning is Messy

Post-It Notes Sudoku at School Time Snippets

Watercolor Resist Silhouettes at Enchanted Homeschooling Mom

Free Printables

3 Dinosaurs: Free Shape Playdough Mats

Bible Fun for Kids: Solomon's Wisdom, Run the Race

Crystal and Co.: Kid Color Pages for St. Patrick's Day

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom: The Day the Crayons Quit Storybook Decorations for Your Family Dinner Table

Gift of Curiosity: St. Patrick's Day Printable Pack {free worksheets}

Growing in God's Grace: Bible in a Year with your Kids Week #20 FREE Activity Packet

School Time Snippets: Race to 10 Scoops Math Game

Sweet Silly Sara: Recognizing Emotions Worksheet

The Educators' Spin on It: Winter Olympic Writing Prompts and Afterschool Express: On the Hunt for Spring

The Measured Mom: Long Vowel Printables: Read 'n Stick Mats for Long a

The After School Linky is cohosted by
The Educators' Spin On It
Afterschool for Smarty Pants
Boy Mama Teacher Mama
Coffee Cups and Crayons
Little Wonders' Days
Mama Smiles
Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational
The Measured Mom
This Reading Mama
What Do We Do All Day

We would love to have you link up your School-Age Post (Ages 5 and up) about your learning week after school including Crafts, Activities, Playtime and Adventures that you are doing to enrich your children's lives after their day at school, homeschool, or on the weekend! When linking up, please take a moment to comment on at least one post linked up before yours and grab our after school button to include a link on your post or site! By linking up you're giving permission for us to share on our After School Pinterest Board or Feature on our After School Party next week! Don't forget to follow along and join our After School Enrichment Community.

Friday, February 21, 2014

DIY Mini Hockey Game

Have you been watching all the amazing Olympic hockey games our U.S. teams have played? It's awesome!

I decided that there's no better way to teach my boys about the sport, than to have them play. Of course, they don't know how to ice skate, don't have all the necessary pads, and there's no kids team here in our town. Not to be discouraged by these obstacles, I created a paper rink and plastic sticks and puck.

Our miniature hockey game was a blast!

To make the sticks and puck, I printed a page with them pictured, and traced them onto shrink film using a permanent marker. When I baked the film to shrink it, I laid a piece of parchment under AND over it, to keep the thin sticks from curling up.

The rink is made from three pieces of heavyweight cardstock, taped together.

To make the goals, I printed two homemade templates on more cardstock and with a few cuts, more than a few folds, and about four pieces of clear tape, they were ready to mount on the rink (simply use glue or tape to attach).

To download the 5-page PDF of this game from Google Drive, click here.

(Don't have shrink film? Use two spoons for sticks and a button as a puck!)

We read some amazing books to supplement our play time.

Face Off by Nick Fauchald provided simple instructions on how hockey played and the basic rules of the game.

How Hockey Works by Keltie Thomas was a fact-filled book containing information such as the history of the sport, explanation of the rules, legends, etc. My oldest son (age 8) was in heaven. He was fascinated by the rubber puck and how it was once made of two pieces, which separated during a game, half going into the goal.

Rick Maloney and Felicia Zekauskas' The Magic Hockey Stick, is a fiction book, about how Wayne Gretsky's stick lit one young girl's hockey skills on fire. It's a heart-warming story that even my preschooler loved.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

FUN FROM FOLLOWERS: Multiplication (or Addition) Practice with Battleship

I know a good idea when someone shares one. A homeschooling mom mentioned playing this game with her kids on my Facebook page. I was intrigued. She graciously agreed to write this guest post to describe it for y'all. This mom of two sons, ages 5 and 7 years old, loves to be crafty and play learning games with her boys. Her philosophy fits perfectly with my deceptively educational mission. Enjoy!

Math is not only my oldest sons’ favorite subject but he seems to have a natural ability to understand numbers. However, even with his love for numbers he likes to play games to practice his skills every now and then. Coming up with games for him are not as easy as they are for my younger son. My younger son loves to read not do math, and so I am always making games for him.

I had the idea of a strategy game floating around in my head for a bit before I came up with battleship. Of course my first instinct was to search the internet for a freebie, and I came up empty. So I figured it out on my own, with some grid paper and my label machine.

I knew I needed the grid to cover the multiplication tables 0 – 12. And the ships needed to fit nicely inside that grid. I just cut the graph paper out to match my grid needs and also a couple rows for ships. I used my label maker to name all of the ships. After gluing the grid paper down and labeling my ships I had a game board ready to be tested.

Now the fun begins.

The Objective

The purpose of battleship is to sink your opponent's ships by sending missiles to specific grid coordinates each turn.

How to Play

For this game, the grid coordinates are multiplication equations. Each player gets their own sheet of paper with the two grids (top and bottom) and the list of ships on the left. Place your ships on the top grid, ships must be placed vertical or horizontal and they may not overlap. When calling out your missile coordinates you must first read the top across and then down. You must also say the entire equation, such as “6 x 2 = 12.”

If the equation is said correctly your opponent tells you if your missile is a “hit” or “miss.” We did a few practice “calls for fire” before playing. We used an orange highlighter to mark where our ships were located on the top grid. On the bottom grid, we used blue highlighters to mark where our missiles missed and then pink to mark where our missiles had hits. On my sheet, I also used the top grid to mark the calls for fire my son said. (An extra tip I learned after the first game was to write the answers for each square on my bottom grid, just for less thinking on my part.)

The game was so much fun, my oldest son wanted to play again and my youngest wanted a turn as well. My youngest is working on subtraction not multiplication, but I knew there had to be a way. And then I realized I didn’t need to change anything, just print out two more sheets and use it for addition. That worked out wonderfully, two different levels of game play with just one game board!

We played the game almost every day for a week. However, it didn’t take him long to figure out that Mom kept placing her ships in the rows or columns he needed the most practice with. Since first making the game I have also laminated the sheet inside a file folder. Now we can use dry-erase markers and not print so many sheets of paper. I hope that you have as much fun with this game as we did and that it is helpful with practicing math skills.

Monday, February 17, 2014

After School Linky Party (2-17)

Welcome to the After School Linky Party!

Fortunately for me, but unfortunately for you, they'll be no features here from last week.

I'm making precious memories on our family get-away.

Friday, February 14, 2014

FUN FROM FOLLOWERS: Four PreK Dice Games

I'm on vacation, followers! So, in my absence, a few non-bloggers but deceptively educational moms are offering up a post or two. First up, a friend who diligently incorporates community activities, Montessori-style learning, and fun into her son's day. And without further adieu …

When my dear friend since college asked me to write a blog post for her, I was thrilled. It is so much fun to share in her enthusiasm and creative ideas for educational activities. I feel honored to participate. Coming up with an activity was easy, we diced it up.

My son, Sebastian, is in Pre K. He loves the typical little boy stuff: trains, cars, etc. But he also has an obsession for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Chicka Chicka 123. So any activity with either letters or numbers (and maybe a few skittles) has him jumping for joy.

1. Roll, Color, Count, & Write (with candy)
Our first activity was with a color and count sheet he brought home from preschool. Essentially it is 5 different circles that he had colored a different color in, with a space to write numbers. I asked him to first to pick a color, roll the dice, then count the dots, and pick out that number of skittles for that color. So if choose red and rolled a five, he had to choose five red skittles. I then asked him to write the number in the square provided. Then we went on to the next color. This was a great activity because he had to find the color, count, and write. And eat candy.

2. Dice Roll Addition
Our second activity was simple addition. For this activity we used two dice and he rolled one and I rolled one. He wrote his number and then I wrote my number. Then we added them together. He seemed to enjoy this one a lot. You can also make it more challenging by adding more dice. You can get this great free printable from Lesson Plan Diva at Teachers Pay Teachers.

3. Dice Roll Value Recognition Competition
The next activity was value recognition: greater, less, and equal. Not only is he learning what is more or less, he also is learning the symbols. Again, we used two dice: I rolled one and he rolled one. My son is very competitive, so he enjoyed the opportunity to see if he could roll a higher number than me. Then he wrote in his number and I wrote in mine.

I tried tricking him by asking him which number is greater, which is less, etc. Then, to reinforce the concept, I told him the arrows were alligators, and the alligator eats the bigger number. He liked drawing in an alligator to eat the bigger number. I also enjoyed teaching him the concept of equal. Get this great free printable from Lesson Plan Diva at Teachers Pay Teachers.

4. Draw the Dots Addition
Our last activity was on our white board. Again, it was addition, he rolled the dice and then added the numbers and then put in the correct amount of dots.

These were fun activities for us that reinforced number recognition, counting, addition, and writing. I also love to find free printables. So the next time you are looking for a fun and simple math activity, just get out your dice and roll on over to Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational. Thanks for letting me share!

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Math Mission: Find the Secret of the Circle

Want a great activity that uses materials around your home? One that teaches math vocabulary? Introduces advanced math concepts simply? And is hands-on?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, this activity is a great one for your child. My third-grade son loved it!

What you need:

A ruler and/or a tape measure

pencil

paper

calculator

string

scissors

Circular objects (we used four)

This activity teaches:

The difference between circumference (measurement AROUND the circle) and diameter (measurement THROUGH the exact center of the circle) .
That the circumference of a circle is always in the same ratio to its diameter.
How no matter the size of the circle, the diameter is always approximately 3 times smaller than the circumference.
Math vocabulary (e.g. ratio, diameter, circumference).

Skills used: measuring, translating fractions into decimals, deductive reasoning, and division.

Before my son got home from school, I raided the kitchen cabinets and grabbed a glass, bowl small plastic food storage container, and a saucer. All of these objects were round and their shape could easily be traced onto paper.

After he dropped his backpack at the door and was sufficiently nourished with a tall glass of milk and a homemade cookie, he got to work. One by one, he traced the shapes on blank pieces of paper. NOTE: all the objects I chose were small enough to trace onto standard office paper.

Next, he measured the diameter of each circle. To find the exact center, we folded the paper (making sure the edges of the circle lined up). Then he used yarn (I'd recommended a string that doesn't stretch; our yarn may have skewed some of the results slightly) to wrap around the base of each object. The yarn was the same size as the circles he'd drawn. Once it was measured, the circumference of each object recorded.

Now came the fun part, he divided the circumference by the diameter for each circle using a calculator. (This required figuring out what the decimal for 3/8, 5/8, 3/4, and 7/8 were.)

All of our answers were 3, plus a little. My son was able to deduce that no matter what the size of the circle, the ratio of the diameter to the circumference was basically the same. And THAT'S the secret of the circle!

If your measurements are precise enough, the number will be PI (3.141592635). Even with our stretchy yarn, we ended up with 3.0163, 3.2, 3.11, and 3.1304. Not bad, I'd say!

This great activity came from Math Wizardry for Kids by Margaret Kenda and Phyllis S. Williams.