Noodle Necklaces

I've discovered something about my children.  And it's not a good something.  When offered any unstructured time, their activities of choice are, shall we say, undesirable.  Hitting.  Wrestling.  Kicking.  Poking. Teasing. Yelling.  (Please tell me this is because of their age.  PLEASE?)

So I try and make sure there is very little unstructured time.

Yesterday, I relied on an oldie-but-goodie to fill their time.  Noodle Necklaces!

You'll need:

food coloring
white vinegar
ziploc bags
any type of noodles that can be strung
yarn/ribbon
twist-ties (optional)

First, put 12 drops of food coloring into a ziploc bag.  Add 2 tsp. of vinegar.  Then add about 1/2 cup of pasta.  Squish the pasta around in the bag to make sure that it's coated with the food coloring.

Then lay the pasta out on paper towels to dry.  After about 15 minutes, flip the pasta over so it dries evenly.

When it's all dry, start stringing!  Cut a length of ribbon or yarn, get going!  For an easy threader, twist a twist-tie around the end of the yarn.

Just look at my kitchen table.  You can see I was trying to keep them busy!  In addition to the noodle necklaces, they were also working with magnetic letters AND having a snack.

Here was an unexpected bonus of this activity:  I snuck some math practice in.  We worked on patterning with the noodle colors.

red, red, yellow, yellow

blue, blue, green, green, red

checking his pattern

They loved this activity, and wore their new jewelry all day!

this one loves to pose

this one needs a haircut!

**This activity came straight from the pages of Family Fun magazine!  Awesome magazine and website!**

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I am not even a little bit Irish, but I can pretend today!  I had a little adventure in cuisine this morning:  I'm trying my hand at corned beef brisket with potatoes, carrots, and onions. It got loaded into the crockpot this morning.  I love crockpot meals...it's like a little surprise waiting for you when you get home.  I'm even making some Irish Soda Bread.  I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!

I didn't do much St. Patty's Day crafting with my students this year...we have our state standardized testing this week, so I've been busy preparing them for that.  We did take a little break to make these quick Irish mobiles:

They look cute hanging from our ceiling.

The kids made rainbow paper chains:

And we added a shamrock at the bottom:

They traced a shamrock pattern on white paper and cut it out.  Then, we dipped bubble wrap in green paint and stamped it on the shamrock.  Easy, fun, and festive.

Have a great day everyone!

Freezer Paper Stencil Shirt

Last weekend, my sweet godson Kevin was christened.  I wanted to make him something special, so I decided to stencil some custom t-shirts for him.  I wanted one shirt to simply have a "k," and the other shirt to say "no. 7" since Kevin is the 7th grandchild in my family.

I found the fonts I liked, and printed out the "k" and the "no. 7" to the scale I wanted.  Then I got out the freezer paper.

Freezer paper is great for stenciling, because it irons neatly on to the shirt, and peels off easily.  More on that in a minute.

To do this, first make sure the shiny side of your freezer paper is face-down.  Slide your design under the freezer paper, and trace with a pencil.

Then, using an X-acto knife, cut out your stencil.

Remember, the back of the freezer paper is shiny.  That's the part you're going to iron to your shirt.  Warm up the iron, and put your stencil where you want it on the shirt.

Iron it down for a few seconds.  As it heats up, it becomes like a big sticker and sticks to the shirt.  Use your finger to press the edges down...that will ensure that paint doesn't get under there.  Then, put a thin towel or heavy piece of paper inside the shirt, so the paint doesn't seep through.

Next is the fun part.  Get your fabric paint, and get to work!

I only had to do one coat with this green paint...it saturated really nicely.  I did white paint on a red shirt for the "no. 7" shirt, and I needed 7 coats of the white!

When I was finished painting, I let it dry for a few minutes (not completely), and peeled the freezer paper off.

I didn't get a shot of the finished "no. 7", but here was the halfway point:

Didn't they turn out cute?  I hope Kevin loves them.  Because I love Kevin!  :)

-Crafts- Mouse Invasion!

One of my favorite daily blog reads is Thrifty Decor Chick.  If you are at all into decorating, you should do yourself a favor and check this one out.  Sarah is amazingly creative, and she describes her projects in such a simple, straightforward manner -- it makes you think anyone can do it.

A few days ago, she posted about decorating her stairs with silhouettes of mice for Halloween.  Sounds creepy, but looks adorable!

image found here

How cute is that?!?  I can barely stand it.  I immediately wanted to do it in my house, but then I remembered two things:  (1) my stairs are carpeted, and (2) I have three children under the age of 4.  There is NO WAY they would leave these things alone.  I would find ripped and crumpled mouse bodies all over my house.

But I still loved the idea, so I enlisted the help of my third graders.  Every Friday, they earn 20 minutes of "Friday Free Time."  During that time they can draw, play games, talk....whatever!  Last Friday I asked if anyone was interested in helping me decorate the room for Halloween, and nearly all 20 of them volunteered.  I let them stick the mice where ever they wanted.  It's actually pretty hilarious...I keep finding mice in the most unexpected places: on my tissue box, on my printer, behind my bookshelves.  The room looks great!

If you are interested in trying this project yourself, you can download the template here.  I just printed them out on printer paper, and then we cut them out.  If I were doing this for my home, I would probably make a template and then trace the mice on black contact paper.  Then you can cut them out and stick them wherever you like.  Enjoy!

P.S.  If you like what you see, please subscribe to my blog in a reader (button on the right side of the page) or become a follower of my blog!