Game Time!

June 26, 2014February 14, 2016 | Allison

We were having fun the other day with a little game I made up. You basically try to get the other person to draw exactly the picture you drew, but by only describing it in words. There’s an example of the game below. You can try playing it too, and compare your finished drawing to the picture farther down the page.

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I drew a simple picture for Megan, then I described it in steps for her.

“Draw a small circle in the middle of the paper.

Then draw a half-circle below that circle. Make sure that it’s touching the circle and the bottom of the page.

Inside the half-circle, draw 8 small circles.

In the middle of the circle that you drew at the beginning, draw a small triangle with the point facing down.

Above the triangle, draw two dots, spaced apart.

Coming out from the top of the circle, make three squiggly lines.

On top of each line, draw a small circle.

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Now compare mine and Megan’s:

Mine:

Megan’s:

I guess I should have told her to draw an arch instead of a half-circle, huh? Anyway it’s fun to see how they turn out. Sometimes they’re practically the same, and sometimes they’re totally different. Oh, and there are a couple of rules for this game. Of course, you can make up your own version, but I think it works best if you use these rules:

1. No questions- if somebody says,”Draw a triangle,” you can’t ask the size, its position, etc. It’s up to the person telling you how to draw it to give you the details.

2. You’re not allowed to look at anybody else’s paper until the end of the game.

3. You can’t erase anything-make sure the person who’s giving you instructions is finished before you draw!

4. If you’re going to draw, say, a window, you can’t just say, “Draw a window,” you have to say something like, “Draw a square with a plus sign inside it.”

So there you have it! I hope you enjoy playing this game. We’ve also found a website that has lots of fun printable games like Sudoku, word searches, crossword puzzles, and mazes. You can customize most if not all of them. For instance, in the word search, you can type your own words to use in the wordsearch, change the fonts, and other good stuff. If you’re interested, here’s the link: theteacherscorner.net

Have fun!

***Allison***

I am writing this secret note almost two years later. This is the ONLY secret note I have ever done on my blog thus far! If you find it, CONGRATULATIONS! I am heartily surprised. X D !

Hidden Pictures

June 24, 2014 | Allison

We have a lot of unpainted wood in our house, and sometimes the grain of the wood makes a pattern or a picture. I took photos of some of the best “hidden pictures” for you to see. The first one is one we’ve known about for a while.

Can you find a happy piggy in this wood?

The next one can look like two things: an owl, or a cross-eyed pelican. See if you can find both.

I saved the best for last. This one has lots of detail. Can you find a bird that looks kind of like a female peacock in this picture? Once you see it, it’s hard to look the picture and not see it.

Did you find them all? If you haven’t there are answers below.

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The happy pig:

The owl:

The cross-eyed pelican:

And last but not least, the peacock: (The head’s at the top)

See if you can find hidden pictures in your house.

***Allison***

Delicious Black Raspberry Smoothies

June 19, 2014February 14, 2016 | Allison

It’s the season for black raspberries – Yum! We picked black raspberries recently, and I thought a smoothie would be a great thing to use them in. I tried it, and sure enough, it was delicious! This smoothie got rave reviews from my family, plus it’s very simple.

Here’s the recipe:

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Black Raspberry Smoothie

2 cups of black raspberries

2 cups of vanilla ice cream (approximately)

1 cup of milk

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1. Blend all ingredients together in a blender until smooth.

2. Garnish with extra black raspberries if you like.

3. Enjoy!

Notes:

If you want your smoothie to be a little thicker, add some ice cream to it. You can also try putting it in the freezer a little bit to firm it up. If you want it to be more liquid, add some milk.

Try adding a puff of whipped cream to make it look (and taste) even better!

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Oo0Oo0Oo0Oo0Oo0Oo0Oo0Oo0Oo0Oo0Oo0Oo0Oo0Oo0Oo0Oo0Oo0Oo0O

***Allison***

Fun with Ivory Soap

June 13, 2014June 5, 2015 | Allison

It’s amazing what you can do with an ordinary bar of Ivory soap. You can explode it, smash it, make it into dough, or even make — who would guess?– more soap?

The idea of exploding Ivory soap was from Pinterest, but I made up some more fun stuff to do with the puffed up soap.

The fun begins with exploding the soap. (Sorry, I don’t know why I didn’t take pictures of this, but if you search for it on Pinterest or the web, you can find lots of pictures.) Put a bar of Ivory soap on a plate covered with a paper towel. Stick it in the microwave for a couple of minutes. There’s not a certain time limit, just take it out when it stops growing.

Watch the soap through the microwave window. It is AMAZING! The soap starts exploding and pieces of puffed soap stick out of the original bar. (Argh! I really wish I got a picture of this!) Anyway, when the soap stops growing, take it out of the microwave. Be careful! It can get pretty hot. Admire it for a while it cools down. When it’s cool, go ahead and touch it. The soap looks puffy, but it’s actually pretty firm. After you’ve exploded the soap, you can stop right there and use it as you would a regular bar of soap, or you can keep going for more fun.

The next thing to do is to pound it into pieces. Spread out some sort of floor cover,(tablecloth, newspaper, etc.) take a small hammer, and pound it to smithereens!

When it is pretty much powder, you can make soap dough. To make white soap dough, add a small amount of shaving cream to the soap powder.

Mix it up with your hands. Experiment with adding more or less shaving cream. The dough is about right when you can squeeze once and it holds its shape, but crumbles when you squeeze it again.

You can make towers, balls, handprints, maybe even a sandcastle with this stuff.

If you would like to make your dough colored, add a few drops of food coloring to the shaving cream before mixing.

After you’re done playing with soap dough, you can mold the dough into pretty soaps.

You will probably need to add more shaving cream to your dough so it holds itself together better.

If anyone is messy from all this fun, no problem. Just take your newly made soap and wash up!

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I think Ivory soap explodes best if it is freshly bought from the store.

This is a great activity to do with kids, but it can get a little messy. Make sure to adequately cover your play space, and you should be fine. Have a blast!

***Allison***

Polymer Clay Jewelry

June 12, 2014June 5, 2015 | Allison

You’ve already seen that you can make cute animals from polymer clay. There are lots of other neat things you can make with it too. Such as jewelry.

The doughnuts and the camera shown here were made from polymer clay. I inserted a loop of wire into the clay before I baked it.

These are the doughnut earrings. I inserted little metal rings into those green wire loops I made. I used a needle-nose pliers to open and close the rings.

I made this necklace for my aunt for her birthday. The tiny beads are seed beads, and the bigger clear beads are just… beads. The beads are strung onto thin wire.

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And that’s it! The brand of polymer clay I use is “Craft Smart”, and it comes from Michaels. So did the beads, the earring forms, and the metal rings. All of the supplies are pretty inexpensive too. So get crafting!

***Allison***

Make A Terrarium

June 6, 2014October 28, 2015 | Allison

So, we have this salamander named Petunia as a pet,

and she lives in a 10 gallon glass tank. Since I love to make terrariums and miniature gardens, I decided to make something similar for her to live in. She now lives in a terrarium. Why make a terrarium? Terrariums are fun, inexpensive(or free!), and make lovely decorations.

Now for the do-it-yourself part. Terrariums are very customizable, but you’ll at least need: some sort of soil, a container, and some plants. Some other nice things to add are: some sort of water, (refer to the picture of Petunia in her pond)

moss,

and pretty stones.

You could also add a little house or cabin,

and what about a little clay bird to occupy the “trees”?

There are all kinds of possibilities. A desert terrarium? A rainforest one? Be creative!

A terrarium is pretty easy to take care of. You basically just have to water the plants. Moss can be harder to keep green (at least for me), but it really adds a lush atmosphere to the terrarium if you take care of it.

So there you go! Now you know how to make your own terrarium, so get out there and have some fun!

Until next time…

***Allison***

A Beautiful Hike in the Mountains

June 3, 2014June 5, 2015 | Allison

We recently went on a hike with some friends. We decided to hike the Dark Hollow Falls trail at Skyline Drive. It was beautiful. The waterfall was gorgeous, and along trail we found lots of interesting things. We kids especially loved the little creek running along the trail, and we could hardly be torn away from it to keep on the trail. Along the creek we found some mini waterfalls which were quite pretty too.

We also found flowers,

Several pretty ferns,

Teeny tiny mushrooms,

Lots of lush green moss,

And some interesting creatures such as… a millipede,

A newt (or maybe it’s a salamander?),

And a snail.

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We finally made it to the waterfall.

The little creek that we had played in earlier in the hike turned to a roaring torrent of water. The rocks around the waterfall were mossy and green. If you leaned close enough, you could feel the spray of the water on your face. We paused for some refreshment on some rocks near the waterfall.

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On the return journey, we stopped at a small pool along the trail. The kids had lots of fun wading in the (freezing) water, and skipping and throwing rocks in the pool. It was fun to see the big splashes the rocks made.

Just as everyone had finished putting their socks and shoes back on, Jeff’s water-bottle decided to go on a sea journey.

Of course, Jeff had to take off his socks and shoes again to get it. With the water bottle returned to its proper place, we resumed our hike.

Near the beginning of the trail, the kids stopped to catch salamanders and crayfish at the creek. Well, we tried to catch salamanders and crayfish, but the little sneakers kept getting away. After the hike, we had supper at our friends’ house. It was a great end to a great day.

***Allison***