Fabric Flowers

Happy May Day!

At school we are studying plants. My partner and I decided to turn our Dramatic Play centers into flower shops. She has tons of fake flowers and I have none. Believe it or not... fake flowers are actually very expensive when you want to buy a bunch. Lucky for me, this weekend I came across a tutorial on how to make no sew fabric flowers... and lucky for you, I am going to share them with you!!!

These are a perfect favor for a garden bridal or baby shower, a flower for your love that isn't going to die and can be made out of cute punk rock fabric, for Mom on Mothers Day (coming very soon), for your Kindergarten class like me, to celebrate May Day (hurry you have only an hour left), or just a fun addition to your home.

Here is what you need:

• Scraps of fabric that are at least 2x16"
• pencils, wooden dowels, skewers, or really anything else you want to use as the steam. I used pencils from the 99 cent store (packs of 10).
• some scrap felt
• glue gun and extra refills
  

Cut a length of fabric at least 2x16


Put a strip of glue down on the edge of the wrong side of the fabric.



pinch and glue to the top of the pencil. I like the eracer poking out because I think it looks like the pistol of a flower... but if you don't want to see the eracer, then just start higher up on the pencil. The more you pinch the more gathered and open your flower will look. Play around with it to see the different types of flowers you can make.

cut out a piece of felt in a circle then cut the radius. (yes math term... I know it is shocking) Glue to the bottom of the flower.

Pretty!

A view from the side. You can see how the felt looks.

I made a lot of flowers! 30 to be exact. Once I got started I just couldn't stop. They are truly addicting! So super easy too. (They really do look better in person. I am just too impatient to wait for the sun to come up again to have good lighting and take a picture)
I even made one for my hair :)
Total cost: $3 for 30 flowers How do you like them apples!!!

Happy flower making!

Earth Day.... a little late

As many of you know... I am a fan of going green. So did I celebrate Earth Day? Why yes I did. At school we made recycled paper projects... and at home I chastized those who were joking "I threw my trash on the ground". Duty done. Now for the post. Late is better than never :)

So here is what we did:


You need newspaper and colored tissue paper. Give each child 1 page of the news paper and about a 6x6 piece of tissue. Have them rip up the pieces.




Put it in the blender, cover the paper with water and blend. Yum :)

Pour the pulp onto a screen and have the kids push the water out. This is actually a splatter screen for cooking.

The kids then push the pulp into cookie cutters. Yes I am using scholastic book orders to absorb the water. Hey there is no way I would be able to use all fo the book orders they send. They even send new book orders when you order books. Hello... I just ordered out of this catalog! Yet another way to be green.

This is how they turn out. Cute huh! then just let dry.

You could also do it flat like my partner did.


I think there are totally ways to do this as an adult to make recycled paper.

Fun Shaped Pancakes!

Don't fun shaped pancakes just make you smile!

My mom gave me this fun little pancake shaper thing. You probably have already guessed that she gave it to me for Valentine's day... and now months later I finally decided to use it. As I was using it I thought to myself... this is just a cookie cutter with an easy way to pick it up!
So that gave me an idea. Why not just use a cookie cutter and a pair of needle nose pliers? So I did. Now don't laugh... yes I know it is now spring and no longer fall... but I am a Kindergarten teacher and most of my cookie cutters are at work. So yes... I know it is a pumpkin, but hey, it will do the job. Be sure to spray it with non-stick spray before you begin, put it on the skillet and then pour in the batter. Remove the cookie cutter with the pliers before you flip the pancake and....
Bam!! fun shaped pancake without the need of an over priced silly device.

Smashberry Jam!

Smashberry Jam is perfect for moms to do with their kids, for you to do in your classroom, make and give as gifts, or just because it is so yummy!

After taking my Kindergarten class on a trip to a fruit and vegetable farm, we read the book Jamberry, and then made our own Smashberry Jam! It was so easy. I took three bags of frozen strawberries, but you could also use any other type of berries. I pored them into a big ziplock bag and we all sat in a circle passing the bag and smashing the berries. When it was all smushy and goopy, you add no cook pectin and sugar (I just guessed but you can read the back of the pectin package to be exact)

According to my package of no cook pectin I let it set for 30 minuets. We did a taste test at school, then I took the jam bag home and put it in a clean jam container. We had Open house at the end of the week so I put it out with some cookies for the families to try. It was so fun for everyone to try what we had made. I also had everyone place a strawberry on a graph to see if they liked it. The families had so much fun doing this yummy activity together.


It was such a hit that the families ate probably 2/3 of the jar. I took the rest home to enjoy with my husband. So far I have found that it is super yummy on pancakes!