Hands on Friday

I try to make Fridays here more of a hands on type of day for school than the rest of the week. By the end of the week we are all ready for something fun, and attention spans seem noticably decreased. Here are some examples of what we do, especially on Fridays. The first pic is of pincushions Esther and Elizabeth have been making. A simple little project that helps teach good straight stitching by hand.



Here is a pic of Elizabeth tracing and cutting out a petal for an applique sunflower wall hanging we are just starting.



Esther is cutting out her fair share of petals here too. We used a few different shades of gold and yellow from scraps I had on hand.



We also did some baking today... whole wheat bread, banana bread, and chocolate chip cookies.



In our Sunflower/Van Gogh unit study, we have been looking at different pictures online that Van Gogh painted. I never realized what a short, but turbulent life he had. He did over 1500 paintings in 3 years, and only sold one! Of course now, you would have to pay in the millions to get any of his works. I found a printable black and white outline mock up of Vincent Van Gogh's "Flower Beds of Holland" for the children to color in, in similiar style as the original. Caleb was the only one finished with his today. The others are taking longer, which is fine.



This next pic wasn't part of school, but I forgot to post it earlier. It is another baby quilt made from the same fabric as the last one. I just need to make the label for it, then it will be on its way to a new home... Just the quilt. Jerusha stays here. :)



Here are some links we have been using lately for our art studies:
http://www.geocities.com/ljacoby_2000/vangogh.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gogh/
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gogh/fields/gogh.flower-beds-holland.jpg
http://www.kssos.org/images/Kansas%20Kids/glance.pdf