Art Week! Cornstarch Goop.

Last week was Art Week! But I was sick, and then the Shark was sick, so we've been a little slow posting. But what better thing to do when you're sick (rather than run around all over the place)?

Several of the projects we did are from this book, called First Art:



This book has a lot of fun things to do for younger kiddos, ages 2-5. However, there are a lot of things that older kids would enjoy, too. For example:

I made this cornstarch "goop" for the Shark. He refused to touch it (to be fair, he had a terrible nap). However, I enjoyed it immensely. It is alternately solid and liquid—think mercury, but without the poisoning. While I won't be posting recipes from the book here (really, you should get the book), I will tell you that it's made of just cornstarch and water. Use about twice as much cornstarch as water, and go from there.

Here's a great youtube video that shows the goop in action:

Seriously - I couldn't stop playing with it. Just DON'T POUR IT DOWN THE DRAIN.

Art Week: Crayons and Water

This is an easy project for little ones. Have them color on construction paper with a crayon that is the same color as the construction paper. Red paper + red crayon, black paper + black crayon. We used black crayon.

You want them to color really hard, so it might work better for them to color on the floor so they can use their big arm muscles.

Then, spray the paper with water and watch the colors change.

Little ones like to spray water (and the color-changing action is pretty cool, too).

Butterfly Conservatory: Texas Discovery Gardens

We went to the butterfly conservatory here in Dallas, also known as the Texas Discovery Gardens.
It was great!

See the brown butterfly? Sorry that I don't have a totally awesome zoom lens. YET.

We arrived just in time to see a butterfly release!!

 They had two big laundry hampers (maybe they were fancy butterfly transportation devices?) full of butterflies.

So pretty! Can you see the red & black butterfly below? It's called a Small Postman. I am not making that up.

And my baby's chunky hand as he tries to grab it? (No butterflies were harmed.) He loved watching the butterflies fly around.

It was a beautiful place, but it was SO STINKING HOT. Apparently butterflies like warmth. And humidity. And it was 95 degrees outside. And even hotter inside the conservatory.

Perfect for butterflies, if a bit warm for us. It would be lovely and tropical in the winter, I think.

The Shark ADORED it. He wanted to stay and run about wildly on all the levels and bridges. Sadly, he had to behave, and was not allowed to run about like a monkey.

 

The gift shop at the Texas Discovery Garden is AWESOME for butterfly and bug stuff. We didn't get anything there, because the kids were melting down and my husband was just melting. But it had every possible butterfly-related item you could think of, including a zillion different sticker books for $1.50. You can pop in the gift shop without paying admission, if you need to stock up or something.

We recommend the garden, though, and will probably come back another time! In the winter, that is. 

Egg Carton Caterpillars; Or, What's That Smell?

We made egg carton caterpillars. I realize this craft is kind of a gimme, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it!

What you should do, however, is make sure your egg cartons are scrupulously clean.

Otherwise, you'll be saying, "What's that smell? Was that you? Honey...!?!" And you'll make a face like this:

 
And then you'll realize it's rotten egg stuff that got on your fancy egg carton and you'll throw the caterpillars away after the Shark goes to bed.

Butterfly hunt at the Arboretum

We took a picnic to the Dallas Arboretum today and went on a butterfly hunt. 

We saw small white butterflies, and a big black and yellow butterfly. I don't know what kinds of butterflies they were, but we have two butterfly events this weekend where we should learn that sort of thing.

Aren't you glad I didn't include an animated gif of a butterfly right here? Yeah, me too.

 

 These are celery sticks with peanut butter. They don't look like much now, but just you wait.

 

This is cheese. They were sampling it at Central Market last night, and it was really good, so I used it to make the sandwiches. I thought you would want to know.

 

Can you see the butterfly in this picture? It's right next to the...

no...

never mind, I can't see it either. 

 

Our Arboretum is beautiful. I took a picture of this, because I didn't get any pictures of butterflies. Butterflies are fast. By the time you pull your phone out of your pocket, and slide to unlock, and put in your four digit lock code... yeah, that butterfly is outta there.

Butterfly Memory Game Cards

The Shark loves to play matching games, so I downloaded this butterfly memory game for our butterfly week. Click on the picture to get all three pages of cards from prekinders.com

My printer decided it wasn't going to print on cardstock today, so I printed them on white paper. I was worried the paper wouldn't stand up to my 2.5 yr old, so I used spray adhesive (because it was readily accessible, that's why) to mount the cards onto pretty cardstock. I have a drawer full of pretty papers, and look! This one has butterflies!

Extra credit: have white cardstock on hand. Print cool butterfly-themed pattern on the back of the cards so that you don't have to go the spray-adhesive route.

This is a lot of butterflies. The Shark likes finding the matches; he isn't quite up to the memory game with this many cards. We play with 8-12 cards for best results.

I was going to put the cards in a ziploc bag, but I found this balsa wood container in the paper drawer. It closes with the string and button. It had a price tag on the back that said $2.99, so I guess it wasn't expensive. It's pretty, though, and will keep the cards together.