A Recycled Nest...

It feels like we are living in the middle of an aviary lately. Today we saw a group of pelicans (so exciting!) an osprey, an eagle and heard so many little birds flying about! I read the book Mama Built a Little Nest by Jennifer Ward. It's a sweet rhyming book with illustrations that show examples of different types of nests and birds. This book was our inspiration for today. We dug through the recycling and garbage to create a little nest......

 We glued parts of an old lemon bag, paper bag and newspaper to a balloon

 Then, we let it dry....

Popped the balloon and found a friend to live in it... until we placed it outside...

Here are some other books about birds that we found -

A book about John James Audubon called The Boy Who Drew Birds. It has beautiful illustrations and tells such a lovely story of Audubon. There are many other books about Audubon but I found this one the easiest to digest for 4-7 year olds.
Robins, Songbirds of Spring is a sweet book all about Robins.

How to Paint a Portrait of a Bird is a very sweet little book about just what it says. It would be a lovely gift to give with a paint set and canvas.

Still Life......

My little one has been inspired to paint like crazy on this rainy day. 

So, we set up some still life subject matter to paint....

 

 The Tower

 Side note: she is excited for summer wearing a life jacket but cold.. hence the stocking cap...

Ribbit! Ribbit!

This week we have been talking about frogs! We have been listening to them sing at the nature center. We found some great books at the library to share-

In the Small, Small Pond by Denise Fleming

 Ah Ha! by Jeff Mack

It's Mine! by Leo Lionni

A Frog's Life by Ellen Lawrence

After we looked at the frogs life cycle we drew the stages and used finger prints for the tadpole and frog...

We went on a listening adventure and read It's Mine! and In the Small, Small Pond. Then, we took a look at Monet's Water Lilies for inspiration.

 Experimenting with blowing the paint with a straw to make "waves"

 A little frog with sharpie on the lily pad

After we were all done we read the book Ah Ha! This was a fun one to read because it's just two words but the meaning changes on each page as you look at the expressions on the animals faces......

A Boy and a Bear in a Boat

I just finished reading a chapter book with my son called A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton. I cannot say how much I loved this book. It was so timely to stumble upon this at the book store. I talk to my kids quite a bit about enjoying the moment and not worrying about getting to the end of whatever it is we are working on. There is so much to enjoy, learn and savor in the journey. Sometimes, if not most times, the journey is better than what is at the 'end' after all.
A Boy and a Bear in a Boat is about exactly what I have been trying to teach my kids. The story takes you through many ups and downs of the journey of the boy and bear. It is not all happy times but they learn along the way.

Nests

We have been talking a lot about nests at home lately. We have looked at who lives in them, how big they are, where they are built and read so many books. It is really an endless topic and such an interesting one to explore! With Spring beginning to show it's signs we have also been talking a lot about flowers and we have looked at some of the giant blooms that bleed off the page painted by Georgia O'Keeffe. On her own, my little one combined our topics and let part of her nest go off the page. When I asked her to tell me about her work she said It's the "big blue sky" in the background and that she was flying in her mind above the nest.

Rain, Rain.....

Rainy day art today.....

Cat Bird

Today we read a wonderfully illustrated book called Cleo the Cat by Stella Blackstone. Then we looked at Paul Klee's Cat and Bird for inspiration today.
The dark lines and simple shapes display a sweet close up of the cat's head.