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- 2 cups cornflour
- 1 cup cold water
- 4 cups boiling water
- a sprinkle of lux flakes
Put the cornflour in a bowl and mix in the cold water. Once the cornflour is mixed in well add the boiling water 1 cup at at time, mixing after each cup. Your mixture should have gone from a watery consistency to a nice thick paste. Sprinkle some lux flakes into the paste and mix till dissolved. These make the paint easier to clean up later. If your mixture didn’t thicken then try adding it to a pot and heating it up a bit more. Your water may not have been hot enough.
Quite a few weeks ago now we found ourselves with a lovely sunny day and no idea what to do with it so I took the girls outside with sidewalk chalk and this is what we got up to.
First I traced around F3’s shape on the ground using the chalk and then we dressed her and gave her hair and a face. The girls really enjoyed doing this. It didn’t take long so it held their very short attention spans and got them working together (F3 and S1). Since this pic was taken we have also done the alphabet along the footpath and drawn a zoo with cages and everything to visit on our walk around the yard. (sorry no pics of these). This would be a great activity to teach your little ones about shorter and taller if you were tracing more than 1 person and maybe even get them using a ruler to measure their height.
All Dressed In Blue has a fantastic way of colouring glue. For years I have been trying different methods to do this with disappointing results. This method looks much better. I am now thinking of making up little craft packs for children’s gift’s:
- coloured glue
- glitter
- coloured card
- stickers
- feathers
- sequins
- I would also love to get my hands on some letter paper cutters. Butterflies, stars hearts etc would be good to.
We had lots of little crayons lying around that just weren’t being used so I decided to try making some rainbow crayon discs. I have seen instructions on this a few times
We haven’t used these yet but I will try and remember to post a pic of the outcome when we do.
A few things that I learnt. Better quality crayons would give a better result I think. These crayons have an orangey/red layer on the back (the top when in the tray) which I think was from the crayons separating. It draws as orange/red though so that’s ok.
When trying to get the discs out pop the muffin tray in the freezor and they just drop out.
For anyone that wants to have a go all you need to do is pop your crayon bits in a muffin tin, pop them in the oven on a low heat untill the crayons are all melted. Leave them to cool before removing them. All very simple for the kids to do. I wanted to make a pinks one and a greens one ect but the kids were more interested in just throwing them in wherever, lol.
The Crafty Crow linked to this neat idea today. A great use for those old egg cartons and an easy enough project for the kids to do from start to finish themselves. What kid doesn’t like getting messy with paints!
Ma is white, whero is red, kakariki green,
Pango is black, pangu is too, A E I O U.
Kowhai yellow, pakaka brown, kikorangi blue,
Parakaraka is our orange, A E I O U.
Wera is hot, maku wet, makariri cold,
Ua is rain, mahana warm, A E I O U.
Tahi is one, rua is two, toru number three,
Wha is four, rima is five – 1 2 3 4 5
Ono is six, whitu is seven, waru number eight,
iwa is nine, tekau is ten – 6 7 8 9 10
Teaching ideas
- Cut pieces of card in each of the colours and attach them to ice-block sticks. As you are singing get the kids to hold up the cards. You could also do cards with numbers on them and ones with pictures for hot, wet ect.
Fun facts
- There are seven colours in the rainbow – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
- The colours are always in the same order starting with red at the top.
- You can memorise the colours by remembering the name ROY G BIV
- Rainbows are made of light, you can see them with your eyes but you can’t touch them.
- Sunlight looks white but is really made up of every colour of the rainbow.
- To see a rainbow the sun must be shining behind you and there must be water drops in the air in front of you. The sunlight shines in the water drops and makes the colours.
- The brightest rainbows are made when the water drops are large – after a rain shower or near waterfalls or waves.
Some fun things to try
- Make a rainbow using a garden hose. With the sun shining on your back spray a fine mist of water below your eye level and you’ll have made a rainbow.
- Go on a scavenger hunt collecting something for every colour of the rainbow.
- Make a rainbow collage.
- Sing the song “I can sing a rainbow”
- Have a go signing the above song. (link for a video on the words page)
- Draw a rainbow with chalk on the concrete.
- Read a story that has a rainbow in it. (Finding a book with rainbows in it could be something fun to do at the library)
- Make rainbows on the wall using a prism.
- Make up a poem about rainbows.
Red and yellow and pink and green
Purple and orange and blue
I can sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow too.
Listen with your eyes,
Listen with your ears,
and sing everything you see,
I can sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow,
sing along with me.
Red and yellow and pink and green,
Purple and orange and blue,
I can sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow too!
If you need help remembering the tune have a look here.
