Sugar Cube Igloo

I am sure there are many tutorials to be found on how to make this project. And this probably would have worked out more beautifully if I had read them. But, it was still fun, and you can tell what this is supposed to be. I hope! I started by making a batch of royal icing to use as the glue. My recipe calls for 3 egg whites, 4 cups of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of creme of tartar. Mix it until it is smooth. Easy as can be. Once I had my icing ready, I got the rest of the supplies out: a small box of sugar cubes, a knife, and I cut the side off a cardboard box and covered it with tinfoil to use as our base. I also traced a mixing bowl with the tip of a pen to leave a marking on the foil to help us make a round igloo.

We used our knives to spread a little icing on the sugar cubes, one at a time. I didn't try to put icing on the sugar cubes that were already assembled on the igloo because I thought the structure would collapse from the pressure of the spreading. I suppose you could try piping it on, but that still feels risky to me.

We followed along the outline of the circle, and left just small cracks between each sugar cube. (they can't fit tight together because the sugar is a square, and the structure is a circle). We were also careful to leave an opening for the door.

Then we added the next ring, putting the next sugar block over the gap between the ones below. We also moved our ring closer to the center of the circle so that the layers would eventually taper at the top.

To build the door, I made this arch flat against the table. Then when it was dry, I could stand it up and it didn't fall apart. I acutally made two of them, so that one could stand out from the main structure a bit.

After we had our dome shape about half way done, we decided to let it harden up a bit before we added any more. (I really didn't want it to collapse!) *tip: be sure to cover up the icing in the bowl, or it could get hard and not work for you when you come back to finish the rest!

We left it for about half an hour, and when we came back, it was nice and firm and able to support more cubes.

We came back and kept building up and up and up, trying our best to stagger the blocks over the cracks from the last layer. I propped up the entrance and we attached it with some icing.

Since we had some left over icing, we spread it all over the base so it would be white like snow.

Then inspiration hit, and we put a couple of tablespoons of icing sugar in our sieve, and we let it gently fall over the whole thing. Just like a fresh flurry!

I think it turned out really well, and it didn't take as much time as I thought it might.

The kids have all asked if we are allowed to eat it now that it is built. (I think they are remembering gingerbread houses from Christmas, where first you build it, then you sample it. Funny!)

Shake-n-Make Ice Cream

This was so much fun! First, take out a sandwich size Ziplock bag. *Tip: Use the name brand bags and don't try this with a no-name variety! If the bag bursts during the mixing, the ice cream will be ruined. Into the bag, measure 2 tablespoons of sugar,

1/4 teaspoon vanilla,

and 1 cup of milk. (The creamier the milk, the better the ice cream will be. If you have half-and-half handy, it is best)

*Tip: Add some peppermint extract, crushed up cookies, a squeeze of chocolate syrup, or small pieces of fruit to flavour your ice cream the way you like it.

Gently squeeze out the air from the bag, and seal it shut.

Then, in a large Ziplock bag, empty about two trays of ice cubes, and add 5 tablespoons of rock salt, (aka pickling salt).

Put the sealed bag with the milk into the large bag of ice. Squeeze as much air out as you can, then seal the large bag.

Shake the bag!

Keep shaking it for 5 minutes.

*Tip: You could also knead the bag in your hands, but if you do that be sure to have some mittens on.

Open up the large bag and take out the small one. Rinse the small bag under cold water from the tap to be sure no salt will get into your treat when you open it.

This is how it will look when it is ready.

Take out your spoon and enjoy!

We were eating this together, but after I'd had a few bites he asked if I would let him have all the rest "because it is just too good!" Ha!

I did this last summer when we had a few kids over and they each got to have their own bag, flavoured the way they liked, that they got to shake up and gobble down. It was a hit.

Letter of the Week - G

Day One: *We made our letter page for our refrigerator display. *We decorated the letter G with Green and Gold Glitter. (Okay, we also used red and blue glitter too) I found glitter in my local dollar store that had sprinkle tops, like a spice jar, and wow! They were so great! Much less mess than the old method of pinching some out of the pot and sprinkling it with your fingers. So great.

Here is our very sparkly letter G.

Our alphabet book this time was G is for One Gzonk. It was totally adorable and funny. And the pictures reminded me of Norman Rockwell, if he had done any silly paintings.

Day Two: G is for Goat

*We started the day by watching this video:

*We read G is for Goat, and The Three Billy Goats Gruff

*We made finger puppets for the three goats and the troll, and then we used them to retell the story. You can find the templates here. We had lots of fun with this.

Day Three: G is for Garden

*We read two books: In Aunt Giraffe's Green Garden, and Quiet in the Garden

*We learned the nursery rhyme, "Mary, Mary, Quiet Contrary."

*We coloured pictures of flowers

*We found some Sesame Street clips to watch. (is there anything they DON'T have a segment for? This is awesome!)

*We opened a package of seeds and looked at them very closely. Then we put some soil in a cup and planted them.

*We talked about the things plants need to grow, and then gave our seeds some water and set them on the windowsill to give them light.

*(since this actually all happened about two weeks ago, we now have tiny little plants shooting up! - Very exciting!)

* I had hoped that we could use this day to go out to our garden and start digging in the soil and doing a little spring gardening in the yard, but it was still way to cold and snowy. Rats!

Day Four: G is for Gorilla

*We started this day by watching two short Sesame Street video clips on Youtube.

After we watched this first one, my boy looked up at me and said, "That did NOT look like a gorilla!" Ha!

He thought this second one was much better. But he did ask if there really are green gorillas.

*We read Goodnight Gorilla

*We read Little Beauty, by Anthony Browne. It is the story of a gorilla in a zoo who learned sign language and told the zookeepers that he wanted a friend. They gave him a little kitten and the two became best friends. It was pretty cute.

*We made this craft that I found online. It was a perfect fit because on one side of the stick puppet is a happy gorilla, and the other side is a sad one, and in the book the gorilla starts out sad, and then is happy at the end.

*The last thing we did for our gorilla day was to use our stick puppets to sing, Smiles, (which I always thought was called, "If You Chance to Meet a Frown.")

After we had finished up all our gorilla activities for the day, my son asked, "Why didn't we do G is for Green?" (Gorilla day happened to land on St. Patrick's Day. And, yes, his idea would have been much easier than mine since we had lots of green for the occasion. Oh well!)

Joy School - Australia

I'm so far behind in my Joy School (and my letter-of-the-week) posts! We were having so much fun with St. Patrick's Day that I wanted to share that while you could still try it out with your families, and now my regular fun stuff is piled up! Look out for more catch-up posts!

Lesson Time: Several weeks ago, we had another very interesting lesson in our World Cultures unit. This host mom chose to showcase Australia.

*We learned about the flag, and why the flag for Great Britain is included in the flag for Australia.

*She used the globe to explain to the children why Australia is also known as, 'the land down-under.'

*We talked about the size and population, about the Sydney Opera House, and about the amazing rock formation called the Uluru.

But for me, the most interesting part of the lesson was the animals of Australia. Did you know that the Koala has two thumbs? I had never heard that before, and I know I'll never forget it.

*One more random fact that I loved. Even though Australia has many major cities, the national population of sheep is higher than that of their people. I find that completely delightful.

Art:
She had several really great books from the library that she showed us, many with pictures of aboriginal art. She pointed out how the natives in the country have made many pictures using dots rather than lines to make their images, and we looked at the neat effect that made.

Then we went to the table where she had pictures of Australian animals ready for us. She passed out little pots of paint and Q-tips, and the children got to paint their pictures by dabbing dots of paint on the page with the end of the Q-tip. My son dubbed this, "polka-dot painting." Ha! I'd used this method of painting with him before, but only if we were adding something that was meant to be a circle, (like ladybug spots). Doing it for an entire picture was new and thoroughly enjoyed.

Story Time: She had gotten a book from the library called, Stories from the Billabong that was full of traditional myths and legends from the native people. One that she read was all about a beautiful butterfly who went up too high on a mountain and had her colours washed off from the snow. But her colours landed on all the flowers and beautified the mountain. She was afraid to go home to her husband, (since she had lost all her beauty) but when he saw her, (devoid of all her spender) he told her that her gift to the flowers was the most beautiful thing she could have done and that he would always love her for it. Quite a nice little love story, actually.

Snack Time: She followed up the story with snack, and she had made sugar cookies in the shapes of butterflies and spring flowers. She decorated them with colourful icing, tying it further in with the book.

They were very yummy. I am pretty sure I had three!

Video Clips: She had several great videos on Australia's unique animals that we watched in pieces throughout the morning. There was one on Koalas, on echidnas, Kangaroos, and the last one we watched was about platypuses. (Did you know that the male platypus is the only poisonous mammal? It is true.) All the videos were really cool, and I was amazed by what different and strange animals live in Australia that are nothing like anything else found anywhere else in the world.

Craft Time:

The last thing we did that day was this cute little platypus puppet. She had printed out the bill and the flippers and the kids got to colour them and glue them on, then they added some googly eyes and it was done. So cute!

Thanks for the great Joy School day!

Letter of the Week - F

I never realized how many great things start with this week's letter. I had to choose only three themes for the week, and leave behind the other fun ideas swimming around in my head. (I saved them on my computer for future reference!)

This week was the letter F.

Day One:
We made our letter for the book, and decorated it with Feathers.

This week's alphabet book was Alphabeasts by Wallace Edwards. I LOVED this book. The illustrations are just amazing. Amazingly amazing.

Day Two: F is for Farms

*We read Barnyard Boogie, The Little Red Hen, and Rooster's Off To See The World

*We did the chicken dance - Oh this was so much fun! I did this part after my big kids were home from school, and they joined right in. They were all laughing, and my toddler ran right over to us and started doing his very best to follow along. Ha!

*We made haystack cookies

*We played a guessing game, where I held a picture of a farm animal behind my back, and gave clues until he could guess it correctly. Then he had a turn to hide a picture from me until I could guess based on his clues. Good game.

*We played Fill The Barn

*We made this hand print sheep. (trace hand on black construction paper, cut it out, glue on cotton balls and add a face. Voila!)

*Sang Old MacDonald Had a Farm, I Went To Visit The Farm One Day, and Down On Grandpa's Farm.

Day Three: F is for Frogs

*We sang a couple of froggy songs with these stick-puppets: Mm-mm Went the Little Green Frog, and Five Green Speckled Frogs.

*We read Curious George: Tadpole Trouble, Foo The Flying Frog of Washtub Pond, and two Mercer Mayer books: A Boy, A Dog, and A Frog, and Frog Where Are You,

*I got this great colouring page that had the life cycle of a frog and we went over the transitions that a tadpole makes to become a fully grown froggy.

*We played an online game for preschoolers (here) and then set out pillows (lily pads) to make a real life version of it where we (the frogs) had to make it across the playroom (the pond).

* We played our Catch the Frogs game



*We watched two Youtube clips. One was It's Not Easy Being Green with Kermit the Frog, and this BNL music video - which my kids loved!

Day Four: F is for Fish

* We played Go Fish

*We read McElligot's Pool, Fish Out of Water, and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.

*We made this hand print fishy

*We played a magnetic fishing game

*We ate Goldfish crackers for a snack.

*We had some leftover ShrinkyDinks after the Tiny Party and we had fun with the fishy ones.

And that was the end of our Letter F. I just had such fun with this letter!

Put The Animals In The Barn

Time for another hand-me-down game. (I love hand-me-downs!)

This one is to strengthen both reading and numeracy skills.

It has a very simple game board with some spaces blank, some have a picture of an animal, and some have written instructions like, "go to the cow space" or "lose a turn." Also included in the game are small cut out pictures of farm animals. The players take turns rolling the dice, counting the spaces, and move forwards, (or backwards if they choose) to try to land on all the animals.

When you land on a space with a picture of an animal, you get to pick up one of the cut outs, and put it on your barn card, reading to find the appropriate 'stall.'

The first player to fill their barn wins.

I was a little surprised by how big of a hit this one was. He loved it. Just plain old loved it. We played it several times, one right after the other, and we only stopped because it was time to get the bigger kids from school. And even then I had to reassure him we'd play it again another day.

If you wanted to make your own version of this, it wouldn't be too hard. You could even change it up a bit and instead of a barnyard, maybe you'd have to collect different kinds of flowers, or butterflies, or dinosaur bones, and then assemble a bouquet, or a collection frame, or a fossil exhibit.