Monday Makery - Solar System Mobile

Recycling cardboard is great, being a little creative with it first is even better! A lot of painting is done in both the sisters house's of Sisters Guild. Whilst we do try to hang them all, our walls are all too often left struggling for space for the childrens daily creativity. So I thought we could extend the art displays to hanging art from the ceiling and perhaps combine it with a little smidgen of learning.
This mobile is great and Sophia loved every part of creating it, from finding different sized circular based objects to draw around, discovering the different sizes and colours of each planet, sprinkling the universe with glitter and finally hanging it above her bed where she can truly star gaze as she falls asleep.
This mobile is easy to create, easy to assemble and all the things you'll need are easy to come by if you don't have them already.

You'll need:

• Cardboard; I used a thick strong cardboard box for the base and cereal boxes for the planets.
• String, thread or wool.
• crayons, paint or pens
• scissors

Here's how:

1. Draw a large circle onto strong card and cut it out.
2. Mark the points where each planet will be strung from and push a pencil through each point to create small holes. Try not to make them too big as the knotted string will fall through.
3. Paint the 'universe' black and sprinkle with glitter whilst the paint is still wet to represent stars, star stickers work well too but wait til the paint has dried.
4. Using different sized circular objects; cups, saucers, bowls and lids, draw around them onto your card to create your nine planets, remember the sun too. I remember being taught a useful mnemonic at school to help me to remember the order of the planets: Many Venturous Earthmen May Journey Southwards Under Nuclear Power. I've never forgotton it, though I've heard theories since that have me all confused as to which of these actually constitute a planet! I think these are still acceptable.
5. Cut them out and get colouring, painting and making a good mess. You can find images of our solar system on the internet or the library will help. Though perhaps you could make an imaginary version colouring each one as you see fit.
6. When the paint is dry make a hole in the top of each planet by pushing a pencil through the card and thread through your string. Secure it with a knot.
7. Push the other end of the string through the holes in the disc/universe matching the right planet with their position to the sun in the middle. 
8. Finally hang you mobile where you can gaze from beneath. If your mobile is big it might hang better if you tie it up from three points around the disc.

If you want to add more things you could create a rocket zooming up to discover, or a spaceship with little aliens smiling from a window. If you have older children you could use the back of each planet to write down the name and facts about each one.

There we have it. A universe (or at least a small part of it) created by little hands.

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We have more Monday Makery craft & recipe ideas here.
For behind the scenes photos of Sisters Guild we have the gallery of the A-Z of Sisters Guild here.

Monday Makery - Easter Blossom & Bunny Bunting

I have probably said this before and those of you who have read previous Makery's will know that I love decorating for special occasions. Easter is on its way and with so many spring colours blossoming and the skies turning blue it's that beautiful time of year when we invite spring into our homes. The Easter egg hunt is probably the favourite part of Easter Sunday for the children. For me it starts a little before that. When I'm planning the hunt and making decorations for the big feast that will be our Easter lunch. We will move our big kitchen table into the garden, treats will be hidden in as many places as we can conceal them, the table will be a visual feast of spring colour and home-made decorations and of course the bunting will be hung.
As we are away for Easter we will be celebrating the weekend before so yes, I've started already! This is the first of our Easter Makeries.

 
This decorative tree is easy and feels wonderful to create your own blossom that will look simply beautiful as a centre piece. On the day we will hang treats and decorated eggs from the branches. The bunny garlands are incredibly easy too and can be hung anywhere and everywhere. Sophia has asked to hang some in her room too. So we're making a rainbow of bunnies to adorn her bedroom.

For the Blossom Tree you'll need:

• dry twigs - the wonkier and more crooked the better and a great excuse to head to some fields or a park.
• pot or vase 
• old newspaper
• glue stick
• paper and scissors

Here's how:

1. Arrange your twigs in a pot and use tightly screwed up pieces of newspaper to fill the surrounding space to hold them.
2. Fold over one edge of a piece of paper to give you a flap about an inch wide. Fold over again and again. This will save you all the time of having to cut the flowers individually.
3. Draw the silhouette image of flowers onto your paper and cut them out. 
4. Using your glue-stick stick the paper blossoms onto your branches.
5. I made the grass by cutting a strip of green paper and then snipping into it roughly and then used the glue-stick to stick around the inside lip of the pot.

For the Bunny Bunting you'll need:

• coloured paper
• scissors
• wool or string
• glue stick
• pencil

Here's how:

1. Draw a silhouette of your chosen image onto card and cut out.
2. Fold a piece of paper over to give you a strip wide enough for your image. Fold over again and repeat so that your paper is a series of folds on top one another in equal size.
3. Draw around your card template to create a line of figures and cut each one out.
4. Take a length of string or wool and glue each figure onto the wool and hang!

Find more Monday Makery posts here

Monday Makery - Shadow Puppets

Sessi (Sophia) was remembering on the way to school the days when the sun was shining brightly and we would walk along making shadow puppets on the wall, telling a story along the way. Last summer it became part of our morning routine on the walk to nursery. So much so we ended up having to leave 10 minutes early to allow time for our shadow stories. The sun isn't shining bright enough now for our morning tales so I thought we would make some puppets at home to make stories together that way. 

Shadow puppets are a great way to encourage story telling with children. This is especially true for children who have not yet learnt to read by themselves. Each story is limited only to the puppeteers' imagination. There are endless stories to imagine, endless puppets to make and hours of fun to be had retelling fairytale classics not to mention those brilliant and often comedic tales children like to tell quite often adding their own twist to a well known story.

It's fun to recreate the characters from a favourite book; Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, or The Gruffalo. Though it's equally if not more fun to create a random selection of creatures and people and let the children use them to conjure up a story of their own imagination.

As the puppets are so simple to make you will no doubt keep adding more and more characters to your collection and this is what makes these creations all the more wonderful.

Children who are too young to play puppeteer themselves will love the new way of having a story told and what a great introduction to theatre too. Oona who is not yet two is too young to be able to recount a story but she loves the way the shadows move. She walks around with a puppet in hand squealing with delight 'marmai' every time the mermaid shadow appears on the wall or floor.


What you'll need:

• card - pizza or cereal boxes are ideal
• scissors
• pencil
• pipe cleaners or lollipop sticks
• a spotlight or lamp with the shade removed
• an empty wall or a sheet to hang

Here's how:

• draw outlines for each character, animal or scene you want to use on your card and cut each out carefully.
• using sticky tape secure a pipe cleaner to the back of each shadow puppet to create your stick. If your character feels too heavy twist two pipe cleaners together before sticking.
• hang a sheet from the ceiling using small tacks or knot each corner of the sheet and tie string around the knots using the string to hang the theatre from more hidden corners of the room. If you chose you can project the shadows onto an empty wall. Though this may make it harder to give a sense of there being a stage and an audience. A very long sheet of greaseproof paper stretched across the room and taped to the wall either side also makes a great area for shadow puppet theatre. To make a more permanent theatre albeit a smaller one an opened cereal box with a rectangular frame cut from the front with greaseproof paper stuck inside the frame makes a fantastic portable theatre that won't need to be taken down.
• Sit your lamp or spotlight behind the sheet or paper leaving enough distance for the puppeteer to be able to stand and perform and let the show begin.

Once upon a time ..........................

................and they lived happily ever after.