before the fire of 2002, we had this.  it was d.r.e.a.m.y.

lately we’ve been seeing the children’s desires to climb and perch and hide…

we embraced it.

for a couple of weeks we used some of our tables, blankets and shelves to make a loft-type structure.

i do miss our old loft a lot, but this worked for while.

for a few years now we’ve used our big stringing beads as ornaments on a little artificial tree.  however, “little” is relative.  the top of the tree is hard for some to reach.  what an honor to witness some careful problem solving:

there were three friends actively involved in getting the orange bead off the top of the tree.  after stacking the mats, one stood and reached…

one held the mats…

one protected the tree from falling (nevermind that i think he could have reached right up to get it)…

and then the mat holder who turned out to be tall enough got the orange ornament.

you did it, friends!

 

 

 

oh, silly red paint in the ketchup bottle, you came back again!  i really must remember to do this with other types of bottles. we’ve put white paint in a milk jug, but i still need to put yellow paint in a mustard bottle and purple paint in a grape jelly bottle.

we used this ketchup paint to turn the box house red and then made prints on our ketchup bottle shaped paper.

:: :: :: :: :: ::

at circle time we passed the ketchup bottle from our family corner around.  i can’t remember the topic of conversation but i’m guessing it was something related to injury or illness (as it often is…we’re suckers for drama).

we continued our h week discussion of houses into i week with an exploration of igloos.

with white paint on a low table, the children finger hand painted (is the limit ever given to paint only with one’s fingers in finger painting?).  then we made prints on igloo shaped paper.

when the table is scratched, the prints look like the lines of an igloo.  the table is also a good place for letter writing.

we also glued white paper ice blocks on igloo paper and igloo shaped paper on big paper.  really, some days i will but almost any shape to get kids engaged.  i love the challenge.

brrrrrrrr.  i week was a cold one!

freezing water colored with food coloring = ice painting supplies!  the problem was that i couldn’t find my craft sticks, so i used wooden forks.

it worked fine.  and patience (or a little warm water) helped really make the paint flow.

p.s.  even though they LOOK like popsicles, they don’t TASTE like popsicles.