March 4th 2015 - Family Learning course
Today is Wednesday which means I am back school for the family learning course. Today the children didn't come and join us as OFSTED are in the school and its not fair to disrupte the classes more than they already are.
Once we were all there in the library and everyone had their coffee and biscuits, Ruth explained to us that the children wouldn't be joining us and why. She then told us that we were all going to do some creative writing and write our own story. She gave us some pictures of doors as the promt for where our story would go and the starting line of the story. I chose this door (very strange that I found the exact one on pinterest! Fate is what I call it). And I proceeded to write my story. (see below for my full story.)
After we did these we talked about nouns, pronouns, verbs and adverbs and played a few simple games linked to them. One of the games was a version of consequences where we each wrote one word, folded the paper and passed to the next person to add the next bit. Most of them didn't make much sense. We then had to used the categories to make a 4 word sentence but had to use alliteration where each word started with the same letter. I wrote 2 they were "many monkeys marched madly" and "small shapes sang slowly."
We then did a worksheet linked to the above, on it was a few short sentences that we had to make more interesting by adding nouns, verbs etc. One of the original sentences was "The fox had a tail", edited I made mine "The fierce red fox had a long fluffy tail".
OFSTED came into where we working and asked if they could join us for a few minutes, alot of the parents on course suddenly had "the don't come near me" or "you cant see me" image and stance. I personally had nothing to hide to so answered the questions one of them asked me and showed my folder of work that we have done over the weeks to the other to look at. Whilst they looking at my work they are not making notes on what we're doing nor are they asking questions!
It was a shame that the children were not able to join us today but we did get alot of work done. The work the children were meant to do has been sent home with us for them to complete if they want to - mine WILL be doing it as they wanted me to go on this course to help THEM.
Next week we have a lady fro Dove Cottage (William Wordsworths house) coming to talk to us and apparently this does involve us dressing up etc, so should be fun.
My Story written in 20minutes today:
(First line given to us) I stood silently, looking at the door. With a slow creaking sound it opened. Taking a deep breath I walked inside..... Having slowly climbed the eight stone steps I had no idea what I was about to face. I fully opened my eyes to see where I was and where this door had taken me. To my supprise it was a magical land in all shades of purple.
The flowers wer all purple and of every variety you can think of, the leaves on the trees seemed to change from purple to silver as they caught in the sunlight. It was beautiful and a sight you would never forget.
There was a path off to the right which I followed, and after walking for a few minutes a sign appeared infront of me and it read "This place is whatever you wish it to be, it wont be the same for anyone." And with that it vanished. I kept walking and could see a sparkling pool of water, this intrigued me so I went towards it. I thought it would get bigger the neared I got but it stayed the same size. I looked into it but couldn't see anything, this wasn't normal water! I leaned abit further to see more closely and as I did I was pulled into it, but I wasn't wet as I expected.
All around me was swirls of purple and as I started to spin panic took over. I wanted to get out of here and back to the flowers. Before I knew it I was stood back beside the now closed door and the sea of purple flowers was infront of me. This sure was a strange place, i'm not sure if its real or just my imagination.
Wednesday, 4 March 2015
Tuesday, 3 March 2015
March 3rd 2015 - Making a clown wig
March 3rd 2015 - Making a clown wig
Yesterday lil man came home from school with a party invite for one of the lil girls in his class next friday. The theme is circus and fancy dress is optional - well in my house that means "mum i'm dressing up what are you making me?"
Lil man said he wants to go as a clown and he will wear his blue onesie with green and blue stars on it, but he also needs a hat/wig/coloured hair. Well i'm not dying a 5yr olds hair as it would be my luck it wouldn't wash out and he would be going to school like it the following week.
So I started looking on pinterest and found this wool wig, which gave me the idea to make him something similar but in the same way I made the lion the other year. The lion was made with a yellow hat and strands of brown/cream wool, which I attached in a latch hook rug type of way.
This morning I hit £1 shop and bought the following things:
4 balls of wool and a green wooly hat.
That was the easy part. I have cut a load of short strands that will go around the front of the hat and a load of longer ones for the sides and back.
I will add more pics as I progress with it.
EDIT
The wig so far:
Still no where near finished but lil man wanted to try it on, and is really pleased with it. will add more rows tomorrow, so glad I have over a week as 2.5 rows done and my finger is killing me from threading needle.
This is it almost finished, it took me over a week to do it.
Yesterday lil man came home from school with a party invite for one of the lil girls in his class next friday. The theme is circus and fancy dress is optional - well in my house that means "mum i'm dressing up what are you making me?"
Lil man said he wants to go as a clown and he will wear his blue onesie with green and blue stars on it, but he also needs a hat/wig/coloured hair. Well i'm not dying a 5yr olds hair as it would be my luck it wouldn't wash out and he would be going to school like it the following week.
So I started looking on pinterest and found this wool wig, which gave me the idea to make him something similar but in the same way I made the lion the other year. The lion was made with a yellow hat and strands of brown/cream wool, which I attached in a latch hook rug type of way.
This morning I hit £1 shop and bought the following things:
That was the easy part. I have cut a load of short strands that will go around the front of the hat and a load of longer ones for the sides and back.
I will add more pics as I progress with it.
EDIT
The wig so far:
So glad I have over a week to get this done as my finger is getting sore from threding the needle. I cant do it as latch hook as I can't find the metal hook and the plastic loom ones are too big to get through the wool. The wig above has 1 full row of wool and a part row of the 2nd.
Finally finished the wig, it took ages, but lil man is so pleased with it, and I think it looks really good. Knowing what I know now, I would have done 1 piece of wool per 2 "rows of knitted hat" not 1 in every row as it would have used less wool and taken less time to do. But we learn from trying.
Monday, 2 March 2015
March 2nd 2015 - Raised Planter
March 2nd 2015 - Raised Planter
If you have been reading any of my past posts you will be aware that my youngest son has taken a liking to gardening and wanting to grow his own plants, fruit and veg.
Well this morning in between rain, snow and hail and sunshine (yes its march and snowing but its typical UK weather), me and hubby went outside and made a raised planter, similar to the pinterest one. However we have used decking squares to make it. We had planned on using these to make the decking but I have since changed my mind as they have big gaps between the slats and went a funny colour in the rain. But they will be fine for the planter and I even plan on using them to make more planters for my flowers along the garden fence.
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Really pleased with how its turned out, need to wait for the weather to sort itself out before we move it over to beside the fence, but we need place the membrane down on the ground as its going ontop of a patch of very patchy grass that didn't take to well. Then I read that if you put cardboard down again it stops/kills weeds but will disintergrate once its gets soil and moisture on it and it works as a compost. On top of the cardboard I am going to place my wood chip that is in front garden as it has turned mulchy and yucky, so the front will be replaced with stones when I get round to it.
If you have been reading any of my past posts you will be aware that my youngest son has taken a liking to gardening and wanting to grow his own plants, fruit and veg.
Well this morning in between rain, snow and hail and sunshine (yes its march and snowing but its typical UK weather), me and hubby went outside and made a raised planter, similar to the pinterest one. However we have used decking squares to make it. We had planned on using these to make the decking but I have since changed my mind as they have big gaps between the slats and went a funny colour in the rain. But they will be fine for the planter and I even plan on using them to make more planters for my flowers along the garden fence.
Really pleased with how its turned out, need to wait for the weather to sort itself out before we move it over to beside the fence, but we need place the membrane down on the ground as its going ontop of a patch of very patchy grass that didn't take to well. Then I read that if you put cardboard down again it stops/kills weeds but will disintergrate once its gets soil and moisture on it and it works as a compost. On top of the cardboard I am going to place my wood chip that is in front garden as it has turned mulchy and yucky, so the front will be replaced with stones when I get round to it.
Sunday, 1 March 2015
March 1st 2015 - Happy St Davids day
March 1st 2015 - Happy St Davids day
Today is St Davids day for Wales. I have a few friends who are Welsh, live in Wales currently or used to live in Wales.
I had hoped that my Daffoldils in the garden would be in bloom for today so that I could bring them in but this is what they look like:
These ones were not any that I had planted but some that came up after we cleared all the garden of weeds of rubbish. I also have about 6 stems that have come up inside the compost bin, again where we just cleared the garden and they have pushed through. Once the garden is properly sorted I do plan on planting some more Daffodils - I think in pots in the front near my bench would look nice.
I will buy some bulbs when I go shopping, even though they probably wont grown until next year.
I have also successfully compleated 2months of the pin a day challenge, i'm really pleased as wasnt sure if I could do it.
Today is St Davids day for Wales. I have a few friends who are Welsh, live in Wales currently or used to live in Wales.
I had hoped that my Daffoldils in the garden would be in bloom for today so that I could bring them in but this is what they look like:
These ones were not any that I had planted but some that came up after we cleared all the garden of weeds of rubbish. I also have about 6 stems that have come up inside the compost bin, again where we just cleared the garden and they have pushed through. Once the garden is properly sorted I do plan on planting some more Daffodils - I think in pots in the front near my bench would look nice.
I will buy some bulbs when I go shopping, even though they probably wont grown until next year.
I have also successfully compleated 2months of the pin a day challenge, i'm really pleased as wasnt sure if I could do it.
Saturday, 28 February 2015
February 28th 2015 - Painting the spell book
February 28th 2015 - Painting the spell book
Today I am going to give the spell book its 1st coat of paint. As I don't have enough purple acrylic I am going to do the first coat in a pale pink (mixed with silver) to make sure I have enough, this paint also has a sparkle to it.
I found a pin on pinterest about using acrylic paint to paint book covers with. I planned to use this paint anyway as its stronger than kids poster paints. I am also thinking about varnish or pva glue to protect it.
Here is the book after its pink coat of paint:
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I think its starting to come along quite nicely.
Today I am going to give the spell book its 1st coat of paint. As I don't have enough purple acrylic I am going to do the first coat in a pale pink (mixed with silver) to make sure I have enough, this paint also has a sparkle to it.
I found a pin on pinterest about using acrylic paint to paint book covers with. I planned to use this paint anyway as its stronger than kids poster paints. I am also thinking about varnish or pva glue to protect it.
Here is the book after its pink coat of paint:
I think its starting to come along quite nicely.
Friday, 27 February 2015
February 27th 2015 - Making a viking tunic
February 27th 2015 - Making a viking tunic
Following on from yesterdays post about making a viking shield (which is almost complete, just needs the front bit glueing onto it with hot glue). I have set about making the viking tunic. I got the idea from this pin which came from Where's my Glow blog.
As I said yesterday I bought a toilet and bath mat set for £3.99 to use as the base to make his tunic/ wasitcoat. They are a great idea as they are brown and fluffy like fur.
I started by marking a line down the middle of the toilet mat on the back. From the toilet mat I stitched the small top bit to one corner of the bath mat (I turned it the other way to the photo). I then made my son hold it all whilst I worked out where the arm hole needed to be to, marked it on the inside with pen and took it off him. I sewed up the side to where I had marked and tried it on him again. It fitted ok. I went to start the other side only to realise that the top is narrower than the bottom, so I had to cut on my line to make it into 2 pieces and then stitched the other small top piece to the bath mat - it was just over half way so I had to cut it. I then stitched the side and left the arm hole. This side was much harder to sew as it didnt have the nice bound edge, so I stitched it twice to make sure it holds.
This is what it looks like:
We are slowly getting there as a viking!
Following on from yesterdays post about making a viking shield (which is almost complete, just needs the front bit glueing onto it with hot glue). I have set about making the viking tunic. I got the idea from this pin which came from Where's my Glow blog.
As I said yesterday I bought a toilet and bath mat set for £3.99 to use as the base to make his tunic/ wasitcoat. They are a great idea as they are brown and fluffy like fur.
I started by marking a line down the middle of the toilet mat on the back. From the toilet mat I stitched the small top bit to one corner of the bath mat (I turned it the other way to the photo). I then made my son hold it all whilst I worked out where the arm hole needed to be to, marked it on the inside with pen and took it off him. I sewed up the side to where I had marked and tried it on him again. It fitted ok. I went to start the other side only to realise that the top is narrower than the bottom, so I had to cut on my line to make it into 2 pieces and then stitched the other small top piece to the bath mat - it was just over half way so I had to cut it. I then stitched the side and left the arm hole. This side was much harder to sew as it didnt have the nice bound edge, so I stitched it twice to make sure it holds.
This is what it looks like:
Thursday, 26 February 2015
February 26th 2015 - Making a viking shield
Februatu 26th 2015 - making a viking shield
Next Thursday (5th march) is world book day. Yesterday on our family learning at the school we were talking about books (its a literacy course after all) and world book day came up and how the school doesnt do dress up for it etc, the teacher who is sat in on the sessions said that as the school iss doing a big push on reading at the moment they ARE allowing the kids to dress up as a book character this year.
I spoke to my sons when we got home about it, neither had a letter (we were told they would be going out in day or so), and asked what they want to go as. You name it and i'm pretty sure in 1 of the 3 boys cupboards, the box of dressing up "bits" (hats/masks/gloves and extras) or the halloween box in the loft we have most things or can at least make something from a combination of. My youngest said he is going in his thomas the tank outfit (like a onesie but is a full thomas suit not just a picture of him) and will take 1 of his thomas books. Brilliant I don't have to do anything there. Asked my middle son what he wants to go as hoping he says something we have etc and he goes upstairs to his books, comes back down and says "I want to go as a viking!" ME - "errrr it has to be a character from a book, you have no viking books", Son replies "I do, my how to train your dragon books have vikings in, can I go as Hiccup and take my toothless pillow?" Well that shut me up didn't it, nothing like a smarta** kid and his comments. lol.
Well I started hunting the net for "proper" outfits and I am not paying the price that they are - £7.99 upwards, i'm not paying that much for one! So I did my usual and hit pinterest in the hope of finding a "how to make a viking outfit". I found a few including a really good tutorial on making a "furry" waistcoat" from a bath and toilet mat! I went to town today and bought a bath and toilet mat set in brown for £3.99, but this will be tomorrows pin as I need to meansure son before I start cutting and sewing.
Todays pin is how to make a viking shield. This picture is taken from google and is Hiccups orriginal shield from when he was younger (about the same age as my son is), in the later films he has a dragon it, this is the design I will be painting onto our shield. There is also this pin that shows you how to make a shield in general.
I have cut out the curcle and have the duck tape to go round the edge, I have covered a small plastic pot in duck tape to make the silver bit in the middle of the shield - i'm going to hot glue gun this on once its painted, I also have a piece of cardboard that will be glued or duck taped to the back to make the handle.
Next Thursday (5th march) is world book day. Yesterday on our family learning at the school we were talking about books (its a literacy course after all) and world book day came up and how the school doesnt do dress up for it etc, the teacher who is sat in on the sessions said that as the school iss doing a big push on reading at the moment they ARE allowing the kids to dress up as a book character this year.
I spoke to my sons when we got home about it, neither had a letter (we were told they would be going out in day or so), and asked what they want to go as. You name it and i'm pretty sure in 1 of the 3 boys cupboards, the box of dressing up "bits" (hats/masks/gloves and extras) or the halloween box in the loft we have most things or can at least make something from a combination of. My youngest said he is going in his thomas the tank outfit (like a onesie but is a full thomas suit not just a picture of him) and will take 1 of his thomas books. Brilliant I don't have to do anything there. Asked my middle son what he wants to go as hoping he says something we have etc and he goes upstairs to his books, comes back down and says "I want to go as a viking!" ME - "errrr it has to be a character from a book, you have no viking books", Son replies "I do, my how to train your dragon books have vikings in, can I go as Hiccup and take my toothless pillow?" Well that shut me up didn't it, nothing like a smarta** kid and his comments. lol.
Well I started hunting the net for "proper" outfits and I am not paying the price that they are - £7.99 upwards, i'm not paying that much for one! So I did my usual and hit pinterest in the hope of finding a "how to make a viking outfit". I found a few including a really good tutorial on making a "furry" waistcoat" from a bath and toilet mat! I went to town today and bought a bath and toilet mat set in brown for £3.99, but this will be tomorrows pin as I need to meansure son before I start cutting and sewing.
Todays pin is how to make a viking shield. This picture is taken from google and is Hiccups orriginal shield from when he was younger (about the same age as my son is), in the later films he has a dragon it, this is the design I will be painting onto our shield. There is also this pin that shows you how to make a shield in general.
I have cut out the curcle and have the duck tape to go round the edge, I have covered a small plastic pot in duck tape to make the silver bit in the middle of the shield - i'm going to hot glue gun this on once its painted, I also have a piece of cardboard that will be glued or duck taped to the back to make the handle.
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