mini mocha: September 2011

Recycled Pallet Art Easel

We have been working on this for a few weeks now, but this once disregarded pallet has finally found it's place...as an easel.

I spotted the dumped pallet getting smothered in weeds and suggested that we could make an easel out of it.
My crafty, clever husband eventually turned my visual idea into this easel and with a bit of sanding and a whitewash of paint it was completed on the weekend.

It is solid enough to use for Home School projects and displays. Many uses I suspect.

While we were sanding these old oars got a new life.

We picked these up 10 years ago for $5 at a garage sale and stained them a dark timber, but they needed lightening and I think they look quite nice.

Lemon Madeleines

Ok so I don't have Madeleine trays, but these worked in the shallow patty tin today.

Remember this Face

This is the face of H this morning.
What followed was a rebellious day.
I will remember this face.

The Cell - by H

I am always talking about the cells in our bodies and H decided this is what he thinks they look like.
He named it too!This one is speedy, hence the speed lines.

Fishing for Herring

The boys went fishing and H caught a Herring.
Not my favourite fish to eat (the dog didn't even want to eat it!) but H ate it!?

Activity Day - September

On friday we participated in Drama, Visual Art, Music and Sport.

Science Discovery Party - Sneek Peek

This year after much brainstorming, we have agreed on a Science and Discovery party for J's 8th Birthday.

The theme will have a slight vintage feel (that was my input), with lots of old fashioned science fun and experiments.

I did some ink drawings and used Photoshop to print the invite on card.
There will be other components to the invite, but this is a sneek peek.

(this cipher wheel is available for printing at CSIRO)

Looking forward to it!!!

See part 2 here.

Word Association

How to get the best smile from H...

Smile for the camera? (nope)

Party? (not too bad)

sushi? (pretty good)

Pasta? (yep that is it for today)

Engineering Plans Origami Cube

I love making these little origami cubes (the instructions are all over the web and in many books from the library) but today I decided to try recycling these discarded construction plans and make a giant cube...

There is something about architectural plans and engineering drawings that I am drawn to. I think it is the black/white, clean lines and geometry.

The little cubes are very addictive!

I could see them hung as a mobile in masses.

Working on Fish Watercolours

Snapper

Ok, not happy with this, but I am hoping one day I may look back on it and see an improvement.

We were lucky enough to visit a Volunteer Fire Station today, where we had the whole place to ourselves. A guided tour by a very kind man (volunteer!!) of the trucks, equipment and uniforms...

Yes the siren is VERY loud up close.

Science this Week

The experiments this week included some chemistry,a fun, basic introduction...

(Prof H with magnifying glass)

Introducing atoms, the Periodic Table and searching for elements in things around the house, such as silver, gold, nickel and magnetic iron.
We looked at water and how it changes from liquid to gas and liquid to solid ice and how the molecules in water move faster when water is heated.
We tested items around the house to see how they acidic they were using the PH scale and paper in our chemistry set...

Used filter paper to separate the solids and liquids from a mixture of sand/iron powder and water.

Then we saw how detergent molecules cause pepper to race across a bowl of water.
Finally we made a mixture of baking powder and water in two glasses which were joined by string and waited to see the crystals form.

The chemistry set has lots of experiments to do, however there are so many great websites to get ideas from, now I just have to sit and work through the list of things to do!

Spring Sailing and Play

We were using Cuttlefish shells as boats at the beach the other day, which made us think about making some boats and having a race. It has been such lovely weather the past few days.

H made his boat with no hull and a flag like sail. J had a hull and a pirate style sail.
Both were made out of milk containers and had clay in the bottom to hold up the sails.
We discussed which one we thought would go further in the conditions and why we thought so.
Then when we finished we discussed the results and how we could improve the boat designs for next time.

As it turns out J's went further in the slight breeze and H's travelled along the rock edge before it was sunk by a wave from a passing boat.
We retrieved the boats using a fishing rod (not wanting to litter our clean waters), although there were plenty of passing crafts that could have fished them out for us if we needed a hand.
Next time we will try different designs and different weather conditions.