Astronomy Project

I mentioned in an earlier post that Sareny finished up the year with a pretty big astronomy project. Part of it was the 3-d model of Saturn she made. She also had to make a poster about Saturn, write a paper on Saturn, and create a board game with at least 5 facts each about the earth, moon, and sun. She was really responsible with this project and worked really hard, but let's be honest here. She didn't do it alone, folks. Except for the paper--she worked on that at school and I never even saw it.

This is the poster she created. The silhouette machine really came in handy on both of these projects. We cut Saturn out of sparkly gold vinyl, and the miniature stars are cut from some glittery white paper. She was required to draw at least one of the pictures for her poster, and she decided to water colored the picture in the middle. Over all, it turned out really nice.

The real masterpiece of her collection, however, had to be her board game. This thing looks so good, you practically could have bought it at a game store. I thought we were supposed to go all out on this project, then I found out that some of her classmates were just working on their gameboards entirely at school, and I realized we had taken the board game to a whole new level. Most of the other kids did Candyland style games, but I thought we could think of something more fun to play than that and had the "brilliant" idea to style the game after the Settlers of Catan with simplified rules. The facts were all printed on the appropriately colored hexagon tile, which made it look really nice. If you look at all the detail and work this board game entailed, you can see why I later questioned the "brilliance" of the idea...

You can't see the sparkliness in the pictures, but the title, moon, stars, and her name are all cut from glittery paper. She selected pictures of the moon for the background that looked kind of like people building a settlement there.

We used round tokens for the production cards and printed off building costs cards for each player. We also took the game board and cards to get laminated so it would hold up with kids playing it.

Keith and Sareny measured, cut, and sanded all these little road and house pieces, and then Sareny and I painted them the colors she selected.

It was only after the three of us had spent most of a weekend working on these projects that Sareny mentioned her teacher had said she wanted them to look like a third grader did them, not a high schooler. That's when I said, "Uh-oh Sareny, because these look like a college student did them..." Part of the reason Sareny wanted her game to look good was because her teacher was going to keep the best couple of them for her students to play next year, and she wanted hers to be picked. After she worked so hard on it, however, she had second thoughts. Apparently her teacher recognized how much work Sareny had put into this project, because she told Sareny that it was up to her whether the teacher kept it or not. Well, we brought it home with us the last day of school, so if you're up for a game of Settlers of the Moon, stop on by. :)

It actually is really fun to play. Now we're just kind of dreading when Isaac gets this assignment in third grade, because he is already planning his game out...

3-D model of Saturn

Sareny's third grade class ended the year with a big astronomy project, and for part of it she had to pick a planet and create a 3-d model. She chose Saturn, because it starts with an 'S' like her name. She started with a nerf-like soccer ball and covered it with paper mache'. (I know that word is not punctuated correctly, but that is as close as I know how to make it.)

Keith assisted Sareny with this project, although she really did it all herself and he was there to help and offer suggestions.

While the planet was drying, she worked on Saturn's many rings and ringlets. We all learned quite a bit from this project--for instance, I previously had no idea most of the rings are actually called ringlets.

 She had the idea to watercolor the rings and then use some puffy paint to add detail.

Here she is in her class with the finished project. She worked really hard on it, but I know she had fun too because she got to paint and do crafty things. Saturn and the six moons that she painted all have multiple colors that she sponged on to give them a realistic look. I was really proud of her for working so hard and doing such a great job.

Lego head guy

Isaac's class was talking about recycling, and the kids were supposed to bring something in that they upcycled, or reused from garbage. I had this empty red vines container waiting to be recycled, and I thought we cold make something interesting out of it. We decided to make a lego storage container!

The first step was removing the label, which was no easy task. We peeled off as much as we could, then I used a goo gone type product multiple times. I had the best results when I used a plastic disposable knife to scrape after letting the goo gone sit for several minutes.

We spray painted the whole thing several times with Krylon sunshine yellow paint for plastic.

Isaac picked out a face that he wanted, and I painted it on using acrylic paints. Lastly, we spray painted it with a sealer. It turned out so cute!

His teacher thought at first that he was bringing in one of the real lego head containers that they sell, so I think we were pretty close to the real thing!

3rd grade Market

The third graders had to come up with a product, make it, and then sell it at a special market to other kids and parents. I thought this was a great way to teach them about economics.

Sareny's group, which consisted of Kiana, Sareny, Amelie, and Liana, decided to make felt flower clips. The girls had to bring in supplies and keep track of the receipts so they could see if they made a profit at the end.

 Here is their table sign. I cut the words out for them on my silhouette.

 Some of her friends--Hunter, Nathan, Dax, and Jonathon.

 Boy, Riley, Boy.

 Seth, Christella, Natalie.

Sareny with her teacher, Ms. McCord. The market lasted for three days, and she was so excited the last day when they sold out of their clips. They had started out with 50, and true, one of the moms bought 10 of them, but still. Her group made the most money in their class! The money was all donated to the Water for Life program in Africa. Good job Sareny!

Remaking a Shirt

In Setember, the girls did a cheer camp at the local high school, and they were given shirts to wear to their performance. Unfortunately, the shirts were sized more for amazons than preschoolers, so I pulled out my scissors and went to work on them. I am by no means an expert, or even very good at this type of thing at all, but the finished result was so much better than what we started with. I took a shirt of Sareny's and cut the performance shirt down.

I also cut the sleeves off and cut them way down as well.

And then I tried to put them back together...and that's where it got dicey. I soon realized that I had cut the shirt down too much and hoped it would fit Finley instead of Sareny. And the sleeves--oh those darn sleeves. I had to unpick and reattach them, and I realized that I should have cut them so that I could use the bottom hem instead of sewing a new one. The sleeve hem was a bit fluttery, but still worked. Since I had learned a bit from the first go round, I cut the sleeve out better for Sareny's, but she ended up disappointed that her sleeve wasn't fluttery. Go figure. Here is Fin in the first shirt I made.














Both girls, where you can see the difference in the sleeves.














Despite my difficulties, when we got to the performance, I realized that my girls' shirts looked super awesome. Most people wondered how come they actually had shirts that fit them.

Sareny's New Room

One thing that was hard to leave behind in our old house was Sareny's cute bedroom--we worked really hard painting her room and making it cute for her. It was particularly difficult for her since her new room had really ugly, dirty, flat white paint on the walls.

Well, it only took us two years, but we finally painted her new room, and it looks so adorable! I absolutely love how it turned out.














So cute! The beadboard was kind of a lot of work, at least it looked that way to me. I didn't actually do much by way of painting, or glueing, or nailing, but taking care of the kids while Keith does those things counts for something, right? Sareny also got a new zebra comforter with hot pink sheets.

Sareny wanted us to paint her new room exactly like her old room, but I pictured this looking perfect for a little girl's room. I don't think Sareny could picture what it was going to look like, but she ended up loving it.

Ice Cream Insects

In February, I got to go help Sareny's class with a fun project--making ants out of ice cream. It was such a cute, fun project that I bought the supplies to have Sareny teach the other kids how to make them.

Everybody was so proud of how their creations turned out. Also, if you're thinking sherbet ice cream with chocolate magic shell on top sounds well, not the greatest, I would agree with you. Isaac picked out the sherbet. I picked out the chocolaty-peanutbutter one.

Sareny with her bug.

Lexi-lou

And me!

It was fun letting Sareny teach the other kids something she had learned in school--she felt pretty special!

State Fair

Sareny and I made gingerbread houses to enter in the State Fair, and we had so much fun! I was totally impressed with how good Sareny's house turned out--she worked really hard on it and came up with all of the design elements herself.

Her completed house from the front.

Her house from the back.

My favorites were the little snowmen she made out of marshmallow fondant, and I thougth the shovel turned out pretty cute as well.

I made a farmhouse for my entry.

I've never completely covered the gingerbread with icing before; I thought it turned out pretty cool.

This view shows the chimney on the side of the house.

The storefront. I particularly love how the little apple baskets turned out. I had to snip the ends off of hot tamales to make them. I made the pumpkins with marshmallow fondant. We named the farm Green Bluff Farm after the farm Keith's dad owns. Their family farm is named Strawberry Hills Farm, but since this was more of an apple orchard than strawberry farm, I named it after the region of Mead, Washington that they live in, which is the Green Bluff area.

I thought the little porch light turned out really cute too. It is a lemon drop outlined with black royal icing.

I cut the flagstone patio out of gumpaste that I colored gray. You can also see the light's bracket better in this picture.

Sideview featuring the pumpkin cart and apple trees, complete with ladder.

We went to the fair as a family the first day it was opened to see how our projects did. We picked Grandma Nancy up at the airport that day, had lunch with Keith, and then later met him at the fair. I must admit, it was a lot more exciting going to the fair when you are looking for your projects that you worked so hard on and wondering how they did. I was particularly hoping that Sareny's house would win a ribbon--I knew it would mean a lot to her. Here she is by her house, and we were shocked and thrilled that she won not only a 1st place ribbon, but also a purple Best of Show Rosette ribbon. How exciting!

I was so proud of her, and I know she is excited to get a check in the mail for $5, the amount they give first place entries. My friend Tia is the superintendent over the baked goods area, and she told me that the judges were super impressed with Sareny's entry. When I went to pick our houses up after the fair was over, she said she had lots of people very impressed with Sareny's house and asking if Tia knew how old the little girl was. They all couldn't believe it that she is only 7! So way to go Sareny!

I have to admit, I was probably just as thrilled as Sareny was when I saw that my house won first place and Best of Show also! How cool is that? It was kind of fun to see people at the fair crowding around my house and taking pictures of it.

I thought it was pretty awesome that we both took home top honors. We were even contacted by someone who wanted to feature us, the mother/daughter fair winners, on a local TV show, but sadly, we were in Disneyland the day they could film us. You can imagine Sareny's disapointment!

I am really glad the Young Women (I'm the secretary) decided to enter the fair, because that is what prompted us both to enter. It was a great experience, and Sareny can't wait to enter again!