Day 35: Heidi the Hedgehog Book

This is a very, very special post that I am extremely proud of.

The challenge of day 35 was to create instructions to have someone else make something and try it out.

Now, I do this pretty much every day at camp, but this particular day was something special.

You see, one of our other camp counselors had read the book, 'The Giving Tree' to the kids and we had a discussion about inspirational stories.  On the fly, I decided to have the kids make up their own inspirational story.

The kids went around and each added to the story.  Of course, since I had happened to bring in my hedgehog in that day, the story started with, "Once upon a time... Miss Amy brought in a hedgehog..."

Shockingly, the story did end up turning inspirational (through the help of the counselors) because Heidi the Hedgehog got her head stuck in a tube, and had a cone shaped head.  She didn't think anyone liked her because of her cone head and was sad.  At the end, her friends threw her a surprise birthday party and threw a cake at her face, which made her head return to a normal shape.

Although this story is a silly children's story to an outside eye, we had a blast making it up and listening to the kids each add their own pieces.

Unfortunately, later that day the other counselor got hurt and had to go to the hospital.  She was okay, but of course we had to have the kids make her something to feel better.

A stack of construction-paper cards can only go so far, so the next day I did an activity with the kids.

I wrote each sentence from the story on a small piece of paper (with the page number) and shuffled them, then gave each student a piece of paper.  The students were instructed to write the sentence and illustrate it.  When everyone was done (some counselors and other workers added a few pages in there, too) we put them all together by page number and laminated the front and back cover to make a book.

It was absolutely amazing seeing the silly story turn in to a piece of work that really showed a lot of effort. The best part was seeing each child's individual picture on their own page (with their name).

I gave the book to her parents later that day, she loved it!

It was amazing, and my favorite part of the whole summer.  What a great way for a class to take pride in their work.

Day 34: Wire Words Bracelet

For day 34, I was supposed to work with wire.  All I could find on pinterest was this pretty love bracelet from etsy.

I had some wire left over from making Tiffany's wire hanger from her wedding, so I decided I should attempt this bracelet.

Easy enough, right?

Well, apparently I still need practice on the whole wire-bending thing.  It didn't turn out quite as pretty as the one on etsy, but it's a start.  I tried to do my name in the beginning, but couldn't get the A quite right, so I just went with the 'love'.

In the classroom, it would be cute to use wire to label things and add a 3D effect.  Once I get the bending letters part down anyways.

Day 39: Haiku

The challenge of the day was to write a haiku about something that happens that day.

Of course, I was working at camp, so here is my haiku:

Working with children

keeps me grounded to the things

that have true meaning.

That's it for today, enjoy!

Day 37: Homemade Die

The challenge of the day was to make something with a stapler.  I really enjoyed this challenge (even though I had to actually google this one) because I learned how to make something useful out of everyday materials.

I used this tutorial to learn how to fold tape around staples to make a cube - just add dots using sharpie to make a die!

Here's mine:

It's a great thing to teach students for those times there aren't dice around.  You could also write different things on the sides (names, etc) than the numbers.

Day 33: Flag pen

The challenge of the day was to make something using pens.

I researched a little bit (yes, I was lost and didn't want to settle for just writing with pens) and found a really good idea for weighting down pencils/pens in the classroom by putting washers on the end.  This will be helpful for students who are learning to press down or have orthopedic problems.  It's also a good scaffolding tool because you can take the washers off one by one to grow with the student.

But I didn't do that.

Instead, as I was packing up my stuff for my classroom, I found little felt flags that a student gave me in a valentine's day goodie bag.  They have holes on them that are made for pens/pencils.

I realized how easy that would be to make, and the felt can be designed to say anything including the child's name, holidays, or celebrations.

These are extremely simple extremely cheap crafts to make!!

Enjoy,

Amy

Day 32: Magic Color-Changing Drinks

The challenge of the day was to make something ephemeral that disappears quickly.

For this day, I tried out making Magical Color-Changing Drinks.  This is a really cute magic trick to wow students at a classroom party!  It would also be great for holidays, such as Saint Patrick's day.

To make these color-changing drinks, you simply put a few drops of food coloring in the bottom of a cup (I used a solo cup) and let it dry (I left it overnight, I'm sure you only need to leave it a few minutes).  Then, when you're ready to party, you put ice in the cups to hide the food coloring.  Serve clear liquids (sprite, water, club soda) and giggle as your victims are wowed and amazed as their drink turns color before their eyes!

See the video below.

Update

Did you miss me?

I'm still alive, I promise!  Like I always say, too many crafts, too little time.

But don't worry, I've still been crafting!

Here's a quick update:

I was behind anyways on my project 365 because of our mini-vacation over by Disney in late May.    Then, last month I was in Texas for a week for a teacher's institute at NASA (read all about it at my other other blog, http://pstiexperience.blogspot.com/).  I also got a job (!) as an ASD teacher, so there have been a lot of classroom-centered projects.  Besides that, I've been working at my summer camp and pretty much spending all of my free time working through my second Master's class and heading a fundraiser for Autism (more about that later).

So that is why I'm on my couch in my pajamas at 9:00pm on Friday night. I finally have a little time to update!

Just a little disclaimer: it may take more than 365 days to complete my project, but once I get out of the crazy summer I should be able to play a little catch-up, so I shouldn't be too far behind!

So, here goes!