Green Crafts/Back to the Land

Here are some excellent books I recently borrowed from my local library. They are perfect for eco-minded kids, parents, teachers, and crafters.

This is the Bible of hands-on green activism for kids - and it's not preachy. I'm going to buy a copy. Flipping through the book I see numerous lesson plans in the making. Visit their web site at http://www.50simplekids.com

The text is engaging and accessible for junior readers.

Here's one of the most charming books I've come across in a long time. I found this book at the S. Walter Stewart library mixed within the craft books. It's not so much a craft book as a handy craft book. The author is English and she pretty much treats the book as a reference to making things you need when living out in the country. This would be my dream.
The book is from the early eighties and has the beautiful pre-amalgamation cardinal EY Library book stamp on the cover page. It all seems so quaint now.
The author is clearly a back-to-the-lander and her family looks earthy.
In the book, you learn how to work with twigs and branches to create everything from walking sticks, to bow and arrows.

A necklace and a rustic birdhouse.

A pretty girl covered in flowers.

The pictures are stunning. Here is a table used to press flowers.

Of course, the author teaches you how to make your own flower press.

What a wonderful scene: homemade preserves and good bread in front of a roaring fire.
Here's another great bookL The crafter culture book. This does not have such an eco bent, but there are still some great ideas inside. Some of them involve materials that can come from repurposed objects.

This sweet bird mobile is on my must-make list. I may run another craft club this year for the older students and attempt to make this.
Here's a surprisingly funky top made out of a pillowcase. If I ever get to teach kindergarten, that will be me: wearing a pillowcase and strumming on an old banjo. "Hey kids, let's sing about trees!"
ReadyMade takes its title from surrealist Marcel Duchamp's belief that everything can be beautiful. This book definitely has an eco-slant and makes the bold proclamation that it will teach you to make everything. Well, just about.
These cool picture frames were made from discarded hardcover books. The pages were stripped, and mylar and photos installed.

Empty tubes used for magazine storage.

Another great idea: self-publishing. Hey, I'm doing that! At least three kids in my class have their own blogs (I'm talking about ten-year-olds here). I hope to link their blogs to our classroom blog. My goal is to move away from the standard paper projects and move into more electronic text creations and using reclaimed materials for projects.

Ancient Egypt

In Social Studies we're learning about Ancient Egypt. This week students in my class made their own papyrus by soaking strips of cheap yellow paper in a flour and water mixture. They overlapped strips horizontally and then vertically.

They figured out what they wanted to say in English and then tried to find the Egyptian hieroglyphs. They did a rough copy and then transferred it to the papyrus in pencil.

They then went over the pencil using India ink and food colouring. In the past, I've let the kids make their own colouring by crushing berries, but that adds a lot of extra time and mess to the activity. The colours are not as bold either.
This student used some silver paint. The pieces were terrific in the end. I'll try to take a picture of our bulletin board when the artwork is up. This activity was super cheap and packed with learning. I hope to have the students mummify fruit in January.