Oh the things we do...

 I had wanted to make these beautiful eggs with the children but I never got to it this week..  Sometimes, I have so many things I want to make and do and ideas for our classroom that that I feel overwhelmed (in a good way)!  While these string eggs are beautiful, they didn't quite turnout as I had hoped and they were very fragile.

 The directions called for liquid starch.  I would not use that again instead opting for a mixture of white glue and water instead.  Glue dries clear and hard and would make these eggs durable and easy to hold.

All I did was soak the embroidery floss in liquid starch and wrap it around small water balloons.  Let them dry completely and break the balloon inside the form.   Voila, you have these beautiful eggs!  It really is the perfect thing to do with little hands, it is a good amount of messy with out a lot of fuss.

I experimented by making these at home to see how they would turn out.  As weeks go for me, it was just to busy to fit this project in. I hope you will try it at home sometime.

 Speaking of other projects though, we did colour some eggs and we started talking about Impressionist Artists.  Specifically, we looked at Edgar Degas this week and made our own ballet dancers at the art table.

 This is a beautiful book.

The story is about a dancer who knows that Monsieur Degas is drawing and painting the dancers at the Paris Opera House.  One day, their bags get mixed up and the dancer ends up with Monsieur Degas's  bag by mistake and he has hers with her tutu for that evenings performance.  The story goes on to take you through the streets of Paris and on to meet more artists such as Renoir, Monet and Mary Cassett. The book is simply lovely and the illustrations are stunning.

Eva Montanari is the author of Chasing Degas.

The children enjoyed making their own dancers this week.  We added a stick to the back so they could be puppets and used for imaginative play.

 We also, took some time to notice the beauty unfolding in our classroom this past week with all the branches being forced.  So beautiful are the cherry branches.
We are all wishing you a Lovely Long Weekend with your Children!