Phoenician Glass

Today we have been learning about ancient Phoenicians. We found out that they were the first people's to successfully make blown glass objects. The children made some coloured fake glass using wax crayons.

First we cut out 2 ovals each from baking paper and then placed crayon pencil shavings on top of 1 oval.

Next we added some sequins and bits of sparkly threads along with more wax.

Once we had a good layer of wax we embedded a hanging thread within it and then covered it with the other oval of baking paper. We then ironed the wax sandwich between sheets of newspaper. 

Once the wax ovals were cool we peeled them off the baking paper and then hung them up in a sunny window.

By L

By R

Steam And Machinery

Today we attended the biannual open day at Campbelltown Steam & Machinery Museum. We have been to this museum several times in the past and you can read a previous blog post here. I decided to try and photograph different things on this visit and have a play with the images in Photoshop. For a great tutorial on colour popping in Photoshop (like the picture above) check out this video from Photo Answers. The other images were made with various filters in Photoshop.

The children had a great time riding the train and tractor, visiting the blacksmith and having a good look at all the strange machines. We saw the grand parade of vehicles including steam engines and tractors and everyone loved the musical organs.

Fungi Nature Study

This week the children have been studying the fungi kingdom. They did these observational drawings of a mushroom.

Mushroom By R

Underneath a mushroom By L

Mushroom By L

Egyptian Death Masks

The children have been learning about Tutankhamen and the discovery of his tomb and treasures. They have been working for several days on these paper mache masks and today they finally got finished with the painting.

By R

By L

We made the masks by layering newspaper pieces and glue over a balloon. The rest of the mask was cut from scrap cardboard and attached with more paper mache. We used metallic acrylic paints to finish them off.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's day to all you mums out there. Here are the lovely cards and paper flowers that the children made for me. I also got toast in bed too!

Book Project

The children have been working for a while on making a zig-zag book. It will tell the story of our journey back to England to our friend's wedding. So far they have completed the map pages to show the route we took. They used Aboriginal style dot symbols to show the landmarks and route.

By R

By L

The children have already made a storyboard and written their text for each of the inside pages. Next they will decorate the pages and add in their text before finishing off with a cover.

Come back soon to see more.

Cookies

Today the kids made some delicious cookies - chocolate chip and savoury Parmesan and pumpkin seed.