Ancient China- Day 3

The Forbidden City 360 virtual tour
The Forbidden City
The Forbidden City tons of pictures and history

Dynasties of China History of the dynasties and a great chart with the dates when each dynasty ruled. We made a chart and put it in our timeline books.





Michael helping out with the dynasties. :)

Crafts and Artisans in China
Chinese Painting history and examples from the Ming and Song dynasties mostly
Chinese Geography interactive that describes the different geography found in China

Animals inside the Forbidden City

Here are our versions:

Crane
Tortoise
Dragon
Lion
Tera's suffering Crane
Dragon

Did you know the Chinese invented the game of Dominoes?

Ancient China Unit Day 2

Our Shadow Puppet and Stage (an old quilting frame with tissue paper screen)

Ancient China for Kids My kids clicked around this site for almost an hour exploring the different aspects of Ancient China...I assigned certain topics and then let them choose ones of interest.
Playing with Shadows- great online Shadow puppet interactive with video.
Shadow Shapes- Click on the link for a simplified kid-friendly shadow puppet guide.

We have a couple of videos that were great examples of shadow puppetry. One was a Bananas comedy video with Bob Stromberg and the other was a Muppet Show episode featuring Judy Collins.

Silk Road information
Stories from the Silk Road
Model of the Silk Road We haven't gotten to this one yet but it was on the plan for today.

We dabbled with Chinese Calligraphy using a book Daniel picked out for the library. I also found a worksheet on line with two characters they traced and tried to copy. Then I printed out the characters for the numbers 1-10

Ancient China Take One

Blossom Paintings

China Timeline
Make a Chinese Compass
Explore Ancient China Geography
Ancient Chinese Architecture
Chinese Tangrams

Texture with a Chemical Reaction

Practicing technique

Brushing away our salt to reveal texture.

Our trees

Daniel's tree

Tera's tree

Versions of Van Gogh Starry Night

Michael's attempt to "watercolor"

Michael's School Activities

Tera decided a few months back to teach Michael about coloring...now it's a daily activity. He calls it "gon con". So if I ever need time where he is fully occupied, we just pull out the "gon con". Then we are set.
Another activity I found on Chasing Cheerios:You take some of these and add...
this and what does that equal?



A toddler entertained for a long time!

Narnia Party- Economically

My kids wanted a friend party this year for their birthdays. Since their birthdays are only a month apart, we did a combined party with a Chronicles of Narnia theme. I searched all over the internet for ideas---most included a lot of bought things and seemed way over the top. So I decided to take the ideas I liked and make a party that is alot more economical for those of us on a tighter budget. By the way, my kids and their friends had a blast.

Games: When the kids arrived we made poster board shields (Peter's gift) with various art supplies. I cut a basic shield design, the kids decorated and then we attached a circle loop on the back for a handle. I made necklaces (Lucy's nectar) from empty watercolor containers I found at Hobby Lobby for 88 cents. I filled with water, red food color and glitter. I tried to put the kid's initials on the top in glitter but they fell off. So we went with the plain. I threaded curling ribbon through each container, super glued it closed and cut apart.
We gave out party horns (Susan's gift) for them to use during this game of target practice. 2 hula hoops hung from a frame with pool noodle arrows.

I froze a coolerful of ice in the weeks before using a variety of containers and ice from our ice machine. I provided gloves for each kid and water for them to make ice sculptures. Two things to think about: if you use food color, it will stain hands and the ice stuck to the kids' gloves at times.
I froze play animals (one for each child) to "release" from the White Witch's spell (found at Walmart for around a dollar). You could use knights or soldiers but I did not find any of those sets in our local stores.

I had a few extras just in case of rain---Pin the Tail on Reepacheep from a graphic found online. I transformed our Toss Across game into a Spring/Winter game. Then filled 6 balloons with 3 tbsps. rice each for bean bags. Food Table- Salty snacks and ice cream sundae toppings. I used white chocolate chips and marshmallows in keeping with the ice theme in addition to some other kid friendly toppings. I used our Chronicle of Narnia books and my son's Peter shield and sword. A very talented friend made our cake, which our kids just loved.

For the tables I printed out (my kids colored) the Pevensie children paper dolls and attached to heavier paper then to a stand made from a dowel rod and wood piece. I covered the tables with white plastic cloths from the Dollar Tree. Then we used picture books we had just picked up here and there telling the Narnia story. Some from the library book sale, thrift stores, and Chickfila. Narnia Paper Dolls Coloring sheets


For other decorations---light blue and white streamers in the doorways for icicles and cut snowflakes hanging on fishing line taped to ceiling.


On the way out, each child received a bag of Turkish Delight (gummy bears dipped in powdered sugar). I put about 12 gummies in each bag.