Crafts: Purposeful Living – Bring a Light into Your Home

 

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I have been sharing crafts and activities that I designed and created for The Canadian Schoolhouse's Virtual Family Retreat: A Purposeful Life. If you are homeschooling, this is a wonderful virtual retreat for you! From devotionals focused upon the Bible verses that inspired these crafts and activities to special guest speakers, there is something for everyone. 

The focus of the retreat this year has been living a purposeful life. So, how can we be more purposeful in our lives? How can we remember that God will be there to guide us? 

Let's look at today's Bible Verse, and then I will share about two different crafts we can make to help us remember these things and the verse.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105 ESV

Today, we can make two different versions of the same craft. We can make it so our craft looks like a light bulb or an oil lamp. 

Materials 

• Coffee Filter (two, if you are doing both versions of the craft) 
• Pencil
• Markers
• Spray bottle
• Scrap paper 
• Tape 
• Laminating supplies

You will need at least one coffee filter (two, if you want to make both versions of the craft), a pencil, markers, a spray bottle for water, scrap paper (the markers will bleed through the coffee filter), and – for displaying your artwork – tape.

Steps 

1. You can either sketch your picture using a pencil and then draw it with markers or you can go straight to the markers. I took inspiration for my light bulb from a piece of clip art online. You can be as creative as you want. 

2. I recommend you color the entire picture in because you want to make sure that there is plenty of ink from the markers for the final step in the craft project. 

You can use the traditional colors for the light bulb or pick out others that will complement the room where you will hang your sun catcher when you are finished. 

When I drew my oil lamp, I started with the markers. I wanted to leave enough room for the cup and the flame. 

At the top and bottom of my picture, I wrote out Psalm 119:105 along with the month and year. You could write out the entire Bible verse if you leave enough room. BUT...I recommend saving the writing for after you use the spray bottle. 

3. You want to spray the coffee filter with water from your spray bottle. The coffee filter should be wet but not soaking wet. Do this over a piece of scrap paper. The ink from the markers will run. You want to make sure you spray where you want the ink to spread but NOT where you don't want it to spread. 

4. After my pictures were dry, I was able to add a few more touches. When my oil lamp picture was done, I needed to add a few lines for definition. I simply used the same markers and drew the shape I wanted to see. I also tried to fix November 2022 but it didn't turn out as neat as I wanted. But that is okay...because crafting, art, etc. is not always perfect. It is all a learning experience. 

5. When you are done (and the coffee filters are dry), you can hang them in your window. 

If you want to make sure they last for years, you can laminate them. I've done that in the past with pumpkins and snowflakes we created, and they are so nice in our windows year after year. 

Depending on how much sun the window gets, your artwork may fade over time. But that is okay because you can make more! 

Where will you hang your finished artwork? 

Crafts: Bear Painting

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Painting is a favorite pastime for our children. So, I like to find new and creative ways to allow them to paint. From using different materials as brushes like painting with leaves to using handprints, there are many fun ways to paint. We've also experimented with watercolors and using q-tips to paint, too! 

For this painting project, I wanted our children to focus on the background and not the animal they would include in the painting. So, we used a clipart drawing of a bear when the entire painting was completed and dry. 

Materials 

• Paint and Kwik Stix Paint
• Different types of paintbrushes
• Construction paper of varying colors 
• Foam shapes 
• Glue 
• Scissors 

Steps 

1. Gather your materials. 

2. Decide what color construction paper you and your children wish to use. Do you want to create a nighttime picture, a picture of a polar bear, or one in the forest? 

3. After choosing a piece of construction paper, pick what colors you want to use. Then start to paint your picture. 

4. After the picture dries, put on foam shapes and glue on your bear. 

5. Your picture is ready to hang! 

More Painting 

If you are getting ready to prepare for winter studies in your homeschool, I've shared a very cute book and a painting craft previously.  In Winter's Coming: A Story of Seasonal Change, your children will see numerous woodland animals. Pick one of the animals in the story and create a painting highlighting the change in the season.

Another fun way to incorporate painting into your homeschool lessons is to paint on a different medium. When we were reading Black Bird, Yellow Sun, we created a picture of the sun and a black bird using beans. After the beans were dry (we glued them on the paper), we painted the beans.

Looking for More Painting Lessons and Courses? 

Why not take a look at SchoolhouseTeachers.com? They offer over 400 courses, including many art courses. With so many schools limiting their electives, including art, homeschool families have the chance to explore art in a great number of ways. They can learn new techniques, study famous artists through history, and explore different mediums such as sculpture, painting, watercolor, and more. As I look through their course offerings, there are currently 19 art-related courses, including: 

• A Century of Art
• Achieving Art Success with ArtAchieve 
• All About Art
• Art & History: Interconnected 
• Art: The Timeless Treasure 
• Art Tips with Jan Bower
• Digital Art and Product Designs for Small Business
• Discovering Art History
• Drawing in Pen and Ink
• Drawing with Realism
• Elementary Art 
• Everyday Easels
• Exploring the World of Art
• Inkscape Online Adventure
• Learning About Art
• Let's Do Art Outside
• Preschool: Arts, Crafts, & Music
• Studio Art for Teens 

Crafts: Bear Figure

 

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Our daughter loves arts and crafts. This has always been one of her favorite parts of the homeschool day. So I love thinking of different crafts for us to create together using common household items and other materials we have on hand. 

While spending time learning about black bears, grizzly bears, polar bears, and more, I designed several different crafts including a collage, a paper bag puppet, and this bear figure. We also included some lessons from SchoolhouseTeachers.com as well as some favorite childhood books to read. 

Materials 

• Construction paper
• Paper towel or toilet paper roll 
• Scissors
• Tape
• Glue (glue stick or white glue) 
• Pencil or crayons 

Steps 

1. Gather all your materials. 

2. Cut out the pieces for your bear figure. You will need a large brown circle for the head, two small brown circles for the ears, one small orange, oval-like shape for the muzzle, one brown shape for the back legs, and two brown shapes for the arms. 

3. After the pieces are cut out, draw a face on the large circle. 

4. Draw a nose on the orange piece. 

5. Glue the orange muzzle on the large circle. 

6. Attach the large circle to the toilet paper roll. 

7. Attach the ears to the circle. 

8. Attach the back legs. 

9. Attach the front legs. 

10. After the glue dries, the bear figures are ready to play with! 

Looking for a Great Resource? 

As the fall season progresses, I love including seasonal content in our homeschool lessons. One of my favorite places to go to look for seasonal lessons is SchoolhouseTeachers.com. After clicking on their holiday and seasonal content, I go look through lessons, games, and more that fit into several different categories, including: 

• Christmas 
• Summer
• Easter
• Fall 
• Holiday/Seasonal (New Year's Day, President's Day, Mother's Day, Fourth of July, and many more!)  

For this season, I am looking at the Nature and Outdoors Homeschool Science Course for our daughter. There are units on owls and acorns that will we focus upon first. There are instructions for a nature journal and, since she likes her Bible Notebook which is part of the My Father's World Curriculum, I think this might be a hit with her, as well.

Crafts: Bear Collage

 

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Whenever I prepare crafts for our children, I usually save the scraps of paper and construction paper in a plastic envelope and several gallon size plastic bags. There are many times when I need only a small piece of black construction paper for eyes or maybe a bit of red to create a tongue for an animal puppet. My storage has been filling up so I decided to do a simple craft with our daughter to use up some of the pieces. 

We've been talking about bears in our homeschool as we study different animals and habitats using her science curriculum, so it seemed natural to design several different bear crafts. For this one, I look for a silhouette of a bear online to draw onto a sheet of white paper. I then asked her to trace this bear for her own paper. After that, it was quite simple to create our bear collage. 

Materials 

• White Paper
• Scraps of Construction Paper
• Glue Stick or White Glue
• Scissors
• Pencil or Marker

Steps 

1. Draw a picture of your bear. Make sure it is large and covers the whole paper. 

2. Gather all the materials nearby. 

3. You may want to pre-cut the pieces of construction paper scraps to fit the outline of your bear. Our daughter and I cut our pieces as we went along to make sure we had the pieces we wanted. 

4. Glue the pieces onto your bear filling in the outline. 

5. Display your completed bear collage. 

What to Know More About Bears? 

How many bears can you name? According to National Geographic, "there are eight species: Asiatic black bears (also called moon bears), brown bears (which include grizzly bears), giant pandas, North American black bears, polar bears, sloth bears, spectacled bears (also called Andean bears), and sun bears." They all belong to the Ursidae family and are omnivores. They range in size from four feet to eight feet and live in a variety of habitats. If you want to study just those who are native to North America, you would limit your studies to the North American black bear, brown bears, and polar bears. 

North American Black Bear 

The most common bear in North America is the black bear which can actually be a number of different colors and shades including black, a cinnamon brown color, blonde, gray/glue, and even white. Depending upon where the black bear lives in North America, the color, diet, sleeping pattern, and more may be different. The National Park Service offers a nice comparison between black bears who live in two different habitats in North America.  

Black bears have a varied diet and the specifics depend upon where they live and the time of year. As omnivores, they eat plants and meat. They eat roots, berries, fish, and insects, and are able to kill and eat adult deer. Unfortunately, they are also attracted to human garbage, livestock food, and fruit trees planted on farms, which brings them into contact with humans. This can cause problems as they become a nuisance to humans or no longer see humans as a threat. 

Learn More at SchoolhouseTeachers.com 

SchoolhouseTeachers.com offers a number of courses for your children to learn more about animals including God's Beautiful Creatures. In this course, students in kindergarten through second grade discover over a hundred animals including the brown bear and polar bear and red deer, European rabbits, mandarin ducks, arctic terns, and much more! This homeschool science course is perfect for early readers as the books are simple and the activities include journaling and drawing. 

Crafts: Shark Sun Catcher

 

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We love making sun catchers in our homeschool from coffee filters. Because they are relatively inexpensive, we have been able to make a variety of crafts from coffee filters over the years to hang in our windows. Today let's make a shark-themed sun catcher! 

Since we will be making a sun catcher today, let's talk about sharks' senses. Sharks have keen senses that help them hunt. From excellent hearing to sensitive eyesight, they can easily seek out their dinner. Sharks can hear low-pitched sounds rather well and their eyesight allows them to see in the dim waters better than we can. The location of the sharks' eyes helps them see in almost every direction. They are also super sensitive to smell and their sense of touch is also developed to help them hunt. 

Materials 

• Coffee Filter
• Gray markers
• Spray bottle
• Construction paper (white, gray, red)
• Glue stick
• Scissors
• Tape 

Steps 

1. Gather all your materials. 

2. Color the coffee filter with gray markers. 

3. Spray the coffee filter with water to create the effect. 

4. Cut out the pieces for your shark from the construction paper. 

5. After your coffee filter is dry, glue the pieces onto your gray coffee filter. 

6. Hang your shark in your window.

Do You Want to Learn More About Sharks? 

SchoolhouseTeachers.com offers over 400 courses for your homeschool. Included in those courses are All About Animals and Everyday Games. In Crafts: Create a Shark Filled Ocean, I shared about the course All About Animals but if you aren't ready to dive into that particular science course with your first or second grader, you can add in fun shark-themed games using the ones found in Everyday Games.

In Everyday Games, you will find lessons for language arts and mathematics using a shark theme. There are addition and multiplication games, as well as games featuring synonyms, antonyms, verbs, nouns, and more! You can print the games out and use them as many times as you want to help your children learn their math facts or their language arts facts.

Now Through September 6, 2024! 

Dive into our Shark & Sea BOGO Sale at SchoolhouseTeachers.com! From July 22 to

September 6, buy one annual membership for $269 and get another year free! Did you

know that sea turtles can live up to 100 years? Our courses have the longevity and quality you

need with hundreds of courses available for all grades. Don’t let this deal swim away!

Crafts: Shark Painting

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We love painting in our homeschool. So, I am always looking for new ways to incorporate painting into our homeschool day. For this shark-themed craft, I decided we would do something similar to the Father's Day painting we did a few years ago. We created the shape of the sharks as negative space so they would stand out on our paper when we were finished painting.

Materials 

• Painting paper
• Paint in a variety of colors 
• Sponge brushes or cotton balls 
• Something to hold the paint for dipping the sponges/cotton balls into the paint 
• Paper for cutting our shark shapes
• Tape 

Steps 

1. Gather all your materials. 

2. Cut out two or more basic shark shapes. 

3. Tape the shark shapes onto your painting paper. 

4. Use sponges or dot paints to paint on and around your shark shapes. 

5. After the paint is dry, remove the shark shapes to reveal the outline of your sharks. 

6. Hang up your new artwork. 

How is a Shark Designed? 

While waiting for your shark to dry, talk about the design of a shark with your children. They have special features which enable them to be fierce predators of the sea. There are over 1,000 species of sharks and rays, so you will have plenty to choose from to discuss. 

Sharks are different from other fish as they have boneless skeletons. They have cartilage in its place to help provide support. The fact that they don't have bones but cartilage also enables them to stay afloat easier as they are lighter. 

The lighter body also helps them in swimming. They are also streamlined to help them move through the water. So many sharks have a torpedo-like shape. They are probably one of the most agile creatures in the sea. 

Fins 

With the variety of sharks, there is also a variety of fins on those sharks. They have a large dorsal fin that helps provide balance. Some have a smaller dorsal fin on their back too. Sharks may also have pectoral fins that help with steering. 

Learn More 

Make another shark-themed craft! Choose from a paper bag shark puppet or a paper plate craft. 

Dive into the world of Marine Biology at SchoolhouseTeachers.com with Red Wagon Marine Biology for High School. This high school course is taught with online pre-recorded videos and text instructions to help children learn about the marine world. In addition to studying sharks, students will learn about marine ecosystems, tidal zones, coral reefs, and more. 

And now is the perfect time to become a SchoolhouseTeachers.com member with the BOGO sale! Dive into our Shark & Sea BOGO Sale at SchoolhouseTeachers.com! From July 22 to September 6, buy one annual membership for $269 and get another year free! Did you know that sea turtles can live up to 100 years? Our courses have the longevity and quality you need with hundreds of courses available for all grades. Don’t let this deal swim away!

Sale through September 6, 2024. 

Crafts: Create a Shark Filled Ocean

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When you hear the word, "Shark," what do you imagine? Are you seeing a terrifying creature jumping out of the ocean to attack any animal in sight? Or are you fondly remembering a fun trip to a touch tank at your local aquarium? 

Sharks are often considered one of the most fearsome animals in the world. Yet not all sharks rank among the top scary ones. After all, there are over 400 different species of sharks in the ocean. They can't all be scary.

Even though there are 50 species of sharks that are considered potentially dangerous to humans, they don't regularly go around attacking humans. There are some easy tips you can apply to stay safe when swimming in waters frequented by sharks who may pose a threat. You can read ten tips at National Geographic or eight safety tips at Australian Geographic. 

For your craft, you can decide upon a variety of sharks. For example, you could draw and cut out one of the following types: 

• Basking Shark
• Bull Shark 
• Great White Shark
• Hammerhead Shark
• Mako Shark 
• Nurse Shark
• Whale Shark
• Thresher Shark 

Materials

• Two paper plates 
• One paper fastener 
• Blue paint and/or markers 
• Paintbrushes 
• Scissors 
• Shark cut-out (you can draw this or download clipart to print out) 
• Glue stick  

Steps 

Gather all your materials for your shark craft. 

Cut a quarter of one paper plate. 

Paint both paper plates with various shades of blue. 

Allow your plates to dry. While they are drying, draw and cut out your shark.

After your paper plates are dry, glue your shark onto the paper plate that is NOT cut. Position the shark so that part of it will be seen through the slice of the cut paper plate. You can add more than one shark if you wish. 

Attach the cut paper plate to the top of the whole one with the paper fastener. 

Now turn your top paper plate so that the shark disappears behind the waves. 

 

Want to learn more about sharks? 

SchoolhouseTeachers.com has several courses that your elementary-aged student or high school student can learn about sharks and marine life in general. In All About Animals, our first or second graders will read through a variety of colorful eBooks to learn about different wild animals. In Under the Sea, your child will read about dolphins, whales, rays, crabs, and the shark! Realistic drawings and photographs highlight the different species of sharks and share the different parts of the shark body. 

Dive into a world of educational adventures with our Shark & Sea BOGO Sale! From July 22 to September 6, buy an annual SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership for $269 and get a second year FREE! Did you know that octopuses have three hearts? Just like them, we put our heart into every course we offer. Unlimited access to hundreds of courses for all grade levels.

Don’t miss out! Visit SchoolhouseTeachers.com to learn more!

Create your own shark paper bag puppet! 

Art in Our Homeschool: A Review of Tiger Crystal Art Card Kit

 

I received a COMPLIMENTARY copy of this Card Kit from Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

Do you have one of those subjects in your homeschool that sometimes gets neglected? For us, it is often art. While our children love arts and crafts, I often save those projects for another day because we run out of time, need to gather materials, etc. Knowing how important the arts are to developing various skills, I was very pleased to review the Tiger Crystal Art Card Kit from Timberdoodle with our two children. The Kit is included in the 2022 Fourth-Grade Curriculum Kit from Timberdoodle which I think is a perfect fit. 

What is the Tiger Crystal Art Card Kit? 

This self-contained art kit includes all the components one needs to create a beautiful work of art. In our case, the card kit depicted a tiger. The company does have other kits available including a lion, kittens, owl, horse, and others. 

In the kit we found: 

• 1 Card 
• 1 Envelope 
• Bags of Crystals 
• Empty Plastic Resealable Bags 
• 1 Crystal Pick-Up Pen 
• Jelly Wax
• Tray 

The card is covered with a plastic piece as the card itself is sticky so you can place the crystals. The instructions are located on the inside of the kit package and written in English, German, French, and Dutch. So, in addition to incorporating art into your homeschool, you can try out your language skills by comparing the instructions. 

How Did We Use the Tiger Crystal Art Card Kit? 

When it first arrived, our daughter was very excited to get started. She loves arts and crafts so this was perfect for her. After opening it, I was apprehensive that she would be able to complete it as she only turned seven and it is included in the Fourth-Grade Curriculum Kit. It looked like it would take great concentration to complete this kit. Would our daughter and our son have the patience to work on it? 

The first day I set aside time to work on the Tiger Crystal Art Card Kit, I let our children pick which color we would complete first. We opened the appropriate bag of crystals, poured them into the tray, put the Jelly Wax near the tray, and started working. I began the process to show our children how to use the Pick Up Pen (or stylus). Our daughter quickly wanted to try it on her own. I held the plastic piece up off the card so she could apply the crystals. 

Between the three of us, we completed that first color over the course of the day. I would work on it for a little bit and then go back to work or homeschool one of our children. Our daughter would work on it for a time while her brother and I were working on spelling or language arts. Our son would then work on it after he completed his other homeschool assignments. We continued this process for several days. I even left it out so they could work on it throughout the whole day and evening. And there were quite a few nights I worked on the Tiger Crystal Art Card Kit on my own as I found it relaxing. 

How Do You Complete the Picture? 

Choose which area of the card you want to work on and then look at the letter on the card. Find the bag of crystals labelled with that letter and pour them into your tray. Use the Pick Up Pen, after dabbing it into the Jelly Wax, to pick up the crystals. The crystals are attached to the dots labelled with the letter you chose. Don't remove the entire plastic piece until you are completed to protect the sticky parts of the card. 

When you are done with a specific letter, put that in a small plastic resealable bag and label it. You may notice you missed a few spots like we did and need to go back and fill them in later. 

What Did We Think? 

At first, I was very concerned that our children would not be able to complete the project. It seemed to require great patience and hand-eye coordination. Would this work? I really thought that I would have to complete the entire card on my own but thankfully I was wrong. Our children enjoyed the process and seeing the card transform into a sparkly picture with the crystals. This simple card kit really brought art in our homeschool to life! 

What about the process? Was it easy to transfer the tiny crystals to the sticky card? Yes and no. If the crystals were the right side up, one could easily use the Pick Up Pen to transfer them if you had enough Jelly Wax on the Pen. Sometimes the crystals would fall off during the transfer but that wasn't that often. And we did have to gently shake the tray to flip the crystals over so we could pick them up the right way.  Once you get into a rhythm, it is quite easy to fill the entire card with the color you are working on at that time. 

We did notice that we had some duplicate bags of colors and one letter had two different bags of crystals. This wasn't too confusing and it did not impact our picture at all. 

I really enjoyed working on the Tiger Crystal Art Card Kit. I found it relaxing and enjoyable. While our soon-to-be fourth grade son enjoyed this homeschool art project, our daughter really liked it. So I would definitely recommend it for your daughters who love arts and crafts. If they have good dexterity and patience, then a child as young as seven might be able to complete this with a little help. 

Our daughter shared, "Though hard at first, it was actually easy once you got used to using the pen to grab the crystals and putting them on the card." She said it was a lot of fun. Our son said it was an "epic experience." 

This kit really brought art in our homeschool to life! Both our son and our daughter recommend it for your homeschool. 

Crafts: Penguin Paper Bag Puppet

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After reading Tacky the Penguin as part of our daughter's kindergarten curriculum from My Father's World, I couldn't help but want to make new paper bag puppets with our children. Our children love making paper bag puppets such as a shark or even Wonder Woman. So, they were very excited to see this new craft endeavor.

Facts About Penguins 

• Flightless bird 
• Penguins all live on the southern half of the earth - around Antarctica, New Zealand, along the coast of part of South American, Africa, and Australia 
• Largest penguins are the Emperor Penguin – they can grow up to 3-1/2 feet tall and weigh more than 90 pounds
• Smallest Penguins are the Little Blue Penguin – they can grow to about 16 inches tall and weigh less than 2-1/5 pounds
• Penguins feathers are small and tightly packed together which aid them in swimming 
• The colors of the penguin – black and white – help it camouflage in the water – the dark top blends in with the dark of the ocean and the white belly blends in with the sky when predators look up underneath it towards the ocean surface 

Crafting the Penguin Puppet 

Materials 

• Paper Bag (lunch size) 
• Paint, markers, and/or crayons 
• White, black, yellow, and gray construction paper 
• Glue sticks 
• Scissors 

Steps 

1. Gather all your materials. 

2. Paint or color the paper bag using your preferred method. We used Kwik Stix Paint Sticks to paint the paper bags because the paint would dry quickly and allow us to move on to the next step. 

3. After you have cut out all the pieces for the penguin, you are ready to start attaching the different pieces of construction paper. 

4. Glue on the body or chest of the penguin.

5. Attach the wings to the penguin. 

6. Attach the feet to the penguin. 

7. Complete the penguin's face with the eyes and beak. 

8. After all the pieces have dried, the penguin puppet is ready for a puppet show.