Happy May Day!

The boys were busy this morning delivering flowers and gourds to the neighbors... Now they are busy peeking out the windows to see if anyone has discovered them!

We made classic tissue paper flowers (cut a standard sized tissue paper rectangle into two the long way, fold it in half, fold each half into accordian style pleats, wrap a wire around the center of the folded paper, spread out the tissues, wrap wire onto wood skewer stem).  We ran out of time for leaves!

We added cardboard tube sunflowers, one for each basket (http://www.bhg.com/crafts/easy/1-hour-projects/what-to-make-with-craft-scraps/).  Of course, the professional ones look much nicer than ours... but ours are still colorful.  You take one 4" section of paper tube and cut fringe toward the center on both ends, leaving about 1/2 inch in the center. I painted mine white before the kids decorated them so all the colors would adhere well.  Poke a hole in the center of the painted flower with sharp object (Swiss army knife awl), then poke a painted bamboo skewer through for the stem.  Crumple a small square of tissue paper inside for the flower's center.










We put three tissue flowers and one paper tube flower in each paper cone "basket."  The kids wrote "Happy May Day" on the handles.  They hung one basket on each neighbor's door.

Bird House Gourd Painting

We inherited a bird house gourd last spring and had great fun painting it.  A bird even attempted to nest in it... It was full of twigs by the end of summer! The boys loved watching the little wren flying to and fro.  What fun!

Of course, the gourd was full of seeds.  We just had to plant a seed or two after we carved it.  Instructions on the web said plant seeds, water, then leave alone until you can't stand to look at them any more (or the gourds have dried).  Easy enough!  The gourds grew and grew, taking over our front yard.  It gave the neighbors something to talk about besides the weather!  By Halloween, the shriveled plants were looking nice and spooky.  We stored the gourds in our garage until last week...

This spring, our job was to decorate!  My plan was to have a neighborhood paint party but the neighbors were all busy with other things, and we wanted to get them out for May Day, so we set to work.  Another great use for the joust pole!  Note, I painted all the gourds white (old house paint) to give the boys an even background for painting.  When the kids got tired of painting, I added the spirals and had them "dot" extra colors.  We used tempera kid's paint for color (WASH OFF!).  Then I added a few coats of polyurethane for weathering.

Do we have seeds now, you betcha!  I think the squirrels got most of them. Meanwhile, the boys are excited to deliver these to neighbors in the morning...

May Day Flowers

Ol' Fashioned May Day Fun!

What neighbor wouldn't appreciate a doorknob full of kid-fashioned flowers for May Day?

Take a handful of coffee filters, some food coloring and paint brushes or eye droppers to make the flowers. (Dilute food coloring, add brush or dropper to each color, let kids "paint".)  Leave several attached together to paint 3 at a time.  After drying, twist each coffee filter into flower shape with a pipe cleaner/chenille stem.  Put a half a dozen in a decorated cone shaped from construction paper. On May Day morning, have the kids hang a bouquet from each door knob... My kids loved the art, and the surprise!

Growing a Garden Healthy Preschool Snack

Letter G!  Here we come!  Grow a garden and gobble the grazers!

soup crackers, sliced cheese cut with small flower cookie cutter, green grapes sliced in half lengthwise, Annie's bunny crackers-- you could also add pretzel sticks for stems