Carla Mahan Beyerlein of CarlaBeads on etsy posted link on Facebook to a tutorial on Lampwork Etc. of “The Blue Bead” by Sara Kay that is such a lovely bead. It uses cobalt glass, silver foil and clear and the result is just beautiful. It’s a nice recipe and if you don’t have any Kronos glass you can get similar if not better silver glass effects. It is made with silver foil after all. This tutorial makes me want to get on the torch right now and make a blue bead. I’ve got a class I’m teaching this weekend and this might be a great thing to show my students on the second day. Something to think about. Well, if you try the tutorial out send me a picture of your bead so I can post it here.
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Spring Activities to Get Kids Outside
By the end of March where I live we are starting to have more warm days than not, and all we want to do is spend more time outside. Luckily we can make it educational and a little fun, too, with these spring activities involving the outdoors.
Of course it’s great to do things that will get kids outside and keep them going outside, like starting a garden or installing bird feeders and going out to regularly fill/check on them. Making seed bombs is a fun thing you can do inside and then use outside to see what grows. Or make these for Mother’s Day gifts! Get the instructions from Natural Beach Living.
Make your own bubble wands (and/or your own bubble solution) and get outside to blow bubbles. If you want to make a giant bubble wand, you can find out how from It’s Always Autumn.
If you have access to a sidewalk you can make your own sidewalk chalk (or chalk paint) and draw or play sidewalk chalk games. First up, get the recipe for chalk from Princess Pinky Girl, then get some ideas for sidewalk chalk games.
I personally love hopscotch because it gets kids moving, but you can also print out or come up with your own spring movement activity cards (these are from From ABCs to SATs) and take them outside to use in a game or just let kids go wild hopping like bunnies and waddling like ducks. I love the idea of a spring themed game of Red Light, Green Light where kids have to do the movements as they go.
And of course nature walks are great all the time, and there are all sorts of themes you can use, from collecting different colors to textures, shapes and more. I love this one for a fairy house building activity from Glitter on a Dime. First kids can walk around and collect materials, then design and decorate their fairy homes.