Surrealism

Barb, over at Harmony Fine Arts at Home posted a project they did on surrealism.  We just had to try some for ourselves.  We had a lot of fun looking through old magazine for just the right pictures.  And posing for the camera to get the effect we were looking for.  Here are the pictures we did.

Thanks, Barb, for the fun idea!

Mushrooms, Lichen and Moss

Since THIS is what our yard looks like right now, we had to do some improvising in order to do our Outdoor Hour Challenge this month.  We are studying mushrooms, lichen and moss.  So...

 We bought some portabellas at the grocery store so we could study the parts.

 And they had the added benefit of being able to EAT them when we were done! :D

We also looked up some pictures that we had taken on previous occasions and looked at those.  Here are a few...

 We even have a picture of a fairy ring we found in our front yard once.  It wasn't the most perfect ring, but it has a fairy!

And today we went outside to look at the lichen on the trees, and found we have moss, too!

 

We found this little piece of lichen in a hole in the snow.

 Mosses....

Tabbi also worked on this workbook from the American Mushroom Institute.  She really enjoyed the study, especially because mushrooms are one of her favorite foods!

Common Redpoll

Saturday morning Tabbi spotted this bird under the feeder.  At first we thought it was a sparrow, but it was acting rather oddly.  It just sat there with it's head turned back and tucked into it's feathers.  I was afraid the cat or dog would get it, so I went out to check on it.  It jumped up on the feeder and I was able to get a really nice close up photo of it.  We found out that it is a female Common Redpoll.  It's the first time we have ever seen one!  And she was very friendly! She hung around at the feeder all day.  Sunday morning we looked out the window to check on her and see if she was still around.  She was... and she brought her mate!  So we got to see a male, too!  So awesome!

Birds!

This month we are studying birds with Barb at the Handbook of Nature Study blog.  We set up two tables in our living/school room.  This one is our nature table with lots of "bird" items to explore.

 

And we set up this table in front of the window where our bird feeders are, so we can watch the birds.  Tabbi really enjoys marking down which birds we see.

 

She was excited to see her first female Hairy Woodpecker on the suet.  

Wish we would have gotten a picture of it. 

For something new this year we did a study on owls. 
We listened to several owl calls here,
Made these cute pine cone owls.

Painted some owl pictures from inspiration we found here.

And we invited some friends over for an owl pellet dissection party!

We even made owl cookies for our party snack!

Thanks for stopping by. 

Ice Skating

We were invited to attend a Valentine's Day Ice Skating party put on by the virtual academy.  We took Becca with us, too.  This is the first time either girl has ever been on ice skates, and they had SO much fun!  I thought they did pretty well for their first time, too.  Even though they both had a few good size bruises when we got home. :D

Another idea from Pinterest!

Here is our art project for today.  Painting, using tape.  An idea I found on Pinterest.  The inspiration comes from "this blog". 

First we used our frog tape to make abstract sections, painted them all different colors...










then peeled the tape off when it was dry.

Here's the finished project!  She looks pretty proud of herself!

History Pockets

    We are using this book to study Ancient Civilizations. 

 Today we worked on Ancient Greece.

And Tabbi made this double mask.  It was worn so the actor could play two people at the same time.

 She thought it was just hilarious!