Earlybird has always had a "thing" for astronomy - I'd say his passion for space is second only to his love for trains! Not surprisingly then, we spend lots of time learning about the universe and all its myriad marvels ~ the planets and stars, the moon and the sun ...
So one of our favorite books to read on the Feast of St. Francis is based on our patron saint's beautiful hymn, "The Canticle of the Sun." The praise for God's creation paints such a striking picture, and the connection made between us and all of nature - "Brother Sun" and "Sister Moon," "Brother Wind" and "Sister Fire" - is quite memorable. I thought it would be fun to make a craft to go along with our reading - hands-on, visual learning is key with EB - so I conjured up this pretty little suncatcher.
Now, it's nothing fancy, but there are some tricky parts to the craft, so parental supervision and/or assistance is necessary.
Our main materials:
clear contact paper
scissors, craft knife
pencil, fine black sharpie
paints, paintbrush
paper plates
tissue paper
I began by tracing a "window" design onto the plate (I used a template cut from another plate):
Then EB helped me fashion one side of the circle into a sun shape:
After cutting out the rays with EB, I used the craft knife to cut out the "windows" on either side of the craft. (I did this on a thick sheaf of cardboard to protect the workspace from my knife.)
Now we had our sun and moon shape, separated by a center strip:
And EB set to work painting his sun and his moon!
As we worked we talked about "hot" and "cold" colors:
Once EB was satisfied with his painting we left the craft to dry in the front window.
I next cut out a circle of clear contact paper to fit the back of the craft, sticky-side facing forwards:
Then I gave EB two separate piles of "cold" and "hot" tissue paper squares (which I had cut up in advance).
Since EB balked at the feel of the sticky contact paper, I ended up adding the colorful squares to our window openings ...
Lastly, I wrote "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" down the center panel and the craft was all done and ready to hang!
It looked pretty in our learning room windows yesterday afternoon ...
But it now resides in EB's bedroom window, catching the early morning light as you can see in the top photo. :)
One thing we meant to do, but didn't due to a forgetful mama, was to add glittery silver stars to the moon's outer edge. We had scrapbook paper and a star-shaped craft punch, but stickers would work just as well.
Well, I hope you are all having a nice week. (Is it Wednesday already?) Our new day is getting underway here now so I'd best be off ... thanks so much for stopping by ... I will see you again soon!
:)
