U is for Up!

 U week is one of my favorite weeks because we get to work on the concept of up! Funny enough, my daughter and I watched the movie Up! last week and I think maybe my subconscious was working on me or something because I had balloons on the brain.

We have been talking about gardens this month and between that and Easter, birds were a natural part of our discussion. We had already talked about baby birds and nests when we made our bobble head birds and nests a couple of weeks ago. So, we just continued that discussion with up! (You know because birds fly up and stuff.)

 Anyway, we made these helium filled balloon birds that actually do fly up in the sky. We did it slightly differently this year because I just made simple beaks instead of the crazy, but very cool looking ones we used last year.

Birdy friends saying goodbye at pick up.

Out the door with our new found friend.

 As always, the kids loved their balloon birds and it was fun to watch them pull them around the classroom having such a good time. If you want a full tutorial, you can check it out here. 

Up, up bird!

Spring time = baby birds. Baby birds + letter U week = Up Bird!


Birds that fly up in the sky were our craft for this week. (You can't really tell, but the bird in the picture was up on the ceiling.) We helped the birds fly by making them wings. We read The Magic School Bus Flies From the Nest and learned about how baby birds grow in the Spring time and then learn how to fly. Then, we made wings for our own birds.

Here's What You Need:

• Balloons (You can use helium or not. The helium are fun because they fly on their own, but it is also fun to hit the other ones around to make them fly. If you get helium, you need to get them the morning of, or there won't be enough helium left to keep the birds afloat once they have their face and wings.)
• White Vinyl or large address labels for the eyes
• Yellow paper cutouts of the beaks (See extra instructions below)
• Coffee filters
• Washable markers
• Spray bottle filled with water
• Packing tape

Beak Assembly (these beaks come from the mailbox magazine.):

1. Cut out the upper and lower piece.
2. Cut on the dotted lines and fold on the double lines.
3. After you have folded on the double lines, the pointy parts of the drawing should be close to touching. Pull those pointy parts together so that they overlap and tape it together. Do this for both the upper and the lower beak.
4. Flip the lower beak upside down and tape inside the upper beak.
5. If you want to you can slightly crease the beaks in the middle to make them stick out more.

Here's What You Do:
(I did steps 1 - 5)

1. Fill balloons to desired size.
2. Cut out and assemble beaks. Tape onto the balloon
3. Cut out two ovals from the vinyl or address labels and add black pupils for the eyes.
4. Stick onto balloon above the beak.
5. Cut wing shapes out of the coffee filter paper. Each child will need two.
6. Color the coffee filter wings with washable marker.
7. Spray a couple of times with a water bottle to make the colors bleed and let dry.
8. Tape wings on the side of the balloon with packing tape.

As always, if you need help, please just ask!

After doing this a couple times, I do have a few suggestions:

1. Make sure you get the high float helium in the balloons.
2. It's best to try to get them the day of the project if possible.
3. Always get a few extra because some of the balloons just don't handle the extra weight as well.
4. Use the lightest materials possible to insure a better flight.  
5. We used a simpler beak pattern this year.  It was only a top beak and I drew it out roughly like the picture below. (No making fun of my lame paint shop skills.: ) You cut out the shape and fold on the dotted lines. Overlap the tabs at the top and tape them together.

 

Aliens Love Underpants

Didn't you know? Aliens love underpants! We talked about underpants for letter U week after reading that book.

We decorated our own underpants to see if some aliens might come and steal our underpants, but luckily they didn't because some of the kids were quite concerned about their visit. : ) I had to reassure them that we were just pretending and it was just for fun.