Review: Roylco Straws and Connectors Building Set

Roylco sent us an amazing toy a few weeks ago: Straws and Connectors, and we absolutely loved it. Right away my daughter got constructing as you can see below. It is wonderful for fine motor control and is recommended for ages 4 and up. 

The set comes with 400 total pieces of straws and connectors shown here. So colorful and appealing to children (an adults like me!).

My seven year old daughter decided to build a huge building structure and then put blankets and pillows within it. It stayed in our living room for over a week and it became a structure for imaginary play.  This toy can be easily deconstructed and put away,  so it doesn't  take up much room when not in use. In the instruction booklet there were many examples of endless possibilities for creative building such as making rockets, cars, spheres, and so much more.

Roylco is an educational supply company with so many great resources for teachers and parents. They have endless products to purchase for Art, Crafts, Science, Math, Toys, Multicultural, Language, and so much more. Check out heir website here: Roylco.com. I know that you will find something that would be valuable for your children and their learning.

Dixon Ticonderoga School and Art Supply Review

Dixon Ticonderoga sent us some wonderful art and school supplies to try out a few months ago and we  have truly enjoyed their products these last few months. Having tried these products has also influenced me to order their art supplies for my High School Art classroom too. Keep reading to find out more.

When we first received these products my daughter C got right to work on a watercolor painting using Prang's fabulous 8 color set Oval pan watercolor set. These are the BEST watercolors and I have even bought them for my High School Art students.  The colors are much more vibrant and rich compared to competitor brands. The nice thing about these watercolors are that you can replace the colors without having to buy a whole new set.  As a teacher, it is really a money saver to be able to replace colors and not have to throw away the rest of the watercolor set.

My daughter also added Prang Markers to her masterpiece pictured here.  She loved these markers and the advantage is that you can leave the caps off these markers and they do not dry out unlike competitor brands!!!

Here are some wonderful Watercolor paintings done by my High School Students using Prang Watercolors.  I will definitely continue buying this brand for my students.  I highly recommend them as an Art Teacher.

Another GORGEOUS painting!

I truly LOVE Ticonderoga Number 2 Pencils too. They say on the package that they are The World's BEST Pencil and I can honestly say that I agree with that statement!!!! They write so smoothly, are already sharpened, and stay intact.  Other competitor pencils tend to break, are difficult to sharpen, and just do not give the same quality writing experience.  My husband even stole the package of these  pencils and brought them to work and I was so angry and told him to bring them back!!!! I missed them dearly.  I will never buy any other pencil brand after trying these. Please try them and you will see...

We truly enjoyed these Dixon Ticonderoga Products and hope you try them soon! Visit their Website here to view other great products too. 

What We've Been Doing The Past Month...(and we are on Instagram!)

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time. I have been super busy with the beginning of the school year teaching High School Art and with life.  I've been posting on Facebook and I'm now on Instagram if you want to follow me there. Here are some of the things we've been doing: painting bird feeders, making blueberry waffles (and chocolate chip too), starting first grade, making apple pancakes, riding bikes and playing with shadows, visiting the galleries of Artist Don Drumm, playing with Grandfather's toy train,  practicing Taekwondo and earning a yellow belt!, chalking sight words and hopping on them, making corn dolls, admiring flowers, making zucchini bread, playing with vintage Bristle Blocks, playing with Magna-Tiles, Playing String Games, playing with Bloonies, deconstructing my camera that fell in the ocean, riding our plasma car, drawing trees, writing stories, making buckeye land art and so much more.....

I miss posting here and hope to write some official posts when things slow down....will they ever?

Leave your Instagram handle in the comment section below and I will follow you back...

Take care!!! 

Recycled Box Puppets

Again, we've been looking at old posts and noticed my collection: 18 Creative Ideas for Making Puppets.  C wanted to make #2 the Box Puppets so that is what we made. There are so many great ideas on this list so please check it out if you need a puppet idea!

Materials Needed:

Small Box (we used a granola bar or fruit snack box)

scissors

glue

colored paper

craft supplies to design (eyes,pipe cleaners....)

First, tape or glue the box shut on the opening. Draw with a marker along the middle of the closed box and lead over to each side and not the bottom. This will be a guideline of where to cut.

Now, carefully cut along the line that you just drew. Open it up and bend the the part that is not cut. Your fingers and thumb will go in the openings created on each side to make the box talk.

Then cover the box with colored construction paper or with any paper you have on hand. We used the box to trace around on construction paper to create the same size paper to glue on the box.

After you have the paper glued on the box, you are ready to add eyes, antenna, hair, or whatever you choose.

Happy puppet making!

Simple Straw Noisemakers

These are so unbelievably easy to make and with few supplies. We found this idea here from ScienceBob.com.  I didn't even think my daughter would think this was that great,  but it turned out to be a hit.  One never knows with kids, so with my experience I would say to just try things even if you think it won't have success. These straw noisemakers are something you'll want to bring outside.

Supplies Needed:

plastic soda straws

scissors

First flatten out one end of the straw on the edge of the table.  On the same end cut the straw to a point (as shown below). Experiment with different cuts and lengths!

Then flatten it a little more and then blow on the pointed end of the straw. Blow closer to the end where the point is for best results. ScienceBob.com describes it as a duck call noise that it makes. You may need bigger lungs, so an adult may be able to do it easier. 

Try cutting the straw into different sizes for different sounds. Experiment! The science behind this is that the the two ends cut at points vibrate very fast to create a sound.