painting

Did you know that June15-22 was National Pollinator’s Week? While this post comes to you a week late, I thought it might be fun to do a few crafts in honor of our favorite pollinators — the butterflies, the bees, and the bats!

First, however, a little bit about pollination and why it’s so important to all of us. Here is a diagram about how “pollination” occurs!. Pollen is made by the male part of the flower, the anther. It is the powdery substance you find on flowering plants. Pollinators love to drink the sugary-sweet nectar that is made by the flowers at the base of the pistil or female part, as they move from flower to flower. When they go in to suck up the nectar, they brush against the anthers and get the pollen on their bodies. When they land on a flower, the pollen will brush off their body into the pistil. If it’s close to the opening, at the top of the pistil, it will make it’s way down to the egg. When the pollen and egg meet, a seed is formed. The seed makes a new plant! Without the seed, we would not have any fruits, vegetables, trees, grass or flowers. This is extremely important to maintain life on earth. Now that you know the importance of these three creatures, I can tell you that each of them, the bat, the butterfly and the bee are in the Phillip’s Quest books! So, here we go — First: Let’s make a bee! This comes from our friends at Crafty Morning and is made from egg carton containers. A great recycling craft for those cardboard egg containers.

Materials needed:

Yellow paint,
Black paint or marker,
Paper plate,
paint brush,
2-egg carton cups,
Scissors,
Black and silver pipe cleaners ( 2 black and 1 silver),
Googly eyes,
Hot glue gun or glue dots.

Cut off two attached egg carton cups and neatly trim excess paper and stuff. This may be something that your mom or dad may have to help you with.

Next, pour some yellow paint in a paper dish and paint both of the egg carton cups bright yellow! When the paint is dry, poke two holes on the top of one the cups. These are where the black antennas will go.

Take a glue dot or hot glue gun, and glue the head and body together.

Pour some black paint in a plate or use a black marker to make stripes around the head and body. Let the stripes dry.

While they stripes are drying, fold one of the black pipe cleaners into a “U.” This will be pushed up through the head, for the antennas. You can leave them straight, or make them squiggly.

Cut the other black pipe cleaner in half and twist together to make an “X.” This will be the bees legs — or knees!

Use the silver pipe cleaner and bend it into a figure “8.” These are the “wings.”You may want to squish it together a bit so that the wings are not so fat.

From the underside of the cup, push the antennas through the holes on the top of the head. If they are very long, you can cut them off or twist them into squiggles.

Using a glue gun or dot, glue the legs to the underside of the body and form the legs.

Glue the wings to the top of the bee.

You can make six from each container! and hang them in your room!

Next week, the butterfly and the bat!

Hint!!! Do you know what origami is?

Hope you enjoyed this week’s craft! As always, be sure to leave me a comment! Get your folding fingers ready!

Who knows what a story “box” is? Well, in case you’ve never heard of one, it’s the “box” most writers use to produce a story. It’s not always a box — many writers keep notebooks that they journal in for years and years. Then one day, they happen on a “blip,” a “blurb,” a “blog,” anything — picture, article, news story, something — that inspires them to write a story — fiction or non-fiction — but something that they are very interested in!

But, how do they start? Well, some of us start as young children; keeping notebooks filled with drawings and scribbles of stories that we now write. But, there’s more to it. Writers are very “visual”. They see things! They can look at a picture, a statue, a photograph, a scene — or something larger, like a piece of history, and want to know more! One thing leads to another, and a story is born! So, today, you are going to find your inner storyteller — your inner author and hopefully, this will take you into this wonderful realm, throughout your life!

Step 1: Find your “box.” Your very own box that you can keep all the things that you collect for your story telling. This does not have to be a “box” — it can be a basket, a cereal box, a shoe box, a bowl, plastic container or even a jar! Something that you can decorate with things you love, so that anyone who looks at it, knows it’s yours! Be sure whatever it is, it is large enough to hold:

a notebook,
pen or pencil,
some colored pencils,
a small scissor,
glue stick,
a straight edge
your favorite book and
maybe your favorite gnome!
Phillip Tuber

P. S. “Boots and britches, do not leave this laying around in everyone’s way. Keep it in your room, on your desk or in your closet.”

Step 2: Decorate your “box” with whatever you want. There is not right or wrong way. Ask your mom or dad to help you get some:

magazines, for pictures that you can cut out,
old photos that you can glue,
drawing paper, to create your own art,
wrapping paper,
scrapbook paper.

Ask them if they’ll get pictures off the web for you! Or, you can:

write your name in big letters and decorate the letters — draw a picture around each letter,
use a favorite coloring page– color it and glue it on the box,
yarn and ribbon,
paint it with watercolor paints,
old plastic buttons,
old fake flowers — take them apart and use just the petals — or use them whole,
old pieces of costume jewelry that your mom has laying around — maybe for a pirate’s treasure box! Argh!

After all, this is YOUR BOX, your treasure — the sky’s the limit. Take your time, because as you’re doing this, I’ll bet you think of a lot of great stories.

P. S. Clean up your STUFF after you have decorated it. Do not leave a mess!

Step 3: Start your collection! You might want to use old envelopes that have been opened, to collect certain things. For instance:

an envelope (or ten) for pictures of your family, or cats, or airplanes, or dogs, or dolls, or flowers — you get the picture. Whatever you love — get a picture of it, put it in an envelope and label the envelope! Soon, it will be bulging at the seams, and time for another one. But, if you keep pictures in an envelope — they won’t get smushed and wrinkled.

Write a word or two on the back of each picture you collect, number them, and start your “blurbs.”

For example: picture #1 is my cat Skye. In my notebook, I might write: “Skye was a feral cat and is now very friendly, tame and spoiled. (All true!) She is two years old and very fast!

PICTURE #1 Skye was rescued in September 2014. She is very small, very friendly and very fast.

And that’s how you begin! As you collect and write, or draw, you will find a common thread — something you are “passionate” about — very interested.

The more you collect, the more you will want to tell your story. Remember, it’s YOUR STORY. Don’t worry about misspells, punctuation, erasures — just write, and write, and write and write. The rest comes later, that’s called revisions and editing. We’ll get to that — RIGHT NOW, JUST WRITE! Oh, and read!

Step 4: READ all you can about things you want to write about. Keep a list in your notebook! Title and author. Be a critic! Like it? Yes or no? Why? Favorite part of the story? Jot it down. The more you read, the easier it becomes to write. You’ll notice parts of the book, how the author uses words. Even if all you do is look at the “illustrations”– the pictures, look at them closely, they are very cool. And, if you want to be an illustrator, they will give you something to work towards.

Enjoy this craft and keep your Story Box handy. You could be finding all kinds of stuff that you’ll want to add to it!

As always, leave me a reply! Can’t wait to hear from you!