Alma Mater: February 2014

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

We didn't get to make it to Annalee this year due to some huge snow storms, but Grandpa let us order our doll online and took us out to breakfast. Mom has had this tradition (as you've probably seen from previous posts) to get an Annalee doll every year since she was younger than I am! This would have been her 25th year. Below are some pictures of the doll we chose...

I started getting dolls with Mom a few years ago, and I have a little collection. This year Filia joined in on the tradition, so we got the 3 little pigs doll for Me, Mom and Filia!

Art Workshop By: Siobhan

Hello Everyone! I am so sorry it has been so long since I have posted here. We have had some computer problems and I couldn't access pictures for a while.
We are nearing the Regionals tournament for DI and we still have a lot that we need too get done. One of the things on our to-do list is making an artifact that is inspired by the work of art that our team chose. We chose William Powell Frith's The Signal. Below is a picture of it...

We have to make a work of art inspired by this painting for our Destination Imagination challenge. Our team chose to make a castle. Mom recently received an email about art classes taught by an art teacher in Henniker. We told her what our team had to do and she offered to do a special two hour workshop for our team.
When we got there, Lisa taught us some elements of art, like lines, shading, shadows, etc. We then were given 5 pencils and made a graph of the different shades of each of the pencils. Depending on how soft or hard the pencil was and what type it was (4H, 8B, etc.) we got different shades. We also experimented with smudging.
Next we tried sketching different shapes like cones, cylinders, spheres, etc. and especially shapes we would use in the drawing/building of castles. When we had worked on that for a while we moved onto copying mini black and white images. We used the shading techniques we had used earlier and had a lot of fun copying those. We got to use some graphite as well. Lisa gave each of us tips and tools. The two hours flew by and before we knew it, it was time to go. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot more about art. I will post pictures of our Artifact when it is complete and will also do a post on the other requirements for our challenge.

N and Leo :)

H drew this one. Great job!

Here is the 'wall of art.' Everyone did really well.

Roy Update With Pictures By: Leo

Note from Stella: For those of you who didn't know, Leo got a leopard gecko a little while ago at NERD (New England Reptile Distributors). He is very healthy and well taken care of! His name is Roy for Roy G. Biv, because he has so many colors.

Bo Peep, Mosaics and Valentines! By: Siobhan

Hello Everyone! I have a lot more preschool/kindergarten photos for you today. I've been having fun doing little crafts with the kids, and I'm pretty sure they are having fun too :)

As I've already told you in my Jack and Jill post, I've been doing literature pockets with Tert and Filia. They are nursery-rhyme themed, and they're a lot of fun. We did Little Bo Beep this week, and made adorable little cotton ball sheep. The template was in the book, but you could cut them out on your own if you'd like...

All you need is paper, glue, cotton balls and brad.

Tert took his work very seriously...

...but he still felt a little sheepish...

The kids have enjoyed doing mosaics lately. The 'My First Sticky Mosaics' are awesome are great. They're just heavy-duty cardboard like material that have little colored foam sticker shapes.

Since we were nearing Valentine's Day, we did the LOTW (Letter of the Week) Confessions of a Homeschooler Valentine's Day Activities. I already had them printed out from when I did them last year with Tert.

There were size comparison charts, number matching, patterning, uppercase/lowercase matching, and many more...

Vv page

Matching game!

Pattern time!

I had some little doilies in my desk, so I pulled them out and gave the kids some glitter glue so they could decorate them.

I already posted some pics. of these in my Valentine's Day/Birthday post, but here are some more I had taken. These were Creatology brand at Michaels.

(Sorry the pictures are a little fuzzy...)

Hard at work

;)

I hope you enjoyed this post. Stay tuned for more pictures soon!

Black Bean Brownie Recipe By: Siobhan

If you're looking for a quick, easy and delicious (dessert) recipe, you've come to the right place! We absolutely love black bean brownies here at Alma Mater, and I think you will too.

~Black Bean Brownies~

Ingredients:
1/8 tsp. salt
1 can (15 oz.) black beans, drained and rinsed
3 eggs
1/3 cup melted butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup plus 2 T. sugar
1 cup chocolate chips (white or milk chocolate is fine, as are large or mini choc. chips)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an eight inch pan or pie pan. We prefer to use the pie pan, because it's easier to cut that way and you get more :) Blend all ingredients except chocolate chips in blender. Stir chips in. Bake for 30 minutes.