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Growing Kids
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Make Things - 4 |
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Making a Scarecrow |
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Making a Bamboo Calligraphy Pen | |
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Japanese Star Festival | |
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Tinting Eggs | |
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Flowers You Can Eat | |
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Mini-Hothouses | |
It's great to have birds in the garden, but sometimes they can be a real nuisance. Do you find that they peck at your strawberries and spoil them? Why not make a scarecrow for the strawberry patch and keep those pesky little feathered thieves away.
You will need: 2 pairs of old pantyhose, large needle and thick thread, some old unwanted clothes, an old hat, some dry leaves, grass or straw for stuffing, some pieces of felt for eyes, etc., craft glue.
1. Take one pair of pantyhose and tie the tops of the
legs together under the body part. Stuff the body part with dry grass clippings
or straw to make the head and tie it off at the top. Shred the left over part to
make hair.
2. Cut the toes off the legs of the pantyhose. Stuff a small amount of straw into each leg and push right to the top. Tie the legs together again under the stuffing to make a neck.
3. Stuff each of the legs of the pantyhose to form the arms. Tie a knot when you get to the elbow and another at the wrist and another to finish off the hand.
4. Tie the top of the legs of the other pair of pantyhose in the same way as you did before. Stuff the body part until it is very full. Using the needle and thread, sew the top of the second pair of pantyhose to the top of the "arms" and "neck" of the first pair. Your scarecrow now has a body.
5. Fill the legs with straw, tying a knot at the knees, ankles and toes.
6. Cut eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth and ears from the felt. (Make them nice and BIG!) Stick them on to the face with craft glue. You might like to add some details with a texta, but make sure it is a waterproof one.
7. Now dress your scarecrow. A light loose scarf or corks on strings around a hat will give movement and make the scarecrow seem more alive. If you have made a child scarecrow you might like to give him/her a balloon on a string. (You can make a very strong balloon by pushing one balloon inside another then blowing them both up together (not too big) with a balloon pump.)
8. You can sit your scarecrow on a chair, rest it against a wall or tie it to a stake in the ground (Put the clothes on over the stake to hide it.) Then you'll have to give him/her a name!
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Making a Bamboo Calligraphy Pen
Calligraphy is the art of
writing beautifully. Calligraphy pens can write both very finely and very
thickly depending on how you use the pen - you will have to practise a bit. An
excellent calligraphy pen can be made from bamboo. Use it to create beautiful
lettering for posters, projects and signs.
You will need: A piece of pencil-width bamboo; sharp secateurs; ink (or food colouring).
1. Choose a bamboo cane that is thick enough so that you can hold it comfortably like a pencil.
2. Ask an adult to cut through the bamboo with a pair of very sharp secateurs.
3. Cut the cane again at
an angle to make it pen-length . This will make a fine point pen. If you want a
broad pen, cut the pen point again at right angles to the stem. You can make a
whole set of different sized pens if you like.
4. You will need ink for calligraphy work. Quink can be bought at newsagents in different colours. (You can use undiluted food colourings instead of ink if you like. It washes out of things more easily.)
5. Dip your bamboo pen in the ink and see how nicely it writes.
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In July in
Japan they have a festival called the Star Festival or Tanabata. It celebrates the story
of the Weaver Princess (the star Vega) who fell in love with a cowherd (Altair). The god
was furious that Vega no longer paid such close attention to her fine weaving. He banished
Altair, but because of his love for Vega, he allowed the lovers to meet once a year - on
the 7th of July - when they travelled across the Milky Way to be together for a single
day. Japanese people celebrate the festival in a lovely way - you might like to do the
same thing with your family, just for fun.
You will need: A potted plant (bamboo is what the Japanese use, but any small shrub will do), strips of coloured paper, a pen & string
On 7th July, Japanese people write their hopes and wishes on pieces of brightly coloured paper. Then they make a hole in the paper and attach a loop of string. The coloured strips are then hung on the branches of the bamboo. Traditionally, on the next day, the pieces of paper are floated down a stream or river. Of course we wouldn’t do such a thing today, but you can send your wishes off into the natural world by adding them to your open fire, or burying them in the garden in the hope they come true!
Make sure you read the wishes of the other members of your family. Perhaps there is some way that you can help them to come true!
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Tinting Eggs - What to Do
1. To tint eggs, you hard boil them
with natural dyes so that the shell takes on a different colour. One of the best things to
use is the skins from brown onions. When you add them to the water that you boil the eggs
in, the eggshells become yellow. If you add a lot of skins, the eggs will be a rich amber
colour. Boil some eggs with a few skins and some with a lot and use both white and brown
eggs if you can. Then you will have many different shades that will look pretty together.
2. Beetroot can also be used. Choose a pale egg and boil it up with chopped beetroot and a teaspoonful of vinegar . You will get a deeper colour if you leave the egg sit in a cup and completely cover it with the beetroot water after you've boiled it.
3. If you can get hold of some blueberries, even just a little handful in the water will turn the egg a magnificent grey. (Pssst! For a neat April Fool's Day trick, colour one of the eggs like this secretly, slip it back into the egg box and watch Mum freak!!) The more berries you use the deeper the colour.
4. You can experiment with lots of different things. Any fruit that stains your clothes or your hands would be worth trying e.g. raspberries, mulberries, blackberries. (Ordinary food colouring works too. Add a little vinegar to the water as well.) You can experiment with lots of different things.
5. When the eggs have been hard-boiled, dry them and rub them with a little vegetable oil. Then polish them lightly with tissues. This will give them a nice shine.
6. Put the eggs in a little basket with some straw, or you might like to hide them in the garden for other members of your family to find.
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We
once had a lovely Bearded Dragon living in our garden. (Bearded Dragons are a
kind of spiky lizard.) This dragon was so tame I would hold out a dandelion
flower and he would waddle up and gobble it up. Did you know that there are
flowers that you can eat? It's fun to use them in cooking and they look so
pretty, but PLEASE do not experiment with flowers other than the
ones mentioned here because many common garden flowers are poisonous.
Flowers to Eat
1. Flowers that you can safely eat are nasturtiums, borage, violets and scented geranium flowers. Flowers of cooking herbs are also safe to eat.
2. Coloured flowers are very nice in salads. Try some nasturtium and borage flowers. It's also fun to sip the nectar from nasturtium flowers. To do this you need to nip off the very end of the long spur on the flower and then suck the nectar out. (Make sure there aren't any bugs inside first! Yicky!!)
3. Crystallising flowers is easy to do. You will need a new fine paintbrush, an egg white, some caster sugar, some non-stick baking paper and a rack or cake cooler to dry the flowers on.
4. Violets and geranium flowers (especially lemon, rose or cinnamon scented ones) crystallise particularly well. Pick them early in the day, wash them, then stand the stems in a small jar of water until the flower parts are quite dry.
5. Beat the egg white very lightly, then, using the paint-brush, carefully paint every surface of the flower with the egg white. Make sure every bit is covered.
6. Sprinkle the caster sugar lightly over the flowers until all surfaces are well-coated, then put them on the rack to dry. Drying may take a couple of days. (Don't do it in wet weather or they 'll go sticky.)
7.
Store the candied flowers in an airtight container. They can be eaten as sweets
and make great decorations on ice creams, on sundaes and on cakes.
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Making
Mini-Hothouses
Do you like tomatoes? They’re great for making lots of foods kids like,
such as pizza, salsa and tomato sauce. Tomato seeds need warmth and moisture to germinate. To get a head
start, you can plant your tomato seeds in little mini hothouses in early spring and then
transplant them into the garden when the weather is a bit warmer. Home grown
tomatoes taste SO good!!
You will need: some 12cm pots, the same number of 2 litre soft drink bottles, potting mix, fertiliser, tomato seeds.
What to Do:
1. Almost fill the pots with damp potting mix. (Use your gardening gloves when handling potting mix.)
2. Plant a couple of seeds in each pot. Plant them about half a centimetre deep. Water gently and well.
3. Using a pair of kitchen scissors, cut the sloping parts off the plastic drink bottles.
4. Turn the bottom pieces of the soft-drink bottles upside down over the top of the pots. Your seeds and seedlings will now have their own little hothouses.
5. Place the mini-hothouses in a warm, brightly light area, but not in full sun. A brightly lit window sill is perfect. If the potting mix appears to be drying out, add water. You will need a saucer to catch the drips, but don’t let the pots sit in water.
6. When the seedlings have developed two healthy leaves, remove the tops and place the pots outdoors, first in a brightly lit area and gradually move them to a sunny spot.
7. Add some fertiliser to the pot.
8. Choose the healthiest seedling and very gently pull the other ones out.
9. When the plants look sturdy enough, transplant them into the garden (or into bigger pots.)
10. You can use these mini-hothouses with lots of other seeds too.
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Global Garden 2000 -
2007
http://www.global-garden.com.au
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