The Barri Make Octopi

I have been trying to get back to our alphabeting.  If I plan well, it gives us something to do during the week.  I took a hiatus during December, but I have had a hard time getting back into the swing of things.  This week is O week, and I thought it would be messy fun to make paper-mâché octopi.  Paper-mâché requires several layers, so I figured it would be a project we would work on through the week, at the end of which we would have something to hang in the children's rooms.  


I made flour and water paste, tore up newspaper, and covered the kitchen table with additional newspaper.  Then I called the children down to the kitchen as I blew up balloons.  I was ready.  And then I quickly realized that I had perhaps chosen a project a bit above my children's level.  Brandt didn't want to touch the paste.  He dipped his first piece of newspaper into the goop, then withdrew his hand and began trying to shake off the paste, flinging it all over me and the kitchen windows.  Blythe got just a little bit on her hand and then wanted me to wipe it off.  I encouraged them to go ahead and get messy--I didn't mind.


So they tentatively began.  Blythe put her strip of newspaper into the paste, then wadded it up into a small, useless ball.  I helped Brandt get two strips on his balloon, then it rolled across the table and into the pile of newspaper, adhering six or seven pieces to the side.  The balloons stuck to the newsprint covering the table, and within three minutes of starting, we were done.  We will have no paper-mâché octopi at our house.  

Undaunted, I cleaned up the mess and went to plan B.  Instead of making octopi, I would have the children put together ocean mobiles.  I printed off ocean animal coloring sheets and had the children return.  In my mind, the plan was to have the children color (whale, shark, octopus, sea horse, turtle, and fishes), then I would cut out, we would make holes and then hang the fish from dowels and make mobiles (more stuff to hang in their bedrooms).  Oddly enough, plan B did not turn out as I had imagined either.  

Brandt begins kindergarten in the fall and I have been having some anxiety about his preparation.  He doesn't write his name, he doesn't read, and he doesn't color inside the lines.  So as we began, I suggested that Brandt try to color inside the lines.  He said he could, then used the crayons to color one line within the lines of each picture.  Just the one line.  I encouraged him to do a bit more, and then volunteered to cut them out for him.  He wanted to cut himself, so he did.  Each creature was cut out, but most were missing vital body parts--the octopus had his tentacles cut off, each fish was fin-less, and the turtle had no head.  When I asked if Brandt wanted to punch holes in each one, he did, but then punched three or four holes in each animals, and then cut them up into little pieces.

Blythe didn't do much better.  She colored more than just the one line, and she let me cut several out for her, but then she, too, got some scissors and began chopping away.  Each fish was cut into small (bite-size?) pieces and strewn over the floor.  So much for mobiles.  Although plan B didn't work like I had imagined any more than plan A had, I know the children had a good time, and Brandt was able to work on his scissoring skills.

Today I sort of planned to try octopi again, this time with bread dough.  I used Rhode's, but by the time the rolls had thawed enough to form into anything, the children were not interested, and when they were interested, the rolls had risen too much and needed to be cooked.  I think I will call it good with O week projects and move on to something else. 

Although the projects were unsatisfying, our O dinner was not.  I made omelets, round cantaloupe balls (O shaped), orange pepper, and orange juice.  Okra was on the list of possibilities, but I've never made okra before, and I wasn't sure how it would taste in an omelet.  Oatmeal cookies as a treat.  Quite frankly, I am ready to move on to P.