Thursday, January 13, 2011

Freezing Rain Snowflake Craft

With the weather, this week, turning from snow, to rain, to freezing rain, with more of the same cycle in the forecast, we weren't sure whether to make snowflakes, raindrops, or spring flowers for our windows.

But, after watching the Man of the House skate across the driveway to get to his truck, this morning, I decided spring flowers were probably out, and we settled on freezing rain, instead.

We started with the usual scribble, and spray coffee filter method.





Then, when the filters were dry, I cut them into raindrop shapes.



The older children took over with the fold, and snip snowflake portion, concentrating on the round, bottom end of the rain drops.











For an icy touch, we brushed on salt paint (as seen this morning on Superheros and Princesses). I tried leaving out the actual paint, in hopes of a clear, sparkly look, held on by the starch. But without the paint, most of the salt just brushed away when it was dry.



But, the girls had a fun time painting, and the snowflake designs on our raindrops lend an appropriately wintry look to our January windows with or without, the salt crystal ice.



It's great to be a homeschooler.

For more child friendly, crafting fun, check out the Kid's Get Crafty link-up, at Red Ted Art's Blog.

13 comments:

Christy Killoran said...

I have wondered what would happen if you left out the paint; I guess it holds everything together. Some of our salt paint falls off when dry, but not much. That's too bad.

The freezing rain snowflakes came out pretty though.

The icy driveway can be a challenge. We got 23 inches of snow yesterday and it was HEAVY. Fortunately, I just baked brownies while the shoveling was taking place.

Unknown said...

Weather forecast for Almost Unschoolers? Freezy Crafty Fun!

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

Very pretty! I like the unusual shape.

Debbie said...

Your freezing rain drops are cute! I know what you mean about the weather bouncing around, we too have had snow, rain, freezing rain, then today 50 degree weather.

maggy, red ted art said...

I have been saving spray bottles for ages.. just so we can do something "sprayed", as I know my son would A-D-O-R-E it!!! Thank you for the reminder and thank you for such a CUTE craft. They look wonderful!

And thank you for linking up to Kids Get Crafty!!

Maggy

Anonymous said...

Love this project! They turned out really pretty. We had snow/freezing rain earlier this week and it's no fun!

Ticia said...

How pretty. We made coffee filter butterflies using the same method this week.

Darcey said...

I love these raindrops too! They came out pretty. I've also linked up to this post on my weekly favorites: http://play2grow.blogspot.com/2011/01/weekly-favorites-for-january-16-2011.html

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Darcey - Thanks!

The Monko said...

these are really beautiful.

zukigirl said...

Beautiful, but remember next time that snowflakes do not have 8 points . . . snowflakes are 6 pointed.

Evelyn said...

Nice craft. I taught school for 30 years. I am sure that during science you discussed the fact that snowflakes have 6 points and their crystal formation. In art, however, there is more leeway. My sister is homeschooling her son this year, 7th grade. He has a label...ADHD...and had no support at school. She is having trouble with writing tasks. Do you know some good sites?

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Evelyn and zukigirl -- yes, we have gotten more scientific about our snowflakes at other times :)

Evelyn - I'm sorry, we don't have a favorite writing resource. We use LearningExpress books, but it is one of the subjects we unschool more than not - mainly because we haven't found a book, or site we just love.