February 21: Home for Birds Week (3rd week of February)

image from portersonline.com

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Paper Mache Bird Houses

Materials:

• Smocks
• Newspaper
• Water
• Flour
• Large pot
• Clean medium-sized milk carton
• Masking tape
• Scissors

Directions:

1. Tear newspaper into shreds and place in pot. Fill with water and boil for 30 minutes until paper turns to pulp.
2. Cool the pulp and squeeze out the water. Add 2 cups of flour and mix well.
3. Seal the top of the carton with masking tape and cut a hole larger than desired for finished product.
4. Cover whole carton (make sure pulp is on inside of hole as well) with paper mache pulp and leave to dry in sun.
5. When dry, add second layer and any desired decorations. Whole process may take a couple days.
6. Paint and add a coat of varnish for protection from the elements if desired.

Source(s): From kidzworld.com; featured in Toolbox Training book 100 Nature Activities for Kids (activity H11)

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Check out the full February calendar. It includes floating holidays, specialty weeks, and specialty months.

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September 2: Fall Hat Month

image from ucf4fl-explorers-settlerssp10t.wikispaces.com

September is Fall Hat Month. Here’s a newspaper hat you can make with paper mache.

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Newspaper Hat

Materials:

• newspaper
• large balloons
• flour
• water
• bowl
• paper plates
• paint
• paint brushes
• decorative material (felt scraps, colored cotton balls, feathers, beads, etc.)

Directions:

1. Blow up a large balloon to be the same size as your head. Tie the balloon.
2. Mix flour and water in a bowl until it has a soupy texture.
3. Tear newspaper into strips.
4. Dip strips into flour/water mixture and mold around just the top of the balloon so as to form a cap.
5. Apply several layers.
6. Let cap dry for at least a day and then pop the balloon.
7. Decorate cap as you wish - you can use a paper plate to form a bill for the cap (like a baseball cap).

Source(s): Toolbox Training’s construction card set (activity B2)

Check out the full September calendar to see the month at a glance as well as floating holidays, specialty weeks, and themes for the month.

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