Body back drops

Body tracing 2
Originally uploaded by dalbhat.

We need to make a back drop for an alternative school festival being held in Kolkata in November. We traced seven children's bodies with pencil, perfected the line with a black paint outline and then had the children fill in the bodies with seven different bright colors. THese are going to be cut out and stitched onto jute panels that will be hung behind our stage.

A friend who saw these tracings had the wonderful idea of doing this to various family members who come for what they called a "sister fest." They plan to do the tracings on old sheets and then drape them around the backyard. People could even take home a sister this way!

One time I did these on big sheets of paper with my own children, colored them in with clothing their grandmother had sent them, folded them up and posted them. She hung them on her wall at home and said, "I really feel their presence!"

The children loved getting into different silly jumping, dancing, throwing poses on the canvas; and loved even more painting the big spaces inside the black lines.

Up, Up, and Away!

Pizza plane!
Originally uploaded by dalbhat.

It's a bird, it's a boomerang, no -- it's Pizza Plane!
More corrugated fun with two simple parts: the body and the wings. Cut these out, add windows and a company logo on the tail, let your little one color it in (while you drink your coffee...), make the slit and assemble.

Show the motions for taking off and departing!

Make a huge one to hang from the ceiling of the nursery!

Paint or use crayons!

Cardboard kitchen

Cardboard kitchen
Originally uploaded by dalbhat.

Not much of an explanation is needed here...if you have boxes, kids love to invent things from them. This was actually another stay-at-home-with-a-cold project. We used bottle caps for knobs, made toast from cardboard, added shelves and hooks, as we played and found we needed things. plastic microwave meal containers made perfect baking pans, etc...