Friday, June 29, 2012

Wallowa County Finalist for National Honor

Two BHF Staff and a community partner will travel to Denver to attend a conference and awards ceremony for the 2012 All America Cities Award.  Each year, 10-12 communities from around the Country are honored with this prestigious accolade in areas ranging from community health to education.  This year's award focuses on communities working together to improve 3rd grade reading scores for all students.  After submitting a Letter of Intent in November, BHF was invited to collaborate with school districts and community partners to present a Community Solutions Action Plan in early spring for further consideration.  In late may, BHF was notified that Wallowa County had been selected as 1 of 32 national finalists to attend the conference in Denver.  To read more, read our guest blog on the Early Works blog of the Oregon Children's Institute.

http://early-works.org/blog

Friday, June 22, 2012

Sandpaper T-shirt Art


Both students and teachers were thrilled with this easy, inexpensive way to capture kids art!   Sandpaper serves as the transfer paper and with the help of an iron, turns a simple crayon drawing into a cute, unique t-shirt.  Simply follow the steps from alphamom.com and start crafting today!

1. Color a fun design on the sandpaper. Remind children that the image will be reversed. Once the design is colored go back over the design giving the sandpaper an extra thick layer of crayon.

2. Place a piece of cardboard inside the t-shirt to keep the design from bleeding through to the back of the shirt. Position the sandpaper right side down on the t-shirt.

3. Place a piece of parchment paper or paper towel on top of the sandpaper to protect the iron. Iron, on cotton setting, the sandpaper for about 30 second. Gently lift one edge and make sure you have a good print before totally removing the sandpaper. Iron a bit more if you need to transfer more of the crayon.

4. Remove the sandpaper. You’ll have a print with loads of cool texture–not to mention a new darling t-shirt.

5. To set the color, place a couple of paper towels on top of the design and iron. This will remove some of the extra wax. Toss t-shirt in the dryer for about 20 minutes to set the color. Launder by itself the first time.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Creative Summer Craft

A creative way for kids to use the stones they stumble across is to turn them into animals, people, or objects.
With just a few supplies -- paint, glue, and clay -- children can try out their skills as rock artists. Like sculptors, they'll learn to judge proportion and form. Like painters, they will need to consider color and shape, along with such pleasant dilemmas as how to create a tapered wing on a rounded rock.

Both tempera and acrylic paints work well (though tempera washes MUCH easier).  Have kids sketch out their idea first before applying paint to their rocks.

Here are some great ideas to get you started.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Creative Ideas for Hitting the Road!

While escaping from the daily routine may  sound like a fun idea, traveling with children can often make trips a bit less memorable than desired.  Building Healthy Families asked around and collected some favorite family travel tips for your next out of town adventure!  We would love more ideas and encourage you to add your own by commenting below.

  • WINDOW AS CANVAS If you don't mind wiping the windows, let the kids use dry-erase markers to color pictures. My kids love to play tic-tac-toe. A baby wipe clears it up fast -- makes the kids great travelers! 
  • PIPE CLEANERS We get lots of mileage out of a big bag of colorful pipe cleaners. Both my kids make different things out of them; the little one practices his colors and counting with them. Add some large beads and you're set. We use them on planes mostly. The kids make things for the passengers and everyone seems happy
  • TOYS BY THE HOUR I go to the dollar store for little things for them to play with, then wrap them up and give the kids their own backpacks with the presents inside. They can open one every hour and enjoy a new surprise. 
  • NIGHTTIME TRAVEL Even if it is a baby toy, kids have fun with ANYTHING that lights up. Our dollar store has neon glow bracelets and sticks (the kind you'd purchase at an amusement park or nighttime parade) that kids can connect and make bracelets or necklaces out of. Glow-in-the-dark star stickers are fun to get out too. Have them use their mini-flashlights on them to get them to shine. They can stick them above their seat in the car (if they are big enough), or you can have them do it before it gets dark when stopping for gasoline or something quick
  • MAD LIBS We just finished a trip with a 6- and 8-year-old. The big hit of the trip was Mad Libs. The kids took turns filling in the answers and loved reading the funny stories. 
  • FREEZE 'EM FIRST Make mini banana-nut bread loaves, freeze, then thaw in morning and slice for snack; great with peanut butter and slice of banana on top ... Mix fruit or jam into yogurt and freeze in small, snack-sized Ziploc bags for frozen yogurt on the go. Cut a hole in the end of the bag for easy access/eating.... Make a batch of pudding and add coconut, nuts, marshmallows, crushed cookies, or sprinkles. Pour into molds. Freeze several hours until firm (stays nice as it thaws!)