{Outdoor Classroom} Clouds

Last week we read the book “Sector 7” by David Wiesner. Of course, I use the term “read” pretty loosely in this situation because there are no words in this book. The illustrations are fantastic though, and we had fun talking about what was happening on each page. The book is about clouds, and how they can be all sorts of shapes. We both really enjoyed the ending. I won’t spoil it for you though :)

One afternoon, after “reading” the book for the hundredth time, we did a little sky gazing. The clouds were moving along pretty quickly, and the sun was starting to go down. Juniper found a dragon in the clouds. (Lots of things look like dragons to her. I guess she just likes dragons. Me too!)

After the sun went down, we spent some time in my craft room doing a little art project together. Juniper picked the paper, I cut out the sky and she glued it down. Then we drew little pictures of our family. I drew me and Flynn, and she drew her and Daddy. (Can you tell??) I told her we could make the cloud any shape she wanted, just like in the book, and she chose a heart. Then I drew a big heart in the sky and she glued down cotton balls around the shape. Well, I didn’t have any glue or cotton balls, so she used white paint and balled up pieces of stuffing. Whatever works. When we were done, Juniper glued the rest of the cotton balls down on some scrap paper, in all sorts of shapes.

I LOVE this picture! For so many reasons. I love the big heart cloud, and her silly drawings. And I love that we made it together. Usually I try not to push Juniper in any particular direction when we do crafts because I want her to develop her own creativity. But I really enjoyed making this WITH her. We talked about each step and made decisions together. And it turned out SO STINKING CUTE! I just love it so much. I’m going to keep it forever and ever.