You need:
old shirt or fabric- enough for two 51/2 inch squares
lentils or rice
felt for the eyes, nose, and ears
needle and thread or sewing machine
puppy pattern pieces (click on the following pattern picture if you want to use my patterns)

To do:
1. Cut two 51/2 inch squares

 2. Cut nose, eyes and ears out of felt or other contrasting fabric.
3. Sew nose and eyes onto both pieces of felt. Make sure you sew them on opposite sides, so when they are together the face will be make sense.

4. Position the ears, facing down, they will flip up after you have sewn the bean bag.

5. Put right sides together, ears tucked down, and stitch all the way around the bean bag, leaving an opening to turn the bean bag and add lentils. I left the lower right corner open.

 6. Turn the bean bag right side out and stuff with lentils or rice. Stuff it about 2/3 full.

7. Whip stitch the opening closed and there you have it- cute little bean bag friends made just for tossing.

*Please let me know if you have trouble downloading the patterns, this is the first time providing them this way.  Enjoy!

You need:

pressed leaves- use leaves that have been pressed for about 24-48  hours, they are still quite flexible at this stage and lay nicely

glue solution- 2 parts glue, 1 part water (or use Modge Podge)

Download the mask onto card-stock

crayons

scissors

hole punch and yarn for the masks that tie around the head

glue gun and a stick for the type of mask you hold

*Cut out the mask, color, and glue on the leaves.

Fauna’s mask (top photo) is a made of scarlet maple leaves with a stick hot glued to the back for her to hold the mask in front of her face. Araina chose to make a chihuahua mask (hmmm, looks like an owl to me, but she insists it is not).

Preserve the masks by covering the leaves with the  glue solution or Modge Podge.

I have added some free downloads to the site today:

Playdough Recipes: recipes for salt dough, fruity dough, coffee dough, cinnamon dough and sand dough

THE LEGEND OF THE DANDELION: a neat story about the dandelion

Great Math Games: games of probability and using dice

wild edible plants in ohio: information about common wild edibles in the Ohio Valley and the Great Lake States

The Periodic Table of Elements Riddles: now you don’t have to email me for this list of riddles

Sunflower math: simple little booklet of measurement for a sunflower study

raising caterpillars: some tips on raising caterpillars and I included a list of good host plants to encourage butterflies to lay eggs in your garden

Click on any of the above to get your download. They are housed in the different pages above as well. I hope to add more in the future.

The Giveaway: thank you all who entered. It’s so fun to read the comments from this creative bunch of people! The random generator picked #2 Sherry from Living and Learning. If you aren’t familiar with her site and you’re a homeschooler, you must check out all of her great lesson ideas and links to share!