Weather Challenge - Unplug Your Kids

Last weeks challenge at Unplug your Kids was Weather.


Well it is Spring here, and where I live is at the moment coloured with beautiful shades of purple - it is Jacaranda season ~ so I tried to think of some activities to go along with it ~ There is a Jacaranda tree about every 50 metres in full bloom around here ~ It is so beautiful.

We painted some tiny canvases (they are about 5cm)
We recently went to the art gallery so the older girls were practicing more abstract styles - we talked about how to make something evoke the feeling of the subject matter without actually drawing it realistically

Gotta love a 6:30am craft session!

This idea was inspired by the recent Kids Craft Weekly - Seasonal Collages

The girls collected fallen jacaranda flowers


and stuck them onto contact
These probably would have looked better with some other flowers thrown in for variety

Here is some jacaranda folklore from wiki~
South Africa is most famous for Jacaranda with my town coming second! Florida, Phoenix Arizona, San Diego California also have them

Local folklore claims that "one won't start studying for exams until the jacarandas have molted" OR "by the time the jacaranda flowers, it's too late to start studying for exams". (It is the end of the university/school year soon)

The jacaranda only flowers for approximately six weeks from September through October.

The reason for the Jacaranda's proliferation in Brisbane is often attributed to the thirties and forties, when new mothers leaving the maternity hospital were given a jacaranda sapling to plant

While I was on an art gallery tour last year - in front of a famous 100 year old painting of the first jacaranda planted here, the tour guide said "and each year during Jacaranda season a scattering of the flowers is often found beneath the painting ~ yet they have never discovered who does it" ~ ooooooo spooky!!


We have had many discussions this week about Jacaranda's!! The kids are pointing them out left right and centre, and have discovered that their favourite small climbing tree in the local park ~ IS A JACARANDA!! As it is now covered in purple.

I myself was happy to learn about them being given as a gift to mothers having a baby! When I spy the trees in many yards around here, I wonder if it was a tree planted for a baby ~ A baby now 70 - 80 years old!!


Enjoy Spring!


This Weeks Theme: Wheel