I taught the fun lesson at co-op today, and we made salamander rooms!
We discussed what makes a nice home for a salamander (a la the lesson in FIAR Volume III), and then we set to work making our own nice homes. If any of you FIARowers are interested, here is what we did:
Spray painted shoe boxes (16 of ’em, baby!) brown
*I did this in advance Added boulders (pretty rocks ~ Hobby Lobby had these on sale last week…a big bag for a buck, but you can get small bags at Dollar Tree)
Added leaves
(Dollar General had some greenery marked with purple dots — 1/2 off! The kids cut the leaves off the stems)
Added insects
(Wal-mart had packages for .88) Added water (I bought blue cellophane and glued it to white cardstock. Each child cut a pond shape out of the "water" I gave them.)
Added green Spanish moss
(Hobby Lobby)
Added a salamander (of course!)
(I found these at Wal-mart in the fishing lure section)
Use hot glue to really make things stick. I let Elijah design his box and then I glued everything in (while he stood back because my hot glue gun could kill a person).
Hobby Lobby had all kinds of other fun things to add– butterflies, birds, etc., but I was pushing my budget already, so I passed. I think I spent about $18 to make 16 boxes. I don’t normally spend this much, but I knew the kids would love it (and they did!).
Elijah’s box has two salamanders…can you find both?
Ben found the second salamander right away. We didn't get to row The Salamander Room a couple of weeks ago when I wanted to, and now since Ben saw this, I will have to work it in sooner rather than later! What a creative mom you are!
Edited by benandme on Aug. 20, 2007 at 3:49 PM
Very cute…clever idea….Thanks for sharing your blog on FIAR.,, ivy
I love your homemade Salamander Room! I just got this book for free and was already excited about rowing it, but this makes it even more exciting!
We had a FIAR Co-OP last year and it was so much funner to row with others and get together for group projects! I love the Salamander Room. We are doing that this week too. Yesterday we went on a wildlife trip and played predator and prey!