Last year I brought my food dehydrator and sliced various fruit and dried them for ornaments. I used lemons, oranges and grapefruit- then I looped a piece of twine around it and had the kids hang it on the tree. It looked great! Of course, last year Los Angeles had a very wet winter.. […]
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Author Archives: Matt
Sculptures
I obtained a box of recycled containers which I thought would make great sculptures. The idea: Have the kids to stack the containers and then glue them. What happened: Elmer’s glue didn’t work obviously. Hot glue would have melted in the sun, so I didn’t even try it. I also thought I could use Goop, but […]
Continue ReadingThumb Piano
I found https://makezine.com/projects/thumb-piano/ and was inspired. I bought a grounding bar, and gathered plastic paintbrushes of various sizes. Then I installed it in our Acoustic Shell. By the end of the day the paintbrushes were all broken. I bet I’d have better luck with metal tines as they would vibrate louder than the soft twang […]
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Musical Keys
I saw some pins on pinterest that showed a cord with keys on them. The idea was that the kids could play with them and they would make a neat ‘jingle’ sound. I asked a home depot employee for some miscut keys, and the manager was glad to oblige. It worked… for a while. Eventually […]
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Pegboard
I had this great idea last year. I bought a pegboard, waterproofed it so it would last outdoors, and then hung various peg hooks off of it. I imagined something like this- When in reality, even though it was ‘waterproofed’ the pegboard started to bend without a frame to keep it stable. I could have […]
Continue ReadingLarge Wood Xylophone
I saw the following on Pinterest, and I was inspired. I tried attaching three boards to the pallet in the Music Area. I drilled holes and put in bolts and nuts, but it didn’t work well. Only one of the boards created a resonate sound, and I have some theories: Hole Spacing. I noticed that […]
Continue ReadingLaminated Kids Photo Magnets
The idea: I wanted to have photos of the laminated and stick magnets on the backs. I imagined the kids having all sorts of fun organizing them into friend groups and such. The process: We printed out mini photos of all the kids and laminated the pages. Then attached them to magnetic sheets which were then […]
Continue ReadingWhat Are Fails?
I love trying something new… I always learn something! They say the best way to excel is to fail often! That being said, here are my various failed project ideas. There’s always a lesson to be learned! See all of my fails here
Continue ReadingOld Christmas Trees
After attending the conference I waited and waited until Christmas time to see what I could make with the trees. I asked parents to leave them outside the gate and slowly but surely they started to arrive. I quickly got to work trimming them and getting the trunks ready to use. I tried using pruning […]
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