Glass beads and Georgia O'keefe.

We finished up our literary study of Josefina by making necklaces with glass beads.   

We got out our Josefina paper dolls.

We also used this opportunity to learn a little about Georgia O'keeffe.  She was not from New Mexico but she lived there from 1949 until she died at the age of 98 in 1986.  We painted a watercolor flower O'keeffe style.

A biography about Ms. O'keffee with vivid paintings inside.

Heavy duty watercolor paper.  I prefer the heavier paper for watercolors because it holds the water better.

An awesome pack of watercolor pencils.

Watercolor paint set.

Art in progress.

An example of flowers by Ms. O'keeffe in the above mentioned biography and below are our watercolor paintings.

We had a lot of fun in New Mexico especially eating the Milky Way cake and now we will say Adios Amigos!

Josefina's appliqued treasure box.

We used Josefina's Craft Book to make our very own appliqued treasure boxes.  I did make a few modifications to reduce the cost but the boxes turned out great!

The book.

The instructions.

The box.  I got the boxes from Hobby Lobby and they were 30% off.

Black and red soy paint.

A gold metallic paint marker.

A pack of foam paint brushes.

You paint the inside of the box red and let it dry completely.

With a fine-tipped paint brush, paint around the hardware.

Paint the entire box black.

Keep painting.

Once your outside black paint has dried, with a fine-tipped paint brush paint the trim of the inside black.

Now here is where we took a different route.  Once your box has been painted, to make it beautiful the book called for gluing on individual strands of corn husk to make a design.  This was not going to happen at this house.  Seriously!  So instead, we made our designs with the gold metallic paint marker.

This is C12's box.  She made a design similar to the one in the book.

This is A10's box.  She chose to use her initials.

 These boxes turned out fabulous!  They want to make a few more.  These would make great gifts too.

Meet Josefina

We finished up our study of Kaya and now we are moving on to Josefina.

Josefina represents the history of New Mexico.  She lives with her father and older sisters.  Josefina's mother has passed away, and Josefina feels lost without her.

We will be studying New Mexico and some basic Spanish vocabulary.  Our crafts will include an appliqued treasure box, glass-bead necklaces, and a coil pot.  The ideas for these crafts are from Josefina's Craft Book.

Here are some of the books that we will be using.

Here are a few fun links to games for Josefina.

Josefina's fiesta
Josefina's Santa Fe market adventure
Josefina's piano
This looks like a great study.  We have not done an official study on New Mexico yet.  While we were looking though our Eat Your Way Through the USA cookbook, we discovered that in New Mexico they make a Milky Way cake so we just might have to add that to our list of enrichment activities.