The Junkyard

Yesterday, I posted about my kid's Junkyard Tales blocks.  Today, I want to share about something we have been working on this summer, a map of the Junkyard.  Charlie and Brantley wanted a map to play with while they listened to Junkyard Tales from Sparklestories.  My youngest loves maps.  He has asked for a map of the Junkyard for about two years.  We have been sketching the junkyard trying to get it "just right" so that I could make this map that he wanted.  We just could not get it right.  This summer I had an "Ahh  haa!" moment.  Instead of a traditional map like we have done in the past, I decided to have just the pieces of the junkyard that we could move around when the junkyard changed.  I LOVE how this has began to form our map.  Because the Junkyard is always changing, we really have LOVED this new toy.

Mr Flinch's House of Chairs

We are working our way back through the original Junkyard Tales to make sure that we have all the "elements" for our junkyard.  We choose to use a stash of old worn out jeans as our base.  We then painted with acrylic paints the pictures of the items needed for the junkyard.  For Mr. Flinches house I used the dark brown to make a simple chair.  Charlie , my daughter, insisted that I add the "mud and straw" to the chairs because that is how David "the storyteller" tells how the  house is built.  He also talks about a duct work chimney.  We used  that as well.  Charlie wanted to leave the middle open so that their blocks would "fit".  

Mr. Flinch's House of Cars

Even though the house of cars are "carried off" pretty soon in the story, B and C felt that no junkyard is complete without at least one stack of cars.

The Pond 

C said we needed a pond.  I worked on this while she was sleeping.  She was a little upset that there was not a dirt pile for Spiro to jump off of to do his cannon balls into it . We will be adding a dirt mound at some point.  I love that my kid knows more details to these stories then I do.  

Sally the chipmunk's course

If I am honest, this was my favorite to make.  After the mistakes with the pond I made sure to listen to the story "Sally and the Circus" that talked about  Sally's course that she has in the junkyard.  It had crates, PVC pipes, molding, weaving frames, a tree, a fence, and string.  I must have done something right with this image because C was so pleased!

Ben Thompson's China Cabinet 

 Ben Thompson sleeps in several places throughout the stories.  One of the places he lived was the china cabinet.  Charlie and I disagreed with what this should look like but I won because I made it.

Hay pile for the mice and Georgia Bean

Sally and Lil' Momma's Old Oak Tree 

Tires

 This was another thing that I felt any "junkyard" needed.  My kids were a little "put out" because it was not what was in the story but I still feel that somewhere in a junkyard you are going to find a pile of tires.  As of now, this is what we have for our junkyard.  We have a list of places we still have to create and stories to listen to so we can add places.  Here is our list of places we need to add:
*Warden's office
* Lil Mamma's Garden
* Gloria's Garden
* Junkyard gates
* Spiro's House of Tin
* Mitzi Neagle's Green excavator
* Gates to the far side
Time to cut more jeans up and get back to painting.