American Girl class-Felicity week 5

This week for our class, we made Quill pens. I got the directions from an American Girl book, Felicity's Craft book. Below are similar directions to what the book had...


I brought a copy of the Bill of Rights for them to see that we had at home. I wanted to show them an example of how beautiful the writing could look.  Then we set to work to make our own quill pens, and learned how to write with them!

The process we used was simple:

1. Soak quill tips in warm water for 15 minutes.
2. Use scissors to cut the tip of the feather off at an angle.
3. Use a sharp knife to cut a small slit from the highest point of the tip to the back. (We used scissors again)
4. Use a straight pin to clean the gunk out of the inside of the feather.
5. Dip in ink (we used black tempera paint, watered down).
6. Blot on a piece of black felt.
7. Write on your paper.
8. Repeat the dipping and blotting steps as needed.

(There are a lot of directions online if you Google it, but this simple version worked great!)


I've done calligraphy before, so I showed them some different calligraphy pens and ink that I had. My dad, my brother and my grandfather have done calligraphy in the past. It is a fun way to write, and takes lots of practice! I can't imagine the time it took to write the Bill of Rights or Constitution while using a quill pen, and re-dipping it all the time!

Her Felicity doll's dress matched the book cover! :-D

Here are some pictures of the girls making and using their quill pens.

Cleaning out the quills...

Practicing their writing...

More writing...

Then we had some time to work on our cross-stitch bookmarks again. 

Girls diligently stitching...

More stitching... you can see the Bill of Rights in the front.

We had Chicken salad for snack. Here is the basic recipe that we used...(from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

• 6 boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and diced
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 teaspoon salt-free herb and spice blend
• 1 cup mayonnaise

Directions

1. Combine the chicken, celery, spice blend and mayonnaise. Mix all together; more or less mayonnaise can be added, depending on your preference. Voila, your summer salad is ready to serve!                We served it with crackers and cranberry apple punch.

Next week is our last class before summer break! I'll miss it, it's been so fun!