A look in photographs of the past few weeks at Floyd Central. The week’s activities include Godspell, the Dazzlers’ national preview, a lab in science teacher Michelle Harbison’s class, NJROTC annual inspection, and design and sketchbook assignments in Intro to Art and Drawing I-IV classes.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am creative, so it is no surprise that in my free
time I get on Pinterest and look at D.I.Y. projects. Recently, when I was looking through many
of the ideas, I started to wonder how hard they really are. So I decided to try out a
salt dough pendant. This seemed like it was really easy and something that I could not screw up, but I was wrong.
The caption of the picture says, “2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, cold water. Mix until has
consistency of play dough. Bake at 250 for 2 hours, then cool and paint.” The directions were
not very clear to start out with but I tried to follow them anyway.
I got the two cups of flour and one cup of salt. It was pretty straight forward, I could do
that, but cold water, how much cold water? I didn’t really know how much so I just added a
random amount of water and mixed.
If you plan on following this recipe, I suggest adding the water slowly and mixing the
batter very well before adding more water. If too much water is added the batter will resemble
pancake batter and will need to be thrown out.
Once the batter has the consistency of play dough, flour the surface that where the dough
will be worked on. I suggest rolling out the dough with a rolling pin so that the dough has the
same consistency all the way through and will cook evenly in the oven.
Also, if planning on making shapes out of the dough I suggest first putting the dough
on parchment paper and then using a cookie cutter to make the shapes. If the shapes are cut
out when the dough is still on the counter, the dough is likely to stick to it instead of coming off
easily.
I cut out a heart and had planned on making a pendant but learned that just poking a
hole through the side of the heart with a toothpick would not be good enough. I realized that
a toothpick should be inserted in the dough but then wiggled around to make the hole bigger
because a normal toothpick hole will shrink up after it has been baked.
Once the dough has been baked at 250 degrees for two hours and then cooled down,
painting is the next step. I bought enamel acrylic paint at Benjamin Franklin’s, and I am sure
it is a great product, but read the directions before using it. The surface to be painted needs to
be wiped down with alcohol and washed with soap and water before painted, but by the time I
realized that, it was too late they were already painted so they turned out looking silver instead of
metallic.
So this Pinterest project was a failure. It could be the lack of sleep lately, the bad directions,
or simply the fact I tried to salvage something when I should have started over. Either way
this project was not one that I would recommend if you actually want the product that is in the
picture.
The Lady Highlanders basketball team is half way through their season and because of their statistics, can already be considered a winning team. The girl have won six of their ten games so far this season. Which means senior Tori Kingsley’s goal of “[winning] sectionals and conference and to have a winning season” is well on its way.
“We’ve got a lot of returning kids who’ve played varsity and a lot of hard working kids,” said counselor and head girl’s basketball coach Kirk Hamsley. He has hopes of a winning season. Winning does not just happen, teams need to be strong, and the Lady Highlanders have quite a few strengths.
Junior Taylor Andrew recognizes their strengths including the teamwork among the girls. “We’re a pretty good shooting and scoring team too,” said Kingsley.
Although the team is strong, Andrew realizes the girls still have improvements to make. “[We need to] talk and work on leadership.”
Leadership may be something the girls need to work on but Kingsley and Hamsley realize there are other things the girls need to work on also.
Kingsley wants the team to work on their defense, but Hamsley said, “[the girls] need to buy into being a team and playing together.”
The girls said they have been trying to grow together as a team. “We do team bonding like three times a week,” said Kingsley. Andrew and Kingsley rattled off team bonding activities including making balloon animals, a scavenger hunt, and team dinners.
“[At team dinners] we all indulge in a lot of food and talk about stuff that’s really funny and that makes us come closer,” said Kingsley. Team dinners help the team grow closer. “We are a lot closer than past teams. We’re all really good friends and we hang out outside of school,” said Andrew.
Not only have the girls been trying to grow together as a team, Hamsley talked about how the girls have been working hard to have a good season.
“[We worked for] six weeks conditioning. We have practice for two hours and fifteen minutes six days a week,” said Hamsley.
They successfully beat Scottsburg, who were sixth in the state last year, and Seymour, who are a part of their conference. Hamsley cited both of those wins as big wins for the team.
Hamsley looks forward to playing Jeff, New Albany, and Bedford, FC’s main rivals.
The next time the girls can be seen in action is Dec. 27 at 2:30 pm or 28th at 11:00 am at the Lady Highlander Classic held at FC.
For those looking to see a rival game the girls play New Albany at New Albany, January 5th at 6:00 pm for JV or 7:30 pm for varsity. There is also a game at FC January 12 against Bedford 1:00 pm for JV or 2:30 for varsity.
Due to the increased popularity of “do it yourself” projects, below is a DIY Christmas ornament wreath. Overall the project totaled about twelve dollars and was relatively easy to make. The goal of this video is to help students and parents alike take on the task of making a Christmas wreath that is cheaper than similar wreaths sold in stores. The wreaths would make great holiday decorations but also presents for the holiday season too.
As Dance Marathon grows closer the committee has set up a table in the spine to get students involved in the marathon. According to junior Sarah Henry, “we are trying to get a lot more people there.” According to English teacher Jessica Broady “the goal of the Dance Marathon is $25,000, which is huge.” Riley takes all children no matter economic status.