Around the World in 12 Dishes: Exploring Egypt Part 2

Last week we shared our first Egyptian cooking, which was Date Cake. Today we are going to share our Egyptian Dinner recipes. Our dinner recipes came from Foods of Egypt by Barbara Sheen.

Virtual Book Club for Kids--Carousel

It is time for the Virtual Book Club for Kids again. This month's author is Donald Crews. Today we are going to share his book, Carousel. We picked this book since Hazel loves riding carousels. This is the first real ride she went on and ever since she has loved them. Here are some pictures of her on them.

Room on the Broom Movie and Book Review

Book

Today I get to review one of our favorite books and the DVD made based on the book. Now NCircle Entertainment sent me a copy of the book and DVD for me to review. All opinions are my own. The book is Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson. Now Room on the Broom was one of Julia Donaldson's books we shared in March. We really loved her books and learning about her through the Virtual Book Club for Kids. Now one of the things we love about Donaldson's books is they usually rhyme. Rhyming makes books fun to read and hear.

In this wonderful story, the witch and cat go for a ride on the broomstick. The wind picks up and carries off the witch's black hat. They go to the ground and look for it, but cannot find it. Then a dog comes out carrying it. He asks if there is room on the broomstick for him. The witch says yes, and the three are off again. This time the witch holds onto her hat, but she loses the bow in her hair.

The witch keeps losing things until she has gained two more animals who want to ride the broomstick.

The frog who is the last addition is so excited he hops and the broomstick breaks in two. At this point the witch is riding in the front of the broomstick and all four animals are in the back. The animals half drops down and the witch continues to fly on her half.

The witch is followed by a dragon who loves to eat witch with french fries. The dragon catches her.

Just as the dragon is about to eat the witch, a four-headed creatures comes out of the lagoon. The creature scares the dragon and tells him that the witch is its.

The dragon leaves the witch alone and escapes the scary creature as fast as he can. Then the four-headed creature becomes the four animals and they clean the mud off themselves. The witch pulls out her cauldron to make a new broom and tells all the animals to find something to put in. Then the new broom comes out with a perfect spot for all of them.

I got all the characters and cut-out props from Making Learning Fun. They were patterns for felt board pieces to tell the story. We cut out the pattern pieces and put them on popsicle sticks, so Hazel can do it as a puppet show. The cauldron with the netting (filled with some candy) was sent by NCircle DVDs. Making Learning Fun also has headbands to have a class act out the rhyming story and play dough mats to learn letters! You can also get other activities at the NCircle Website.  And you can get even more activities at the Room on the Broom Website. (See picture below for samples.)

DVD

Now for the film!! The Room on the Broom film sticks pretty close to the book. It fills in some places so the story flows better on the screen and it shows the dragon hunting the witch. This part scared Hazel a bit even though she knew the story, but she is easily frightened and does not like to see scary things on television (in books she usually covers scary pictures with her hands or asks me to). We however loved the film. We watched it as soon as it came. She was so excited to get it.

The characters in the film look very much like the ones in the book and it is a wonderful way to see the story in action. We really enjoyed it!!

Now the nice part of this story is the witch is nice and cares about the animals. Hazel is not afraid of witches since her exposure to them for the most part has been this book and the book Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman. In both the witch is very nice.

Now NCircle has allowed me to offer a copy of the Room on the Broom DVD to one of you, my fabulous readers!!  The suggested retail price is $9.99 and came out on DVD August 6th.  You can also check out the trailer and more information about the film here. And their Facebook page! To enter the giveaway, just do the Rafflecopter! Good luck!! And if you do not want to wait for the 26th to find out if you are the winner, you can go buy your won copy here (including a downloadable version) or here (as well as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sharing Saturday 13-32

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week and to everyone who came to be inspired and visited all the great posts shared. I once again am amazed by the great ideas shared. If you have not had a chance to visit them, please do so!! Also make sure you check back here on Sunday for a new giveaway!!

Flamingo Friday--How a Flamingo Beak Works

Today we are going to share the book Flamingos, Loons and Pelicans by Mel Boring. This book has a good amount of information about many different types of water birds. The reason I am sharing it today is because I was trying to think about a way to make a model of the flamingo beak and low and behold I open this book and discover they have an activity to do just that.

Some things I learned from this book about flamingos. They have yellow eyes. Airplanes are the flamingos biggest enemy. When one flies near a flamingo, the bird will go into a frenzy and may smash its own egg. Years ago there were no flamingos born in the United States, but then some came to live near Miami, Florida. The lake there is home to about 900 flamingos.

Now more about how flamingos eat. Flamingos are upside-down filter-feeders. So to eat, it sticks its beak between its legs, upside down. The beak works like a cup. The top of the beak is hinged like our bottom jaw, so it can move and scoop. It scoops up the murky water and the flamingos pump their tongues to filter the water through slits in their billtops. Once the water is out the flamingo is left with algae and small fish for food. 

Flamingo Beak Set Up

Now following the books suggestion on trying to "eat" like a flamingo, I put some small stones and water in a a large bowl. Then I found two spoons--one slotted and one not. They suggested a slotted spoon and a wooden spoon, but I could not get this to work with the bend on my slotted spoon.

Next I had Hazel stand over the bowl and try to scoop rocks and water into the spoons (while bending in half). She however had trouble not squatting to do it and had more success by squatting.

The rocks after the water is drained out represents the food the flamingo would have eaten.

The other activity in this book is making bird tracks. A flamingo's is about nine inches long. Flamingos have webbed feet too.

I hope you are enjoying our adventure in learning more about flamingos.