Hunger Action Month

Today I am going to remind you that September is Hunger Action Month. I have joined a group of amazing moms to try to fight hunger for children. Did you know that hunger affects 16.2 million American kids? Or that kids go to school hungry every day and in fact 3 in 5 teachers say they have students who come to school hungry every day in their class? Did you know that we are raising the largest generation of kids in hard times since the Great Depression? Did you know that just $1 can help connect a child to as many as 10 healthy meals? (Source: No Kid Hungry)

Stone Soup Plan

Now much of what we did for Hunger Action Month, we actually did in August in preparation. I e-mailed local public libraries and preschools with story time plans to start a food drive. I already shared all of this in August. I shared to ideas using the classic tale, Stone Soup and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. For the Stone Soup plans I used ideas from the story time food drive I helped organize at my library last year as well as a few ideas I found on-line and a memory game I made. The Very Hungry Caterpillar plan came from several blogs and things I found on-line. The original idea came from The Good Long Road.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Plan

The next thing we did was to host a canned food drive at Hazel's butterfly party. Between me cleaning out our cabinets and what Hazel's friends brought we had a very full bag of food for our local food pantry. When Hazel is older I am hoping to volunteer with her at the food pantry and the local soup kitchens.

I also would like to share some more books to help start the discussion of hunger with children. For the younger children a good short story about hunger is The Hungry Monster by Phyllis Root. This story is about an alien monster that lands on Earth and is very hungry. He tastes things he sees--a daisy, a rock,  a tree, and then he sees a girl who gives him her banana (instead of him eating her) and he finally finds something he likes to eat. The girl is a little disgusted since he eats the peel and all. It is a wonderful introduction to talk about people who do not have enough to eat or enough good food to eat. The Very Hungry Caterpillar will also work for this. An activity following this discussion could be going to the grocery store and buying some food for your local food pantry. Let your child pick out some nutritious canned food and then bring it to the food pantry together.

For older children I like Kids Against Hunger by Jon Mikkelsen. In this story two friends wonder why their soccer coach does not get upset when a teammate missing practice every Wednesday. They decide to follow him one Wednesday and discover he is volunteering for an organization called Kids Against Hunger. The teammate explains that when he was younger his family went through rough times when they did not have enough to eat and now he likes to help others in that situation. The boys want to help to and suggest that they ask the coach to move their Wednesday practice to Thursday so the whole team can volunteer. It is a nice story to show how kids can help by donating their time. And of course the obvious activity with this book would be to volunteer at a food pantry or soup kitchen. To find a food pantry in your area look here. 

Another easy thing to do is Dine Out for No Kid Hungry. There is still five days left to have a portion of your meal donated. Just click the link to see what local restaurants are offering near you.

So I hope you will join us in trying to end hunger throughout the world even if it is making a donation (food, money or time) to your local food pantry and/or soup kitchen. Also feel free to join us in this link party to share what you have done to end childhood hunger!

Welcome Fall! Apple Prints and More!

This weekend fall began here. On Friday it was nice outside, so I decided to get Hazel outside and doing something. Now in our backyard we have two apple trees that have had many apples this year. We do not pick these apples. Steve told me they were not the kind of apples you eat. After smelling them this year, I think he may be wrong. However I am not tall enough to get them and fear ladders too much to try on my own. He hasn't bothered to pick one for me and the ones on the ground do not look so good, but the deer are enjoying them. Here is one tree after most of them have fallen to the ground.

Here is what it looks like on the ground. Steve goes and picks up the ones in the grass and puts them in the "garden" under the trees, so no one trips and the landscaper won't have a problem with the mower.

I had Hazel look for two non-mushy ones that we could cut to make apple prints while I got the rest of our supplies. I cut one apple down the center of the core vertically and the other horizontally (so you get the star).

Then I gave her fall colors of paints and white paper and let her have fun.

She was having so much fun with the apples, we decided to add in pinecones, acorns, flowers and leave.

She made four nature prints. On a few you can see the stars of the inside the apples, but not too much. 

Now we have some beautiful fall prints. I was thinking of cutting them and making cards, but Hazel said she would miss them too much. We will see. How did you welcome the new season where you are?

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--A Cinderella Tale from Argentina

Today we are going back to Cinderella tales. The one for today is from Argentina. I found a copy of it translated in English in Latin American Folktales: Stories from Hispanic and Indian Traditions edited by John Bierhorst. Before we get into the tale, let's look a bit at Argentina.

Argentina is located in the Southeast of South America. It is officially called Argentine Republic. It is the eighth largest country in the world and the second in Latin America. It claims sovereignty over part of Antarctica, the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

Europeans first arrived in the area in 1502. Pedro de Mendez established a settlement in the area that is now Buenos Aires in 1536 but it was abandoned in 1541 when it was destroyed by natives. Unlike the rest of Latin America the colonization of Río de la Plata estuary was not influenced by the gold rush since there were no precious metals in the area. However, the name Argentina comes from the Latin word for silver since they explorers heard rumors of silver mountains located there. Buenos Aires was established again in 1580. After much war, Argentina claimed its independence from the Spanish rule.

The climate of Argentina varies from subtropical in the north to subpolar in the south.  The animals also vary greatly depending on the climate. The north has the pumas, flamingos, hummingbirds, and more and the south has seals, sea lions and penguins. The west has the Andes Mountains, so it also has llamas and mountain animals.

Now onto our tale. This tale is called Rice from Ashes. Again I found it translated in Latin American Folktales: Stories from Hispanic and Indian Traditions edited by John Bierhorst. It has many similarities to Cinderella tales we have looked at from around the world. 

The story begins with a girl who has lost her mother and her father remarries a woman with two daughters of her own. From the start the stepmother and stepsisters are cruel to the girl, and she only has a lamb to keep her company.

Source

One day the stepmother tells her to kill her lamb. The girl starts to cry. The stepmother takes a plate of rice and spills it into the ashes in the hearth. She tells the girl that if she does not separate each grain of rice from the ashes by the time the stepmother wakes from her nap the lamb will have to die. The stepmother goes to nap and the girl cries. A dove comes and talks to the girl. The dove tells the girl to take a nap and it will clean the rice from the ashes. The dove has a flock of doves come to help and the task is taken care of. The stepmother is angry when she awakens from her nap.

By Keven Law, Los Angeles, USA [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The next day the stepmother pours sand into lentils for the task. The birds came back to do the task. The following day the stepmother throws sugar onto the hearth and an ant comes to help the girl. The next day the stepmother gives the girl two large bags of wool to spin. The lamb helps the girl and gets it done, however the stepmother finds one stray piece of wool on the lamb and orders her to kill the lamb. The lamb tells the girl to calm down and butcher and she will find a cup in the bowels. The lamb tells her to keep the cup forever. She does this and while at the stream, a little man comes and asks her for a drink. She gives him one with her cup.

The girl misses her lamb now that she has no one to talk to. The stepsisters decide to punish her more by asking their mother to buy them lambs. The stepsisters' lambs ate all the grass and the mother insisted on butchering them. The lambs told each sister in turn not to be sad and to find the cup and to be good to others. Each one found the cup inside the lambs' bowels. The little man comes to each of them and each stepsister in turn refuses to serve the little man, who happens to be God. 

Now there was a prince in town whose mother told him on her deathbed that he would marry a girl with a gold cup since it had been predicted by his godmother who was a fairy at his birth. He made an announcement in town for all the young women with gold cups to be presented to him. The stepmother ran to the king to have the prince come meet her daughters with their gold cups from the lambs. 

When the prince arrived the two stepsisters shoved one another to be the first to present the cup to the prince. The stepmother told the older girl to show the cup. The prince saw the gold cup and assumed this was who he was to marry. The prince put her on his horse and started for the palace. Along the way a bird sang out of a tree in the cemetery that he had the wrong girl. He asked to see the cup again and it was now iron. He turned back and got the other stepsister. Again the bird told him he had the wrong girl. He looked at her cup again and it had become iron. He took her home and insisted that their had to be another girl. He searched the house and found the orphan girl in the kitchen. He asked to see her gold cup. He put her on the horse to go the palace and as they went by the cemetery the bird told him he had the right one, however he asked to see her cup again and it was still gold. 

The girl and the prince were married and she became a very good queen who especially was kind to orphans.

Sharing Saturday 13-37

Thank you to everyone who shared their amazing ideas last week and thank you to all of you who visited to see what was shared and of course to those who left comments on others. If you have not had a chance to visit them, you should since there are wonderful ideas. Now for some features. We had one most clicked, so to check out this amazing idea (and there were several other wonderful fall inspired play that she shared last week) click on the picture!

Some Fall Favorites

1) From Mums Make Lists: Fall Foraging Fun for Kids

2) From Let's Play Music: The Autumn Fairy

3) From P is for Preschool: Leaf Confetti

4) From We Made That: Scarecrow Wreath

5) From The Chirping Moms: Pumpkin Pie Pudding Paint

6) From Little Bins for Little Hands: Fall with Earl the Squirrel

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. 

From Your Hostess:
This week we shared kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month by sharing two wonderful picture books of Puerto Rican legends and the Multicultural Kid Blogs Blog Hop and Giveaway, continuing our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month we shared a Chilean Snow White and we learned about Andean flamingos; we also shared our Around the World in 12 Dishes "visit" to New Zealand with kiwi and ginger cake and growing our own kiwis and another Bill Martin, Jr. book--I Pledge Allegiance for the Virtual Book Club for Kids.

Now for This Week's Party  
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Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest. 

Flamingo Friday--The Andean Flamingo

Source:
Copyright Trevor Rickard and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Today I want to share with you a little about the Andean Flamingo. First I want to share that they are on the endangered list because their numbers are plummeting.I am going to share information I found in Birds edited by Tim Harris. It is part of the Facts at Your Fingertips and Endangered Animals series by Brown Bear Books. I will also add some information I found on-line. We will start with this YouTube video of some Andean flamingos in Bolivia.


The Andean flamingo is the rarest of the world's five species of flamingos. They belong to one of the oldest bird families which originated over 50 million years ago and are now threatened by the continuing exploitation and deterioration of their habitat. The Andean flamingo has show a decline equal to 24 percent in 15 years. Breeding success is consistently low and the adults live 50 years (therefore considered long-lived).

By Valerio Pillar (DSC_5251.JPG (DSC_5241 cropped)) [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

They live on the puna. The puna is a high, cold, dry plateau in the Andes Mountains. These flamingos live in Peru, Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. The flamingos live in lakes where the water is ten times as salty as the sea. The lakes are home to diatoms which are microscopic single-cell algae which is what these flamingos eat. Like all the other flamingos, the Andean flamingo is an upside down filter feeder. (For more on feeding see my post here.) Here is a YouTube video of some Andean flamingos feeding Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust near Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom.


In the winter the Andean flamingos migrate to the lower wetlands. It is expected that this migration is due to the extreme aridity of the lakes in winter.  (Source)

The species nest in only ten or so major colonies and the breeding sites are under increasing pressure. Away from regular colonies, the flamingos are still hunted for their meat, feathers and fat (used in traditional medicine). Most of the birds killed are juveniles. Some people also remove their eggs for personal consumption or to be sold. There have also been an increase in mining near the breeding colonies and the development of the mining industry and towns to support it are major threats. There is water pollution as well as water diversion which cause fluctuating water levels. (For more on breeding and the life of a chick see my post here.

Source: Arpingstone at Wikimedia Commons

Now what makes the Andean flamingo different than the other species of flamingos? They are the only flamingos with yellow legs. Their bodies are pale pink with bright underparts and noticeable black patch on the wings.  Their bills are yellow and black and of course curved. (Source) They have three forward facing toes with no hind toes. Their voice is nasal and raspy in the calls in the colonies. The young Andean flamingos are grey in color. (Source)

By Paulo Fassina (Flamingo Flying 2) [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

I should note that only the greater flamingo is not considered threatened. Even with several million birds (all four species combined) they are threatened due to hunting, long breeding cycle and there are fewer than 30 major breeding sites in the world.

I'll be sharing this in the Multicultural Kid Blog Hispanic Heritage Blog Hop. Have you entered the amazing giveaway yet?