Flamingo Friday: Ping Pong Ball Flamingos & Species

We did a fun craft with ping pong balls. I found a pack of colored ping pong balls for $1 somewhere and saw the bright pink and though flamingo. Yes, I have flamingo on my brain too much lately. We finally found some time to try to make them. (I think the yellow and green balls may become other types of birds in the future.)

We started by choosing a color for the legs and I cut a pink pipe cleaner in half for the necks. We first glued on the leg pipe cleaner, but then wanted to wrap the neck pipe cleaner under it so we ended up regluing. We curled the ends of the legs to be the feet. On the other end of the neck we wrapped around a pink pom pom and attached a piece of pipe cleaner to be the beak. We wrapped it into the neck pipe cleaner and twisted it to form the beak. We used a marker to add the black (well I couldn't find the black marker, so I used brown) on the ends. Then we let the glue dry.

After the glue dried we glued on feathers to cover the leg pipe cleaner going around the ball and to form the tail and wings. It only took two feathers on each side.

After last week's post about Andean flamingos, I made mine with yellow legs like the Andean flamingo. I also thought I would share a bit about the species of the flamingo. There are six recognized species: 

• Greater Flamingo
• Caribbean Flamingo
• Chilean Flamingo
• Lesser Flamingo
• Andean Flamingo
• Jame's Flamingo

The greater and lesser flamingos live in Africa, Asia and Southern Europe. The others live in South America, Mexico and the Caribbean.(Source) I will share more about each species another time, but of course we have already looked at the Andean flamingo.

The greater and lesser flamingos are named for their sizes. The Jame's flamingo is named for the person who "discovered" the species and the others are named for one of the places they live.

So that is our little flamingo craft and lesson!! Enjoy!! And come back to share and be inspired at Sharing Saturday!!

Making Charlotte's Webs

Last March and April we first read Charlotte's Web by E.B. White so Hazel would know the story before we went to see a live performance of it. She fell in love with the story and could not get enough. It is still one of her favorite live performances she has seen and that is even better than Rapunzel, Snow White and Cinderella's Wedding. I posted about our first reading of it and learning about friendship in April.

We tried a few other chapter books. We tried a Paddington Bear one since I grew up loving the Paddington series. She got bored. We tried The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe because I saw it suggested as a good chapter book for this age. She got scared. We came back to Charlotte's Web and read it again. I had been wanting to do some spider crafts after reading this book since she was finally not being completely scared of spiders. Whenever she claims to be scared of one I remind her it might be Charlotte. She is getting too smart for my tricks though since the last time she reminded me Charlotte is dead.

For those who do not know the story, Charlotte, a spider, fools the people by writing words into her web. The people think the words are a miracle and all the words are about Wilbur, the pig. The first words she writes is "Some pig." After the excitement of the first writing dies down, she writes "Terrific." Then she wrote "Radiant." At this point the farmer decides to take Wilbur to the County Fair. The animals know if Wilbur wins a ribbon there is no way the farmer will kill him to make bacon. Wilbur begs Charlotte to come with him to the fair, but Charlotte is nearing the end of her life and must make her egg sac. She however realizes that Wilbur will need her to be there and to write something in her web there, so she goes and gets the rat to go with her so she will have someone to run errands (like finding words). Her final word in her web is "Humble."  Wilbur does not win the ribbon for best pig, but he wins something better. Charlotte knows her trick has worked and Wilbur will not be killed for food. She created her egg sac at the fair and Wilbur promises to take it with him and to watch over her babies. 

Now our craft was to make Charlotte's webs. Awhile ago I had seen some spider web ideas using the wooden frames of embroidery hoops. (I'm sorry to say I cannot find where I saw it though--if it was on your blog, please let me know so I can add a link.) Anyway, I bought some and used one half of one for another project so we had three. Instead of using yarn, I used some of the fake spider web I got from Shindigz Party Supplies when I did my product review. Hazel and I wrapped the fake spider web spreading it as much as we could without ripping it around the frame. Then I took Hazel's glitter glue and wrote the words and left them to dry for a few days. I also added a few fake spiders on them for some of the pictures. Things I discovered--it is not easy to write with glitter glue. But we like how they came out. I also liked the white glitter glue better than the silver. I was trying the light colors so it would sparkle without standing out as totally different. As you can tell in "Some pig" I was running out of the white so we had to switch to silver for "Humble."


Now we are reading Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Another series I grew up on both in the books and television shows. And of course it was my favorite since the youngest of three girls was named Carrie just like me. Hazel picked up on that right away as well. She has decided she likes this book even more than Charlotte's Web, but that is a different post all together. What chapter books are you enjoying with your child(ren)?

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.