Hispanic Heritage Month Blog Hop--Learning about Juan Quezada a Mexican Potter

Today starts this year's Hispanic Heritage Month. The theme this year is Celebrating Hispanic Heritage with Kids. To do this, I turned to books from the library. Anyone who reads Crafty Moms Share regularly knows I love to read books about other cultures and countries to Hazel. We both love to learn about them.  The first book we are sharing this month is The Pot That Juan Built by Nancy Andrews-Goebel. This is the story of Juan Quezada and his pottery.

Black Authors -- #blacklivesmatter Series

 

Today we return to your Black Lives Matter Series. I am working through a list of Black people that some of my Black teacher friends suggested everyone should know. Today I am going to focus on three famous Black authors that my friends added to the list: James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Toni Morrison.

Modern Art Adventures -- Book Review

Disclosure: Chicago Review Press gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

My plan was to do some of these projects with Hazel over the summer; explore more art this past summer like we had one in the previous one. However summer somehow came and went and we hadn't tried one. We finally sat down and tried a couple. The book Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw has thirty six projects for children to try based on eighteen modern artists including Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Andy Warhol, and Frida Kahlo. With each artist a famous painting is shared with information about the painting and artist and then there are projects based on that famous painting and artist's style.

Multicultural Monday: Learning about the World through Animals

On Friday Hazel and I went to the first of three Toddler Treks that I signed us up for at our local zoo, Stone Zoo. We will be going to one each month this summer. Since the zoo expected 800+ students from various schools, the instructor decided to keep us in the Discovery Center since it would be too hard to stay together as a group. She had planned several activities for the kids including showing them cards and asking what animal it is and would you see this animal in your backyard or at the zoo. This got me to thinking that the zoo is a perfect place to look at some multiculturalism. It is where we go to see the animals we do not see every day or in our own neighborhoods. The Stone Zoo is one of two zoos in the Boston area known as Zoo New England. The other is bigger and is in Boston. The Stone Zoo is nice since it is a good size for a young one and we do not have to drive into the city and deal with parking. (You may remember I shared our last visit to the zoo in a Happy Family Times post.)

 A great book to go with this lesson is Around the World on Eighty Legs by Amy Gibson. The book has hand drawn animals from around the world--broken up by regions of the world with poems and sometimes information about them. It is a fun read, but not as informative as I had hoped. However it is a great starting point to see which animals live where and then you could easily research them more.

Stone Zoo itself is divided into sections having to do with where the animals are from (or at least the environment they live in). Since our class was to start (and ended up staying in) the Animal Discovery Center, we went to the right (which is the way we usually go anyway). The first animal you see is the American Bald Eagle. They also have a replica of a nest. As the visitors we were talking to said their family of three could lay in it comfortably if they had to. Then there are the black bears. This is one of the newest additions to the zoo and one of my favorites. Since both of these are native to the United States, I will not go into them. Then we looked at the llamas. By this time it was time to head to our class so we went to the Animal Discovery Center where they have a corner of the room as windows to watch the llamas. The llamas like to come and stare into the glass so it was quite fun. These of course are normally found in South America. Although according to Wikipedia, they originated from North America and migrated 3 million years ago.

Llama on left is staring at window!

Inside the Animal Discovery Center they have six Panamanian Yellow Frogs (I found four of them in the tank), corn snake (who was very active), gecko, tarantula, and box turtles. From this list you can see they are also from all over the world. The Panamanian Yellow Frogs are obviously from Panama. The other animals can be found in parts of the U.S.A. as well as other places. A box turtle was taken out of the tank for the kids to learn more and to touch. I did not take any pictures in here, but I did take a picture of Hazel's craft. They had the kids play a game where they were caterpillars and had to bring the instructor five of the foam leaves they had "hid" around the room. Once they had found five, they received a butterfly and then had to find a flower of the same color. Then they had the kids make a paper chain caterpillar and if they wanted they stapled the butterflies on to change them to butterflies.

Hazel's caterpillar

Turned into a Butterfly

After class we joined the crowds to check out some of the animals. We continued in to the Sierra Madre area of the zoo. This includes the llamas, coyotes, bats, coati, cougar, jaguar, and gila monster.

Sleeping Jaguar

We got to see the coyote, but did not get a picture of him. The jaguar and the cougar were sleeping.

Coati

We did see the coati briefly, but there were large crowds around their cages. We didn't bother trying to get into the bat area  or the gila monster because of the crowds. We did see the rosy boa (in a cage here as well as in the Animal Discovery Center). After all this, we went and saw one of Hazel's favorite animals--the flamingos! They were building their nests and sitting on their eggs. Hazel thought they were sitting on rocks, but I showed her that they were mud and not rocks. This of course took our journey to the Carribean!

We went indoors to the exhibits there. They have the African crested porcupines, the Inca tern, a hornbill, Emperor tamarins, blue macaws, meerkats, and two-toed sloths and a large tortoise. I did not get any really good pictures here because it is dark and the windows tend to show dirt in pictures. Sorry!

At this point we went to the gift shop. I found some great books for references and learning more.

This book was written by an 8-year-old about the zoo!

Dover Press Books that use stickers to help learn about animals and their environments!

A coloring book that gives details about each animal on the page

Some origami for us to try!

Next we saw the American river otter. Ok, I have to share this picture because it was so cute. The otter came out to say hi to a zookeeper. Maybe he thought it was feeding time or something. You can see him standing on his hind legs towards the back  here (look below here).

Then we saw the monkeys and the white cheeked gibbons. The white cheek gibbons take us to Asia. They have a family of them. The father lost part of his arm at his previous zoo. The mother was carrying her baby this time.

At this point, Hazel was getting tired and wanted to go to the playground which is in the barn yard. It was a bit crowded there with older kids and I had to help her get down the slide since the older boys wanted to climb up the slide and then were chasing each other around it. Then we went for the rides near the snack bar. She of course had to go on the train.

Then the pink hippo.

Then she went on the zebra truck. Then it was time to go. We were tired and hungry. We talked about getting lunch but the snack bar was full of all the school kids getting lunch. So we went to the car. There I called the vet's office and found out we could pick up Fluffy (second day of x-rays), so we headed there which is basically down the street from the zoo. We found out Fluffy was fine! Best news of the week but we needed to watch her as we started to feed her again. Overall it was a fun day with many things to learn about and how animals live in different parts of the world. I am sure we will share more zoo visits with you soon.

This is where I share...

Sew Useful -- Book Review

Disclosure: Search Press gave me a copy of these books free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I am sharing with you a wonderful book for helping you organize your house (and especially your craft room). The book is Sew Useful by Debbie Shore.

The Real Women Mathematicians of Hidden Figures - Black History Month Blog Hop & Giveaway

Disclosure:  Some of the links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

Have you seen Hidden Figures yet? Now as a family we hardly ever go to the movies. We really do not like supporting the Hollywood scene or spending the huge amounts that it costs to go out and get a popcorn. However on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day our family went to the movie theater to see Hidden Figures. Between my love of multicultural stories and math, my engineering husband's love of space, and Hazel's love of history and learning, we all loved this movie. We felt it was worth the money spent and found it to be a great activity for the day. Now I was especially excited for the movie since my post last year for the Black History Month Blog Hop was about Katherine Johnson. The movie made me want to learn even more and teach Hazel more about these amazing women. 

Saraswati's Way -- Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

Disclosure: Monika Schroder gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review in return for an honest review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Can you believe Multicultural Children's Book Day is on Friday? I cannot wait to see all the great books reviewed in the link up on Friday. I am a co-host so you can see them here!!

Leaves, acorns, pine cones and crafts!

Hazel's handprint

Today I adapted a recipe for No-Bake Craft Clay from The Arts and Crafts Busy Book by Trish Kuffner. When it was ready, we made nature impressions from the things we gathered on our nature walk on Sunday. We also did one of Hazel's hand. Hazel really enjoyed this craft and my hands smelled of cinnamon for quite awhile afterwards even with washing. We are going to try new scents next. I'm thinking I will add some vanilla extract the next time and may play with other extracts and essential oils. It adds a whole new sense to play dough.

Oak leaf and acorns

Oak Leaf

My oak leaf and acorn

No Bake Craft Clay Revised:
Food coloring (I used red and yellow to make orange and the dots are the cinnamon)
1 1/4 cups cold water
1 cup cornstarch
2 cups baking soda
Cinnamon (or other scent of your choice)
Saucepan
Plate
Damp cloth (that you don't care if it gets messy)

Add the food coloring to the water and then put in pan. Then combine the water with the cornstarch, baking soda and cinnamon (I probably used about 2 teaspoons, but didn't measure it). Mix over medium heat until it becomes the consistency of mushy mashed potatoes. The original recipe said about 4 minutes but I found it took much longer like 15 minutes. Then scoop onto the plate and cover with the damp cloth until cooled. (It does solidify while cooling.) When cool knead the dough and shape. To do the nature impressions take a small ball and make it into a disc big enough to take your piece of nature. Press the leaf or whatever you are using down into the clay and then lift up. You may want to let the disc set a little before pressing to make sure you get more details.

The other craft we did today was leaf rubbings. I found this idea on Michaels website...well actually an email they sent me. I printed out a few copies of their leaf shaped book and gave some to Hazel and kept some. I showed her how to do leaf rubbings. My original hope for this project was to keep her busy while her toe nails dried, but she decided she did not want to try the Piggy Paints with me today after I touched her toe to apply the base coat. So my toes are pink and hers are not. However she did have fun doing some rubbings and coloring in general. You can definitely tell which ones I did and which ones she did. We did not cut them out and I probably won't since several of them went outside of the outline. Hazel has not learned to color in the lines yet.

Origami Fun!

 

Disclosure: I was sent these books and packs of paper in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Wow, what a turn in the women's gymnastics the other day. I have to say I am happy that Simone Biles felt confident enough to walk away from the competition. She is a role model for our children. She knew she wasn't feeling right and stepped away. That takes courage and confidence. And it highlights the need to focus on mental health. The pressure she must have been feeling with all the press and such before and during the Olympics must have been awful, so knowing when to step away is huge in my mind. 

With the Olympics in Tokyo, we are continuing a focus on Japan. And a look at Japan is not complete without some origami. Today I am sharing two books--one for beginners and another for more advanced as well as four packs/books of origami paper. We will start first by looking at the packs of paper I used throughout this post. They are Origami Rainbow Paper Pack Book, Origami Paper 200 Sheets Mother Earth Photos 6" (15 cm), Origami Paper 500 Sheets Cherry Blossoms 6" (15 cm), and Origami Paper 200 Sheets Nature Photos 8 1/4" (21 cm).

Kayla: A Modern-Day Princess Activity Book -- a Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Today I am sharing with you a fun growth mindset activity book. The book is part of the Kayla: A Modern-Day Princess series. It is Kayla: A Modern-Day Princess Activity Book by Deedee Cummings and illustrated by Charlene Mosley. The series is recommended for ages 4 to 8. 

Summertime: The Coloring Book of Cards and Enevleopes

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Story Time to Help Fight Hunger

If you read my blog regularly, you know I joined a group of parents, teachers, concerned citizens called Moms Fighting Hunger to help bring awareness to the No Kid Hungry Campaign in September. (If you have not been following them all you can see all my posts about this here.) September is National Hunger Month and thus why we did all of this in September. As I was thinking of what I wanted to do to help, I came up with the idea of having a story time at the library about food and hunger and ask the children (and their families) ahead of time to bring a can of food for our town's food pantry. I had really wanted to do something different. I knew I could bring cans of food to church which is always collecting for one of the local places, but wanted to make a difference in a way that affected more people than just myself.

My first stop was at our town library. Luckily the children's librarian, Ms. Bethany is amazing and we know her well. She loved the idea and the only stipulation was that it could not be in September since the September calendar was set and we needed time to advertise. So we chose the first week in October. She does two morning story times every Tuesday: one for toddlers and one for preschoolers and then often she does something after school for the older children. So yesterday was our day. Now I wanted to help as much as possible. We brainstormed about some book/story ideas and I came up with Stone Soup and making story stones so the children could add a stone with a picture of an ingredient to the pot. She loved the idea and I made her the stones. (I shared them here.) I also talked to the editor-in-chief at our local newspaper and he of course said he would help advertise it. I just had to send it to him, which I did. It made it into the paper here.

So yesterday between the three story times, she had about 40 people including parents. We gathered six bags of food which I brought to the food pantry this morning. Hazel and I attended the afternoon story time since Hazel was in school for the morning ones. This had the smallest crowd, but it was fun. 

The first book she read was Sylvie by Jennifer Sattler. This was a very entertaining book about a flamingo that changes color by eating different foods.

 

Next she read One Potato, Two Potato by Cynthia DeFelice about an elderly, poor couple who only has potatoes to eat and when the man realizes he has dug up the last potato he digs deeper and finds a magic pot that recreates whatever you put in it. Therefore, the last potato becomes two and then four, etc.  It is a very cute story that uses magic to save these people, but definitely shows hunger (they shared one potato for all three meals of the day each day) in less scary way.

Then she told Stone Soup. She used her felt board with three travelers on it. And she had distributed the stones with pictures of food on them to the children. She asked if each child had any food to spare for the travelers and of course they said, "No."  So the travelers decided to make stone soup and she put the three blank stones into the basket (she forgot the pot at home). Then asked if anyone had water they could spare. The child with the water rock said yes and put her rock in the basket. Then she asked for salt and pepper and the child with the salt and pepper rock put it in the basket. Then the kids and Ms. Bethany kept adding their rocks to the basket.

Hazel putting a stone in

When there were no stones left, they stirred the soup. The kids loved checking it all out.

After the story Ms. Bethany had a Stone Soup craft for them. Each child got a bowl and three beans which were the stones and then they added cut outs of food. She even had pieces of yarn as noodles. Then she talked to the kids about what kind of soup they liked best.

Bethany's Sample

They had a blast doing it. Hazel liked trying to cut out the shapes. They all seemed to really enjoy it!

Here is Hazel's before she added the food she cut out herself. When she was done there wasn't much inside of the bowl showing.

Oh, and a reporter from a local daily paper came to take a picture of the story time, so we will be featured there as well. I'm also going to write a press release and send pictures to our town papers. Oh, and did I mention Ms. Bethany and I decided this should be an annual thing. Next year I'm going to make her a felt fire for under the pot!

So have you met my challenge yet and donated a can of food to your local food pantry or soup kitchen? I hope so!! Please let me know if you have! You can also make a donation directly to the No Kid Hungry Campaign here. Thank you for helping us in our fight!

Earth Day Book Reviews and Giveaway

Disclosure: Wisdom Tales Press gave me a copies of these product free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own, and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. They are also providing copies for the giveaway.


Today I am joining with a group of bloggers to do an Earth Day Giveaway. There are three prize packs and the information for the giveaway is below. Today I am lucky enough to review two of the books that are in the third prize pack. Hazel loves both of these books! The first book is Just Like Me, Climbing a Tree by Durga Yael Benhard. This book was released to celebrate Arbor Day which is April 24.