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Beach Inspired Rock/Nature Art

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?


A few weeks ago when we were at Cape Cod visiting my parents, Hazel and I saw some really neat nature artwork in a store. We thought we could have a go at making them. When we went to the ocean, we collected rocks. I tried to collect small rocks, but Hazel really liked the big ones.
Hazel's Creations

I was trying to figure out a cheap background for these and came across a discontinued sample of a home dec fabric at Jo-Ann Fabrics on sale for $1. I bought it and we made homemade canvases with popsicle sticks. Then we began to arrange them. Hazel wanted to use all the big rocks on our little homemade canvases, but of course it did not work. We actually went and bought some larger canvases so she could have fun with the bigger rocks and I made most of the smaller ones. While buying the canvases, we noticed the river rocks and glass gems were on sale for $1, so we bought some and used them as well.
Our Animals: Whale, Turtle and Crab and Turtle

The original designs we had seen at the store included a turtle, a shell wreath and a map of Cape Cod. We copied these and made some of our own designs. I have a cousin getting married on Cape Cod this fall and thought they might like to have one of the maps. I put a red rock where they are getting married on  the map for them and used a store bought canvas. I am thinking we may give one of the other maps to my parents and of course keep one for ourselves.
We used a low temp glue gun to attach the rocks to the fabric or canvas and use the glue gun to make the canvases. Then afterward I glued some more popsicle sticks to them to be a frame. I also added some blue glitter glue to make the whale more recognizable. 
I also used some small shells I had bought ages ago to make the wreath and put a small star fish in the middle. Overall we had fun and it was an easy way to make something with the rocks we collected (and bought) to keep our beach memories alive.

Around the World in 12 Dishes--Kenya

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

This month we are "traveling" to Kenya with Around the World In 12 Dishes. Now we have explored Kenya a bit before. Last week we found our Flat Stanley was in Kenya dressed as a Massai warrior. Then we had the pleasure of exploring Christmas in Kenya for the Christmas Around the World Series last year. And thanks to Andrea over at Ziezo, we were able to extend it with a book she sent us from Kenya last February. Finally last summer we exchanged postcards with Andrea's children and we shared a bit here.


Source
Now Kenya is known for it animals and the savannah. How many people dream of going on a safari and let's face it, Kenya is where you do this. It is home to the lions, giraffes, elephants, leopards, buffalo, rhinoceros and many more. It is also home to the Massai, which is the group of indigenious people most recognized throughout the world due to their distinct clothes and jewelry. You can learn more about the Massai in our Flat Stanley post.

This month we did our normal exploring with some cooking, stories and music. We did not get a chance to do a craft yet, but we did for our Christmas post. The stories we read are from the three books pictured above. We of course also read the Christmas stories at Christmas time or when we got them. The best part of the Creation book is that there is also a story from Egypt in it and Egypt is our country to explore next month so we have a headstart already.
Music was a little harder to find, but we found some Kenyan songs on these CD's. We got all of our out of the library. Then we used the following books as references to learn more about Kenya and get ideas for what to make. Since we have already made kaimati and mandazi, I thought we would try something that was not a treat. In the book, A Kenyan Christmas by Auntie Kiko, I discovered how popular kale is in Kenya and thought it would be interesting to try a Kenyan kale dish. Now I like kale, but my family does not usually. Steve will eat it when it is cooked with other flavors. Hazel will barely try it (and she tries just about everything).

While looking for a kale recipe, I came across a recipe for irio. I decided to check and see what was available on line for irio and found this recipe from Serious Eats. There are slight difference between the various recipes I found, but I had all the ingredients in this one and knew my family would like it so I went with it. They loved it and asked me to make it again. Or course being made with peas, corn and potatoes--three of Hazel's and Steve's favorite vegetables basically guaranteed they would like it.

Then a few days later I made a recipe for sukuma wiki. Now sukuma wiki means stretch the week. Apparently most Kenyans grow kale or some sort of greens to use in this recipe. Again there was a huge variation in the recipes I found. Some used kale, some used collard greens or just called for any greens; some used fresh tomatoes and some used tomato paste; etc. I decided to go with this one on the Kitchn. For us it involved a trip to the farmer's market. We were able to get the kale and tomatoes there. I did not use cumin (only because I forgot to buy some and I am out of it). I liked the recipe and Steve said it was ok. Hazel did not like it though.

I am joining these amazing blogs to bring you Around the World in 12 Dishes and to include a blog hop where you can share your own recipes and activities! 

 
For the wonderful Kenya Passport that Glittering Muffins puts out click here and the wonderful Kenya Placemat is here.

Now it is your turn to share a recipe, craft, activity with a Kenyan theme. Or if you do not have one, you can check out the other great ones on this blog hop!

Virtual Book Club for Kids Bobo Books by Jez Alborough

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This month the author chosen for Virtual Book Club for Kids is Jez Alborough. We had not read any of his books but quickly fell in love with the Bobo series as well as the Duck series. Today we are featuring the Bobo series. I thought it would be fun for us to learn more about chimpanzees since they are an animal we do not know much about. But first let me tell you about the Virtual Book Club for Kids.

The Virtual Book Club for Kids is a group of amazing bloggers that have one author chosen for each month and each blogger chooses a book by that author and comes up with an activity or craft to go with the book. Then we host a blog hop which starts the third Monday of the month. We each link up our posts and invite others to link up posts about books by this month's author. The amazing bloggers hosting this book club are:


Toddler Approved - Rainy Day Mum - Adventures in Reading with Kids - 3 Dinosaurs - Royal Baloo - The Educators' Spin On It - Inspiration Laboratories - Pleasantest Thing - Edventures with Kids - Two Big Two Little - Playing With Words 365 - Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Outlaw Mom - Mommy and Me Book Club - Crafty Moms Share - No Twiddle Twaddle - The Good Long Road - Ready. Set. Read 2 Me - Reading Confetti - Mama Smiles - Juggling with Kids- Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas - Creekside Learning - Creative Family Fun - The Usual Mayhem - Teach Preschool - PlayDrMom - CraftoArt - Here Come the Girls - Being a Conscious Parent - Smiling like Sunshine - Crayon Freckles - Train Up a Child - Smile Play Learn - Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - Coffee Cups and Crayons - Having Fun at Chelle's House- Love, Play, Learn - Juggling With Kids - Motherhood on a Dime - Growing Book By Book

- This Reading Mama - Fantastic Fun and Learning


Ok, now onto our books. Bobo is a wonderful little chimpanzee. He is friends with many animals in the jungle but in particular an elephant and a lizard (at least I think it is a lizard, but it could be a frog). Each of these books have very few words. In fact most of the words are just the title repeated over and over. For example in Hug, on every page Bobo sees an animal friend getting a hug from its mommy and he says, "hug" repeatedly. Then he yells it and begins to cry until his Mommy yells, "Bobo" and comes and hugs him. The only words in the book are hug, Bobo and Mommy.



In Yes, Mommy tells Bobo it is time for different parts of the bedtime routine like a bath. Bobo says, "Yes" repeatedly during the bath, but when it is time for bed and Bobo says, "No" repeatedly. Then Mommy says "Bye-bye, Bobo," and Bobo's friends come and to play with him in the water. The lizard splashes Bobo and he says, "No." The lizard says, "Yes." Then they both say no when the elephant runs to the water. Then the three friends enjoy the water together saying yes. Soon Bobo becomes tired and falls asleep. The elephant carries him sleeping with his trunk to his bed in the trees where Mommy is waiting for them.



In Tall, Bobo is feeling small and climbs on a rock to be tall. Then his lizard friend comes and stands up on his hind legs and is taller than Bobo on the rock, so Bobo feels small again. The lizard has Bobo climb onto his shoulders so he can be tall. Then they find a lion cub who is taller so Bobo feels small. The lion cub gives Bobo a ride so he is tall. This continues throughout the book with different animals being taller until he gets on top of the giraffe. He begins to dance on the giraffe's horns and loses his balance. He yells, "Fall" and his Mommy comes running yelling his name and catching him. She carries him home hugging him and he is happy to feel small.



For these books we did a craft by making masks for Bobo and Mommy. For the pattern I went to the Jez Alborough website and went to his How to Draw section. How to draw Bobo is in the club members only section, but to join the club is free, so I joined. I used his steps to draw a pattern.
Dark Brown Pattern Pieces
We cut the pattern pieces out of cardstock scrapbook paper and cut the eyes out to make the masks. Then we colored the mouth, nose and eye brows. We glued them together and left them to dry. After they dried we punched holes and tied on stretchy string.



Light Pattern Pieces




















Hazel then modeled both of them for me.
Bobo or Hazel's Mask
Mommy
Hazel loved wearing the masks, but I need to tighten the string on the Mommy mask. I also wanted to teach her more about chimpanzees, so we took some books out of the library.
I discovered that chimpanzees are endangered. I found this very sad especially since they have so many similarities to humans. I also found on Disneynature an educator's guide to go with their Chimpanzee Movie. I have requested the movie from the library, but have not gotten it yet. We had some fun exploring chimpanzees. I printed the lessons intended for the youngest grades in the educator's guide. It started with comparing chimpanzees to human beings. We looked at feet, hands and then took measurements and compared which was longer our legs or our arms. There was also a sheet to identify the emotions the chimpanzee in a picture was displaying on his face. 

They also gave us a map to color in where chimpanzees are found in the wild. Hazel mistakenly colored in an extra country, but we also noticed they are in Kenya which is our country this month for Around the World in 12 Dishes (post will be tomorrow), so it was a nice connection. We also read a short story and chose what animals and plants were in the chimpanzees habitat and finally we looked a food chain with the chimpanzee in it.

So that is our study of chimpanzees which was all inspired by the Bobo series of books. Every time I read one Hazel gets so excited and comments how she loves Bobo. Have you read a Jez Alborough book and done some activity or craft with it? Now is your turn to share. If you don't have one to share you can always check out all the great ideas others share here too.


The Details for the Multicultural Kid blogs Pinterest Scavenger Hunt!!

Multicultural Kid Blogs Pinterest Scavenger Hunt

Are you up for the adventure?

Some of you may know about our Multicultural Kid Blogs group. We have slowly been building our presence on the web, first with a Facebook page, then a subscription to all of our Facebook pages, and now finally our own Twitter and Pinterest accounts. And now, we are officially launching the Multicultural Kid Blogs website, where you can discover our member blogs, learn about our blogging carnivals, find great products and books, and more! To help introduce you to the wonderful blogs that make up this group, we have created a Pinterest Scavenger Hunt, which will run from July 15 to July 28. You will have until July 31 to submit your entry, and the drawing will take place on August 1. You could win one of four fabulous prize packages!

Here's how it works:

Create a Pinterest board specifically for the contest and name the board "Multicultural Kid Blogs Pinterest Scavenger Hunt." Each day a new clue (or two!) will be revealed. Follow the clue to the blog of the day and pin the post described in the clue. (Any image from the post is fine). In the Rafflecopter below, enter the link to the Pinterest board you created for this contest. The Rafflecopter will also have lots of other ways to earn extra entries. The only required entry is the link to your Pinterest board. Please note: You can enter the Rafflecopter at any point during the contest. Obviously your board won't be complete until the end of the contest, but you can enter the link in the Rafflecopter before then. If your name is drawn at the end of the contest, we will check your board at that time. The final clue will be given July 28. Participants will have until midnight Pacific time on July 31 to finalize their boards. The drawing will take place on August 1. Winners must have pinned all of the correct posts to their board. Winners will be notified via email and must respond within 48 hours or another name will be drawn. Good luck, explorers!

Scavenger Hunt Schedule

(Visit the Scavenger Hunt main page for a full list of clues as they are revealed).
July 15
July 16
July 17
July 18
July 19
July 20
July 21
July 22
July 23
July 24
July 25
July 26
July 27
July 28
Final day to enter the contest is July 31, 2013, at midnight PDT. Drawing will take place on August 1, 2013.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sharing Saturday 13-27





Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I am always so inspired by each post shared. Last week was definitely that way, so if you have not had a chance to check them all out, please do so!! Last week we had a tie for the most clicked.