JOIN ME FOR A READING AND TREAT---FINDING HOME and GINGERBREAD COOKIES

 

Click Here To Listen

The story, based on the real-life adventures of Cinders, a koala who survived two bushfires, chronicles the challenges faced by a mother koala. She protects herself and her joey from a raging bushfire. Then she faces finding food and a new home for them both. Curious about her, a community of people first cause problems and then help her succeed. 

WAIT! How about baking up a treat to enjoy while you're listening? 

This is my recipe for gingerbread cookies. It's what my grandmother called "Sandy's Delights" because they were my favorites. I grew up just a block away from my grandparent Sauler's house. Actually, it was just a quick dash from our backyard through the neighbor's backyard to their house. And in what had to be a kitchen as tiny as a closet--though there were always potted violets blooming in the window--grandma created fabulous food. 

I imagine I could smell the Sandy's Delights from my house because I managed to be there whenever the cookies came out of the oven. My favorite place to eat them was with my grandpa on the big swing on the front porch.

Of course, I baked these cookies for my children too, especially in the Fall. Gingerbread just tastes like Fall to me. I hope you enjoy them too, along with the story.

Here's the recipe.

Preheat the oven to 350F

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar (I like dark)

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup white sugar for rolling cookies before baking

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

grated rind of one orange or lemon

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ginger

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cloves

pinch of salt

Baking paper

Cream together butter, brown sugar, 1/2 cup white sugar with electric mixer. Beat in molasses and egg. Add grated rind.

Sift together flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, clove, and salt. Stir into wet ingredients. CHILL for about 30 minutes.

Roll spoonfuls into balls. Roll in white sugar.

Place on cookie sheet topped with baking paper. Bake for 8 minutes or just until tops are risen and about to crack.

Cool and enjoy while listening to 

FINDING HOME!

EXPLORE MONARCH BUTTERFLIES!

 

FIRST, MEET THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY

Look at each of these stages of a monarch butterfly’s life cycle. 

Egg

The female lays her eggs on the leaves of milkweed plants. Caterpillars hatch out in about four days.

Caterpillar

Caterpillars eat their egg case and keep on eating. They eat the milkweed leaves they’re on. They eat nearly twenty-four hours a day for about two weeks.

Pupa
The caterpillar spins a silk pad on the under side of a leaf. It grips this with tiny legs, called prolegs. It hangs in a J-shape and molts. This way it sheds its exoskeleton, or outer covering. 

That hardens to form a chrysalis, a protective case. Inside the chrysalis, digestive juices break down a lot of the caterpillar’s old body. Using energy from stored up fats, a new body grows from the old one bit by bit.

Adult
After about two weeks, an adult monarch butterfly emerges from its chrysalis. It takes several hours for its wings to fully inflate and harden. Then it flies off to feed on nectar, the sweet liquid produced by flowers. It lives from two to eight weeks. During this time, the males and females mate. Then the females lay their eggs, starting the cycle over again. 

NOW, ENJOY THESE FUN ACTIVITIES

Butterfly Inside
Experience what happens when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. Cut out and color an adult monarch. 

Then fold this up small and push it inside a balloon. 
Have an adult partner blow up a balloon just enough to partly inflate it. Tie the neck to seal the balloon.

Cover the balloon with paper mache. To do this, first snip newspaper into strips about an inch (2.5 cm) wide and 6 inches (25 cm) long. Cut at least 25 strips. In a bowl, mix one-half cup flour with enough water to make a runny paste. Dip one paper strp into the glue mixture. Hold the strip over the bowl and slide between your thumb and fingers to remove excess paste. Smooth the strip onto the balloon. Repeat until the whole balloon is covered up to the neck. Smooth your fingers over the wet balloon. This will help seal the edges of the paper strips. Set the balloon in a clean, dry bowl. Turn frequently for a few hours to help it dry evenly. Leave overnight.

The balloon now represents the chrysalis for the pupa stage. Inside, the caterpillar is changing into an adult butterfly. Use scissors to carefully snip into the balloon just below the neck. That will pop the balloon. It will deflate and separate from the inside of the paper mache. Carefully pull out the balloon. Open it and pull out the folded up adult. Unfold the adult slowly. 

In real life, the adult butterfly’s body gives off a special chemical that helps break open the chrysalis. Then the adult crawls out and hangs upside down from its chrysalis. Its abdomen squeezes over and over, pumping fluid into the wings. The big wings slowly unfold. The butterfly flaps these wings while they dry and become strong. Then it’s ready to fly. 


Scavenger Hunt
Now, go on an on-line scavenger hunt to track down the answers to these questions.

How can you help monarch butterflies?

Why is a viceroy butterfly colored to mimic a monarch butterfly?

Also, don’t miss the fun, interactive jigsaw puzzles on this site.

Where do monarch butterflies go to escape cold winters?
Check out this map to see if they annually fly near where you live. Monarch Butterfly Migration

You may be surprised to learn the longest any monarch butterfly has flown to date during its migration was 2,880 miles. It was first tagged in Brighton, Ontario on september 10, 1988. then it was recaptured on april 8, 1989 in austin Texas. It is believed to have overwintered in Mexico.

Wonder how monarch butterflies know where they’re going when they migrate?

Journey North’s Monarch Butterfly Migration Tracking Project reports...
“This is a question that scientists are still working to answer. People working at the University of Kansas with Chip Taylor have shown that they use the sun, and also probably the earth’s magnetic field to know which way is south during the fall migration. But we don’t know how they find the specific spots in Mexico. Personally, I’m not sure that we’ll ever be able to answer this one—which I think is kind of nice. I like mysteries!”

READY FOR MONARCH STORYTIME?

Then find and read  my book THE BUTTERFLY TREE (Peachtree Publishing).

This is my favorite illustration from this story. And this is a story from my personal experience. Once when I was a child growing up near Lake Erie, I was outside one afternoon when an orange cloud appeared. It was  migrating Monarch butterflies and they settled to rest for the night covering tree branches so they became magnificently decorated. It was unforgettable and sparked this story. ENJOY!

TEACHER 2 TEACHER 4 WHAT IF YOU HAD!? Book Fun

 

Are you ready for WHAT IF YOU HAD!? book FUN!? Then share the read aloud for each book and click the links to the activities. 

These are all shared by creative people on their online sites. While you can search and find lots more activities offered online for each book, I'm only sharing ones that are FREE.

What If You Had Animal Eyes!? Read Aloud

Shows every page up close.

What If You Had Animal Eyes!? Activity

Animal Adaptation Activity

What If You Had Animal Hair!? Read Aloud

Shows every page up close

What If You Had Animal Hair!? Activity

Learning to the Core 

What If You Had Animal Hair!? Activity

Teaching Guide and Action Guide

    Compare Hair Cut Activity

What If You Had Animal Feet!? Read Aloud

What If You Had Kangaroo Feet! Activity

Animal Feet Adaptation Fun Activity

And don't miss my newest!

CHECK IT OUT HERE!

HOST A SUMMER SCIENCE MAGIC PARTY!

 I'm known as Ms Whiz from my science magic show on TV in Atlanta, Georgia some years ago. I still share science magic during n-person OR virtual school visits. But you can invite your friends to a party and do some science magic too. 

Start with AIR POWER MAGIC!

This could get messy so work over a sink the first time. Even better try this outdoors. 

You'll need:

A study plastic plate

A paper towel

A sturdy plastic glass (juice size works best)

Fill the plastic glass nearly full of water. Fold the paper towel into fourths and place it on the middle of the plate. Next, turn the plate and towel over the cup like a lid. Hold the plate against the top of the cup with your fingers while you turn the whole system over.

Now the glass is on top. Be sure it is straight up and down. Hold on to the cup with the hand that isn't pressing up on the plate. Then--slowly--take your hand away from the plate. The plate won't fall and the water will stay inside the glass.

Air pressure makes this work because of air pressure. There is now more below the plate pushing up than inside the glass pushing down. Be sure and keep the glass straight or you will get a big splash!.

NO LEAKS

You can poke holes in a bottle full of water without it leaking--with the help of air pressure.

You'll need:

an empty 1 or 2 liter plastic soft drink bottle with a screw-on cap.

3 pushpins (the kind used to display things on a bulletin board)

Work outdoors or at the sink. Fill the bottle to the very top with water. Screw on the cap, making sure it's tightly sealed.

Next, stick the pushpins into the bottle, one at a time. Then have your adult partner hold the bottle by its cap while you carefully twist and tug out the pushpins. 

Surprise! If water leaks out at all, it quickly stops or slows to a tiny trickle.

The magic is that air pressure is at work again. Air doesn't simply push down, it exerts force in all directions. The force of the air pushing in on the water at the holes you made is greater than that of the water inside the bottle pushing out. 

What do you think will happen when you take the cap off the bottle? Try it--just be sure the bottle is over the sink. 😀

ONE MORE...

THE MAGIC FLOATING BALL

You'll need:

A blow-dryer

A Ping-Pong ball

Hold the blow-dryer with the nozzle aimed straight up. You may want your adult partner to do that for you. When the dryer is switched on to "high", place the ball in this column of fast-moving air so it's about 5 inches above the nozzle. Let go of the ball and quickly take your hand away.

As long as the air current is shooting striaght up, the Ping-Pong ball will float suspended above the dryer's nozzle.

This "magic" happens because fast-moving air has less pressure than more slowly moving air. So the Ping-Pong ball is trapped inside the column of fast-moving air. Here the ball is pushed upward by a jet of air with enough force to keep it from falling, but not enough to blow it any higher.

These science magic tricks are sure to be a party hit.

*By the way, be sure to come up with a cool name for yourself as the star of your party? 

EYE SPY AN ADVENTURE!

It's story time!  Have you read WHAT IF YOU HAD ANIMAL EYES!? Level 2 Reader yet?

Children can either pick their own animal from the book or put the names of the featured animals on slips of paper and let them pick one to claim their animal eyes. The challenge is to imagine waking up one day and having that animal's eyes for one whole day. 

ASK THEM TO THINK AND IMAGINE: 

What adventure did you have? 

Did your animal eyes help you solve a mystery? 

Did those eyes help you be a hero? 

Did those animal eyes cause you any problems?

Then have them tackle this challenge: Write a story about having those animal eyes for a day in three short paragraphs: 
1. One to launch what happens. 
2. One for the action in the middle.
3. One for the conclusion. 

Even better if they draw a picture of themselves with those eyes.

Teachers: Why not wrap this activity up by building a class bar graph for favorite animal eyes.  You could color in bars on paper. Or have everyone line up and physically be part of a favorite animal eye graph. 

Put me in your graph as voting for my favorite animal eyes which are on pages 18-19.

I'd love to know your student-graph winners!
Please post in the comments.

I'LL READ TO YOU: RACE THE WILD WIND

 Relax and enjoy as I read to you.

Click to start RACE THE WILD WIND (Bloomsbury)

And enjoy your own copy from Amazon

GO BATTY FOR BATS!

 

Reading BATS: BIGGEST! LITTLEST! is the perfect way to start getting to know these amazing animals.  Then keep on exploring and learning about bats as you have fun with these activities.

Visit My Cave

What's it like to live like a bat?  

Cover a table on three sides with a blanket or paper to create a cave.  Have your family or a group of friends crawl inside your pretend cave with you.  While you're there with this group, think about these questions.

1. Why is a cave a good home for small bats, like Mexican Free-tailed Bats? 
2. Why do you think big bats, like Grey-Headed Flying Foxes, camp in the open in trees instead?
3. What are some problems to sharing a cave with other bats?

What Good Are Bats?

Check out the hand-like structure of a bat's wings.

Try this to find out.  
Take a large bowl of popcorn kernels to the gym or outdoors to a paved area of the playground.  Work with friends to scatter 50 popped kernels on the floor or ground.  Count to ten. Then have people place two more popcorn kernels next to each original kernel.  This is as if the insect pests have multiplied.  

Now pretend you are an insect-hunting bat. Have four others pretend they are too.  While someone counts to five, have each “bat” pick up all of the insects they can carry.  Then have other children place two popcorn kernels next to each remaining kernel.  

Repeat these steps two more times, having “bats” collect “insects”.   Then have any remaining “insects” multiply.  

Now look at the results.

• How much of an affect did the “bats” have on the “insect” population?
• What limited how much of an effect the bats could have on the insects? 
• What do you think would happen to populations of insect pests if there weren’t any bats?

Bats for Good Measure

Again, here's a good chance to see the arm and hand-like structure of a bat's wing.

The wingspan of the largest flying foxes can be up to 6 feet (about 2 meters).  Take string that length. Find at least 5 things about the same length.  What are they?  

Now, measure each of these things.  Find out how longer or shorter each is compared to a large flying fox’s wingspan. 

• The teacher’s desk
• The class’s two shortest students lying head to feet on the floor.
• The classes two tallest students lying head to feet on the floor.
• Your teacher’s armspan (from fingertip to fingertip with both arms stretched out)

The wingspan of the Bumblebee bat is 6 inches (15 centimeters).  Take a piece of string that length.  Find at least 5 things about the same length.  What are they?

Now, measure each of these things.  Find out how much longer or shorter each is compared to a Bumblebee Bat’s wingspan.

• The smallest book in the classroom
• Your pencil
• The shoe of the student with the littlest foot
• Your right hand span (from thumb to little finger with your hand spread wide).  Draw around your hand span on a piece of paper. Then compare to your bat wing measuring string.

I hope you've enjoyed this chance to dig deeper into BATS: BIGGEST! LITTLEST!  Check out the other books in this series from Boyds Mills:

SHARKS: BIGGEST! LITTLEST!

SNAKES: BIGGEST! LITTLEST!

INSECTS: BIGGEST! LITTLEST!

SPIDERS: BIGGEST! LITTLEST!