Finally Finished Our Internal Organ T-Shirt

Boogs and I have been spending Wednesday afternoons with friends working on an internal organ study. I found the idea on Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational's blog. Our kiddos have really enjoyed working on their shirts, learning about their organs, filling out their booklets, and hanging out with each other. We finished the t-shirts last week and made our brains today. We made brain hats with sentence strips, cotton balls, and pink paint. We also made a clay model and discussed the 6 parts of the brain and their functions. The clay model idea came from the Science Sparks website. Boogs loved working with the clay.

Working on their booklets.

Molding the clay.

Using the model from Science Sparks to make the brain.

E completed his with help from his big sis.

Boogs finished his brain. 

B completed her clay model.

Making brain hats

They were so proud.

We discussed the parts of the brain. Then I labeled them.

We discussed how important it is to protect your brain by wearing a helmet for biking, skateboarding, and riding a scooter. How to protect your brain by not diving into pools of water that you don't know the depth. We also discussed how exercising and eating well help your brain stay healthy. Next week, we are going to wrap up our organ study with a "Brain-based Obstacle Course". (Click here to see the obstacle course.)

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Boogs Is Growing Up So Fast

I can't believe Boogs is more than halfway through kindergarten. He is growing up so fast, I wish I could slow time down. GM, Boogs asked me to send you a webcam high five. Here are a few pictures from last week.

Explorer's Club Lego Lab building a spaceship

Boogs found Daddy's Mardi Gras mask and hat.

Boogs asked Cousin Leigh to read him one of his bedtime stories.

Staying up past his bedtime to roast marshmallows.

You know that a marshmallow is properly roasted when it looks
like a charcoal briquette.

Boogs loves to hang out with Cousin Leigh.

Such concentration while using a drawing book to make a rabbit.

I love this picture.

Boogs decided to fill out an application to participate in his
elementary school's Science Share Night. His plan is to show
how to turn on an alarm and a fan by completing a circuit using
his Snap Circuit Board. He is very excited about it and says he
will have to practice putting his circuit together so he will be
ready to show it on Science Share Night.

Lunches February 20th - 24th

Boogs' lunches are inspired by the books we read at bedtime the previous evening. Each night, Boogs reads one book to me and I read two books to him. I usually post his lunches once a week. Click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post to see lunches from previous weeks.

The Luck of the Loch Ness Monster, A Tale of Picky Eating by A.W. Flaherty
Boogs is facinated by tales of monsters and was excited to read about the Loch Ness Monster. This book tells the story of a little girl who hated eating oatmeal, the national breakfast food of Scotland. She threw her oatmeal out the ship's porthole and a small worm ate it. The worm followed the ship, continued to eat her discarded oatmeal, and grew to be the Loch Ness Monster. It was a cute story, but I was hoping it would not give Boogs any ideas about being a picky eater. In the lunchbox: almond butter & jelly ship, cheese waves, Pirate's Booty clouds, blueberry ocean, cucumber Nessie on a bed of spinach & carrots, applesauce "bowl of oatmeal", and yogurt.

The Magic Hat by Mem Fox
A magic hat blows into town and changes several adults into fun-loving animals. Boogs loved reading the repeated phrase "Oh, the magic hat, the magic hat. It moved like this. It moved like that." It was fun to guess what animal each person would change into after the hat landed on their head. In the lunchbox: ham magic hat, cheese H-A-T, cheese frog, cheese giraffe, cheese bear, asiago cheese bread slice, carrots, grapes, & dried apricots. 

Animals That Live in the Tundra: Snowy Owls by Ramon Patrick
Boogs brought this book home from his school library and asked me to "make another fact lunch". In the lunchbox: pb&j female Snowy Owl (only the male owls have all white feathers) eating a small cheese animal for its lunch (owls eat lemmings, mice, rabbits, and other small animals), Babybel moon & orange sun (Snowy Owls hunt both night & day), kiwi "eggs" ( mother owls make nests on the ground and lay 3 to 11 eggs at a time), and a green salad for the times the Snowy Owl heads south to hunt.

Like Butter on Pancakes by Jonathan London
You can tell that Jonathan London is a poet. The words and phrases that he chooses provoke beautiful imagery. It is the story of a boy and how he spends his day. He wakes when "first light melts like butter on pancakes, spreads warm and yellow across your pillow." At night, the "spoons sleep nestled in the kitchen drawers." Boogs favorite phrase was "a cloud drifts by dragging a shadow." The boy in the story plays outside all day long and comes in when his Mama rings the dinner bell. This reminded me of growing up, I had to go home when the street lights came on.  In the lunchbox: Johnny cake (cornmeal pancake) with grape eyes & strawberry mouth, bacon, grapes, dried apricot, veggie pancake, and yogurt. We love veggie pancakes and have used this recipe for years.

Bella and Stella Come Home by Anika Denise
Bella and her lovey Stella have to say goodbye to her old house and move into a new house. Bella is upset by the strangeness of the new house. Her old house had 3 steps to the door and the new house has 10 steps. The new house does not feel like home. It is bare, the colors on the wall don't feel right, and it is kind of spooky. Bella eventually begins to feel comfortable in the new house and even makes a new friend in the neighborhood. We moved twice last year, from old house to apartment then apartment to new house, and it was tough for Boogs. We have been in our new house since July and Boogs is finally comfortable here. After reading this book, we discussed the old house, the move, the new house and his feelings about it. He told me that he no longer remembers living in the old house, but he does miss the pool at the apartment complex. In the lunchbox: almond butter & Nutella new house, Stella the elephant cheese, ten ham "steps", raisins, carrots with ranch dressing, and strawberry Greek yogurt.

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A Short Walk

We took a short walk with Cousin Leigh on the trail behind our house to the park. My husband came up with a game he called "The Gauntlet" that involved running in between moving swings. Boogs loved the game. My allergies were so bad that I had to return home after only about 20 minutes outside. My husband and Boogs had some "man-type" adventures before they came home.

Boogs was hiding on the fence.

Mardi Gras

We went to a friend's Housewarming/Mardi Gras party this past weekend.

My cousin and I 

Love this mask, such pretty feathers.

The guys playing foosball.

I won!

We had so much fun playing a dance
game on Kinect.

Eeek! I need to get back to the gym.

My husband was so funny trying to
keep up with the game.

It was a good night.

Lunches February 13th - 17th

Boogs' lunches are inspired by the books we read at bedtime the previous evening. Each night, Boogs reads one book to me and I read two books to him. I usually post his lunches once a week. Click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post to see lunches from previous weeks.


I posted Boogs' lunches from Monday and Tuesday here because I wanted them posted for Valentine's Day.

Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman & Ben Cort
Boogs loved the colorful and fun illustrations of aliens dancing, sliding, hiding and being silly in all sorts of underpants. Boogs does not think aliens have been in his underwear drawer because he keeps it closed tight. In the lunchbox: almond butter & Nutella alien in fruit roll-up underwear, spinach & carrot alien salad with olive eyes, strawberries with kiwi underwear, Pirate's Booty, and yogurt. This lunch is linked to Eat's Amazing Dinosuars in Underpants linky.

Curious George At The Aquarium by R.P. Anderson, based on Margret & H.A. Rey's books
Curious George tries to be a good little monkey but somehow he always causes trouble. In this book, he accidently let the penguins escape from the penguin habitat. (We woke up 45 minutes late this morning so I had to throw this lunch together very quickly. I will have to make a better Curious George on another day.)  In the lunchbox: pb&j monkey sandwich, ham & cheese penguin, pita chips under the monkey, berries, carrots, and chocolate milk.

Swim! Swim! by James Proimos
Boogs picked this book out at his school library. Lerch, a lonely little fish, wants to find a friend. The cartoon-like drawings are adorable. Boogs read most of this book to me by himself. It is so exciting to watch him become a better and more independent reader. In the lunchbox: hummus & tomato basil tortilla Lerch with nori smile, cheese eyes, spinach letter to spell SWIM, blueberry bubbles, raisin pebbles, salad, and yogurt. 

Places I have linked up:
Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons