Earth Day Bento

Bento Bloggers & Friends are joining together for another blog hop. This time we are hopping to celebrate Earth Day. International Earth Day is held on April 22nd to help increase awareness and appreciation of the Earth's natural environment and resources. We are posting our Earth Day lunches a bit early since the 22nd falls on a Sunday. Be sure to click the link at the end of this post to see what Earth Day creations Bento Monsters has put together. The Earth Day Hop links will be live and connected by 10 a.m. on April 18th.

The Thirsty Moose by David Orme

In this story, Big Moose is very thirsty so he begins to drink from the river. He drinks so much that the other animals are alarmed at their disappearing habitats. Beaver, Duck, Muskrat, and the fish yell at Big Moose to stop drinking. They tell him he is destroying their homes. Big Moose does not listen to them. A tiny little fly was able to get Big Moose to stop. Boogs told me that Big Moose was "being greedy and not taking only his fair share". Boogs and I discussed how we can take only our fair share by following a plan of reduce, reuse, and recycle as much as possible. One way we do that is by packing Boogs' lunches in reusable containers. In the lunchbox: almond butter and Nutella Big Moose sandwich, dried apricots for the dry areas of the river bed, sesame sticks for the beaver's lodge, Goldfish crackers for the fish in the river, a cheese duck, a raisin fly with pumpkin seed wings, carrot sticks for the debris in the water as the water level got lower and lower, and yogurt.

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

Alice Rumphius wanted to do three things... travel the world, live by the sea, and do something to make the world more beautiful. To make the world more beautiful, Miss Rumphius decided to scatter lupine flower seeds over the fields, along country and highway lanes, and around the buildings in town. Soon her beautiful lupines were growing for everyone to enjoy. In the lunchbox: Mediterranean Orzo Salad, pistachios for lupine seeds, sesame sticks and blueberries for lupine flowers, ham and cheese tortilla rollups with a cheese circle on top for the warm summer sun, and dried papaya.

Bento Monsters is the next stop on the Earth Day blog hop. Please click here to see her beautiful Earth Day creations.

Check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar! If you want to see more book inspired lunches, click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post. To see the previous Bento Bloggers & Friends hops click on the "hop" label.

Science Share Night

Boogs' elementary school hosts an annual Science Share Night. Boogs was one of two kindergartners who participated. About a month ago, we received the flyer about Science Night. My husband read it to Boogs and asked him if he wanted to participate. He did. Boogs decided to use his Snap Circuits Jr. set to show that water can conduct electricity. Boogs does not really enjoy writing. He had to submit a written permission form to get approval to do his experiment.

Once his permission form was approved, he received a three page planning packet to fill out and include in the display with his project. I thought for sure that would discourage him but he worked on it a little bit at a time and got it done. He diligently practiced putting his circuit together over and over again. My husband helped him figure out what to say. Boogs helped pick out a tri-fold display board, took pictures by himself to include on the board, and attached everything to his board. I helped with the board layout and his friend helped him glue everything down. He was so excited!

Boogs wanted to wear his lab coat. So cute!

Nonnie came by to hear Boogs' experiment.

Poppa came by to hear his experiment.

Boogs had a good flow of what he called "customers"
throughout the evening.

Boogs' proudly showed his principal his experiment.

In between "customers", Boogs was able to see the other presentations. His favorite was about a girl's pet hedgehog. Boogs now wants a pet hedgehog.

The school set up several tables with hands-on activities for the students to do. Boogs made sure he visited every table.

Build the tallest structure with limited supplies -  cup,
rubber band,  2 cardboard squares, sheet of tinfoil, and straw.

Testing to see what materials conduct electricity.

Making whirligigs.

Testing the whirligig. 

It was a great night. Boogs said he will definitely participate and present again next year.

Lunches April 10th - 13th

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.

Earthquakes! They Make the Ground Shake
by the Editors of Time For Kids with Barbara Collier
Boogs asked for a "fact lunch" after reading this book last night. This is a very informative short book with more than forty facts about earthquakes.  In the lunchbox: salami & cheese building before and after an earthquake, 7 tectonic plate crackers, marshmallow model of earth's inner core/outer core/mantle/crust, the pretzel center is like the focus of an earthquake with the rest of the pretzel showing where the energy waves spread outward, blueberry tsunami wave, and salad landslide.

Mary Had A Little Jam And Other Silly Rhymes created by Bruce Lansky
Silly is right! Boogs laughed out loud while we read this book. It is a collection of Mother Goose poems/rhymes changed up a bit to make them ridiculously silly. One of Boogs' favorites was "Three kind mice, see how they run! They all ran after the farmer's wife, they took out some cheese and they cut her a slice. Did you ever see such a sight in your life as three kind mice?" We had to stop after almost every rhyme to say the real Mother Goose version. I liked "Hickory, dickory, dock, a mouse jumped in my sock. He wiggled his nose and tickled my toes, which gave me quite a shock!" In the lunchbox: three kind mice pb&j sandwich balls, mango, Babybel slice of cheese for the farmer's wife, broccoli, carrots, and yogurt.

Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood
We own quite a few Audrey Wood books and frequently check out her books from the library. Boogs read this story to me. He enjoyed reading it so much that he started over and read it again. I love watching him become a better reader. Audrey Wood's website has a really neat "secrets" section. Boogs was fascinated by seeing how members of the Wood family posed as models for the illustrations in some of Audrey Wood's books. In the lunchbox: "busy as a bee" ham & cheese bee, "small as an ant" raisins, "quiet as a clam" pistachios, "tame as a poodle" broccoli dog, extra broccoli, and a container of pears.

My Granny Went To Market by Stella Blackstone & Christopher Corr
A Round-the-World Counting Rhyme
I love that there is world map with dots and arrows showing the reader the route Granny took on her round-the-world shopping tour. She began her tour in Istanbul to buy a flying carpet. Then she rode the flying carpet to each of her shopping destinations before visiting her granddaughter in Peru. That lucky granddaughter was given ten black llamas and the magic carpet. The book ends with the girl starting her own adventure. Boogs really liked this book. He now wants a magic carpet. He told me, "I would go to the North Pole to see Santa Claus and my elf Cutesy and then come back to Texas. I would also go to see the Leaning Eiffel Tower of Pisa in Italy." Close... we discussed a few world landmarks to sort out the Leaning Tower and the Eiffel Tower. In the lunchbox: 1flying carpet pb&j sandwich roll, 2 Babybel cats from Thailand (I cut one Babybel in half to make the two cats), 4 kiwi Chinese lanterns, 8 sesame stick boomerangs from Australia, 9 Goldfish kites from Tokyo, and a salad.

Check out the wonderful sites I link to on my sidebar! If you want to see more book inspired lunches, click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post. Be sure to leave me a comment to let me know you stopped by.

Goo or Goop? Either Way It Is Great Messy Fun!

Goop... we have made a lot of Goop over the years, but C and I decided that it would be fun to make goop again at our Wednesday Learning Playdate. This little workbook, Science Project Physics Tricks, had a section on mixtures with explanations. So we used the "Do-It-Yourself Blue Goo" experiment with the kids. The book defined cornstarch and told what it is usually used for. It also stated that "goo" is a colloid, a special kind of mixture in which particles of one type of material are suspended in another kind of material. Examples of colloid mixtures are: fog (water floating in air), milk (milk fat suspended in a watery liquid), Jello (gelatin and sweetener suspended in water), oil paint (pigment floating in an oily liquid), mayonnaise (oil suspended in water with the help of egg yolks to keep the oil and water from separating).

We did not tell the kids what we were doing today. Instead, we had them go on a scavenger hunt to find the supplies they would need for an unknown experiment. We wanted to somehow incorporate movement into this activity. Warning: There are excessive amounts of pictures in this post.

Boogs listened while B read the first clue. Then they raced to the backyard and scrambled up the ladder on the playscape.  

They found a jug of water, an information sheet about water, and their next clue. The information sheet had a few facts about water on it - covers 70% of Earth's surface, chemical formula is H2O, and a little bit about the water cycle. 

The next clue led them to food coloring by the hollow stump. They read the clue and raced to the other side of the yard.

They discovered bowls under the picnic table. They also read their last clue. This clue was C's favorite. It said,  "Find the last item where dad burns the meat." B immediately yelled, "THE GRILL!"

They found the cornstarch at the grill and had their supplies. There was an information card for them to read (or be read to) about cornstarch with the box of cornstarch.

Then the mess began.

At first, E only wanted to add food coloring. He did not want to touch the goop.

Big Sis showed him how much fun it is to play with goop.

E quickly decided to dive right in.

Boogs and B loved playing with their slimy, squishy goop.

E and Big Sis enjoying the mess.

Boogs and B spent a little over an hour playing with the goop.

Then Boogs decided to take the mess to a whole new level!

Yikes! Good thing we were doing this outside.

B followed Boogs lead.

Big Sis thought it would be fun to get a picture of an optical illusion of it looking like she was eating goop while the goop was really going beside her mouth. Unfortunately, she miscalculated and the goop swung right into her face.

We all had a good laugh.

B looked like she was wearing gloves.

Boogs ended up matching his shirt.

He just kept piling it on.

We did not realize how much goop was falling onto the porch. Hmmm... does food coloring stain? It sure looked like it was not going to come off.

We threw B into the shower and Boogs into a bath and then hurriedly (frantically) started trying to get the food coloring off of the porch before C's husband came home.

We were able to remove most of the food coloring with a bar of  soap, a little water, and a little bleach.

I am so glad I followed Steve Spangler's advice in his Secret Science Book - Don't try this at home... try it at a friend's house. (Hee hee!) The kids have already started asking what we are going to do next week. Right now, I have no idea. We ran out of time, but the kids did ask to use the Storytelling Cards again this week. We will have to make time next week to have another round of storytelling.


Be sure to check out my sidebar for all of the wonderful places I link-up!

Easter Saturday

Boogs and his cousin Little J went to the Home Depot Kids Workshop to make birdfeeders. Little J spent the night and was not very enthusiastic about going to the workshop. Once he started building, he really enjoyed himself. The boys lucked into an Easter egg hunt after the workshop. I don't think the hunt was advertised anywhere, only about 12 kids participated. Boogs and Little J were thrilled to hunt eggs with candy in them.

Saturday afternoon, the whole family celebrated Easter at my parent's house. My nieces and nephews are almost all past wanting to hunt eggs. My brother's grandkids are just getting to an age to begin hunting eggs. Boogs loves to hunt eggs especially since we do not put candy in them, we put quarters in most of the eggs and $1 bills in a few special ones.

The cousins are ready to hunt. Too
bad I left Boogs' basket at home.

Found the one hiding in the tree.

Very excited to see what's inside.

Great money counting activity.

My brother brought 4 dozen cascarones.

My sister's oldest boys.

The cascarones were filled with confetti,
flour, and glitter.

What a fun mess!

My great-nephew getting his grandpa.

Glitter was everywhere! I
gave Boogs a quick shower
and only some of the glitter
came off.

Boogs was exhausted by the
end of the day.

I hid out in the house and took pictures from the doorway while everyone else was getting cascarones cracked on their heads. That did not stop my brother. He got me about an hour later with an egg in the kitchen. Then my niece got me a second time while I was shaking the confetti out of my hair.