from the book "Grow It, Cook It......*

When Life Gives you Lemons....................

 ......make lemon ice pops!!

If you are lucky enough to live in a part of the world that grows lemon trees, you may be able to pick them from your own backyard.  We went to Arizona one year for Thanksgiving at my brother's home and they had a bounty of lemons from their own tree! (Thanks, John and Shan!) We made lemonade, lemon mousse pie, lemon french toast, etc.  


Here in Seattle, I get my lemons from the produce section of the market.


Try this cool, zingy recipe from the book Grow It, Cook It:  Simple Gardening Projects and Delicious Recipes, from DK Publishing.


Here's What You Need:


6 juicy lemons
1 cup honey
3 cups cold water
18 small, empty yogurt cups (save 'em up!) or small Dixie paper cups


Here's What You Do:


*Put the honey in a saucepan and finely grate the zest from 3 of the lemons--add the zest and 2 cups of water to the honey.  Bring to a boil over medium heat while stirring, then remove from heat.
*Squeeze the juice from all of the lemons--should be about 1 cup.
*Strain the honey and lemon zest solution through a strainer into a bowl.  Add the lemon juice a bit at a time.  Stir and taste--keep adding lemon juice to your taste. 
*Put the lemon mixture in the fridge to cool.
*Add the last cup of water when the mixture is cool and stir well.
*Pour into the empty yogurt containers and freeze until firm but not solid.
*Insert a popsicle stick into each container in the middle.  Freeze until solid.
*Enjoy while cooling off on a summer day!


Cheater Version:


*Make cold lemonade from frozen concentrate.  Pour into containers and freeze until firm. Insert the sticks and freeze until solid. Lots quicker, but then again--"it's the process, not the product!"


*Check out the book!  

Watercolor Spirals........

When the paint on the paper plate is dry, start cutting a one inch strip around and around on the plate in a spiral shape.....

Use watercolors or other paints; fingers or brushes to cover the surface of a thin paper plate.

.....until you reach the very center of the plate.

Now your water-colored spiral is ready to decorate any space by hanging it from the ceiling!

Ocean in a Bottle

Waves of color.....

Here's What You Need:

*clear plastic bottle with cap

*water

*food coloring

*vegetable oil or baby oil

*masking tape

Here's What you Do:

Fill the bottle about 1/3 full with tap water.  Add some food coloring--blue to make "ocean waves."

Fill the rest of the bottle up with oil.  Screw the cap on securely and tape with masking tape.

Swirl the bottle and notice the results!  Give it a good shaking and the substances will seem to combine for awhile.

Why?

Water mixes with many things, but not oil!  When you put them together in the same container they remain separate.  This makes them insoluble.  If you shake the bottle they seem to combine for awhile, because the oil breaks up into tiny oil globs and is suspended in the water temporarily--in this state it is called an emulsion. As the bottle sits, the two substances completely separate again.  

Take it Further:

If you remove the masking tape and add a bit of sand to the bottle, it will sink to the bottom--because it has more density than the water or oil.  You can experiment by adding different material to the bottle and asking your child what they think will happen.  What happens if you add a styrofoam peanut? Will is sink or float--which is more dense? What about a rock?  

Spaghetti Sculpture--Mama Mia!

Sofie contemplates her mobile sculpted from spaghetti. When it's dry, she can peel it off the wax paper and hang it from the ceiling.

Here's What You Need:

cooked spaghetti, cooled

white glue

tempera paint

small bowls for different colors

forks for mixing each color

wax paper

tape

CJ and Sofie select colors for their sculptures

Here's What You Do:

For each color, mix 1 tablespoon white glue with 1 tablespoon of paint.  Add one cup of cooked noodles and stir well to coat.

Tape a large piece of wax paper to the table.  The artist arranges strands of colored spaghetti in any design--make sure the pieces are overlapped and touching.  It helps to have paper towels around so the artist can wipe hands off between colors. When the sculpture is finished, put it in a safe place to dry--one to two days, or more depending on thickness.

  

When it is dry, carefully peel it from the wax paper.  For a colorful display, tie ribbon or yarn to one end and hang it from the ceiling like a mobile.

Egg head friends

*

Fast growing grass seeds give 

your friends a good hair day.....

...you can also use a flower pot, a paper cup or any other sort of container.


Here's What You Need:
*empty egg shells or
*flower pot, paper cups, etc.
*empty toilet paper roll, cut into rings as a base for the egg shells.
*Potting soil, or soil from your garden
*grass seeds
*markers or craft materials to create "faces"


Here's What You Do:
*Next time you cook with eggs, break them near the top of one end (to give as much container space as possible) and rinse them.
*Let your little gardener decorate the egg shells or containers to create faces for their "friends." If you are using egg shells, make a stand for each one by cutting rings for an empty toilet paper roll. Place each shell on a stand.
*Your child can scoop potting soil into each egg shell or flower pot.  
*Moisten the soil and scatter grass seeds in a thick layer on top. Place another very thin layer of soil on top of the seeds and moisten again.  (a spray bottle works well for watering--it will help your child avoid over watering).
*Give your friends a nice home in a sunny place like a windowsill, spray their heads with water daily, and watch for the seeds to sprout! Within a few days you'll see some green fuzz appear.

Marshmallow Tower

This open-ended building project works very well for preschoolers using colorful bendy straws or tinker toys as connectors......

....as well as for older students studying mathematics and engineering.  Try using dry fettucine or spaghetti as connectors for bigger kids.


Here's What You Need:


Marshmallows (stale ones actually work best!--but fresh will do) try different sizes and you may even be able to find colorful fruit-flavored ones.


Straws, bendy or other, colorful or plain. The sticks from Tinker Toys work, too!


Blunt scissors to cut the straws to different lengths.


Dry fettucini or spaghetti for older kids.


Lots of imagination!


Here's What You Do:


Let your kids build it any which way they want to!  Try to avoid the temptation to step in and help them or try to "make it look like something."  Creativity and confidence will be unleashed the more the children do projects independently.  My mantra is:  "it's the process, not the product!" Helping spark ideas is fine, of course.  One pre-school boy loved firefighters, so his mom suggested building a fire station.  (she let him do the actual building though.)  He spent hours constructing it and bringing in his action figure firefighters to work in the building!

Magical Fireflies....

Scroll down for a related poem and activity to enrich your reading of the book.

In the inside cover, the author, Eric Carle tells us that The Very Lonely Firefly is the 4th book in his VERY quartet and it is about belonging. "We all want to belong to a group, a family, our own fellow creatures."

The first book in the VERY quartet, and probably the most familiar is The Very Hungry Caterpillar, with the theme of hope.

The second book is The Very Busy Spider, and is focused on our need for work.

The third is The Very Quiet Cricket, about the universal search for love.

HOPE.....WORK.......LOVE......and BELONGING

Firefly

A little light is going by,
Is going up to see the sky,
A little light with wings.

I never could have thought of it,
To have a little bug all lit
And made to go on wings.

(Elizabeth Madox Roberts)

Firefly Craft

You can make your very own Fireflies. This is an easy and fun summer craft, suitable for toddlers on up!

Ages: 2 and Up 

Here's What You Need...

• Black construction paper
• White paint
• Paper plate or shallow dish
• Shiny, metallic pipe cleaners
• Wire cutters or sharp scissors
• Glue 

Here's What You Do:

1. Pour some white paint into a paper plate or shallow dish. Make white thumb prints on your black paper, to look like wings of a firefly. Make a bunch of them all over your paper!

2. Cut your shiny pipe cleaners into small pieces to make the body of your bugs. Glue them in place and you're done! 
*from Busy Bee Kids Crafts