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I'm using Wordless Wednesday to share all about the Terrific Tuesday we had this week. And no, I did not let the girls eat all of that ice cream! :) **All photos and text are property of Angela Pounders and can not be distributed without permission. If you share one of my posts, please include a link to my page. Thanks!
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There are many black inventors that have contributed greatly to our society. I chose to focus on Garret Morgan and George Washington Carver. I even found a recipe that ties the two inventors together! Before getting started, explain what an invention is (a new device, method, or process developed from study and experimentation) and what an inventor is (someone who comes up with inventions) to your child. Make sure to share the real photos with your child so he/she can put a face to the name. I have included some main points for each inventor, but there is a lot more information out there! Garret Morgan There is no doubt that Garret Morgan did invent a traffic signal in the 1920's, but he did not invent the first traffic signal. Several other people had invented and even patented traffic signals by this time, but Morgan's design was unique in that it consisted of a "T-shaped pole that had a signal on the top, with three positions. These three positions were Go, Stop, and All-Stop. This last position applied to people coming from every direction, and was used to make sure that pedestrians could cross the street safely. Morgan received a patent for his device in 1923..." (taken from here). Morgan's traffic signal was used throughout North America until all manual traffic signals were replaced by the automatic red, yellow and green traffic lights in use today. Have your child color in a picture of Morgan and his traffic signal. If you have the ability to do something, why don't you do it? Garret Morgan George Washington Carver While George Washington Carver did not originally invent peanut butter as many of us may have thought, he did play a significant role in making it popular. Carver came up with over 300 uses for peanuts (and hundreds more for soybeans, pecans and sweet potatoes), but he only patented three. He believed his discoveries with food products were all gifts from God. “God gave them to me.” He would say about his ideas, “How can I sell them to someone else?” (taken from www.todayifoundout.com). Carver's work also laid the groundwork for organic farming and today’s research on plant-based fuels, medicines, and everyday products. I also read that Carver did not have a lab notebook, so how to create his numerous inventions were never recorded. Among some of his inventions using peanuts included: adhesives, axle grease, bleach, buttermilk, chili sauce, fuel briquettes (a biofuel), ink, instant coffee, linoleum, mayonnaise, meat tenderizer, metal polish, shaving cream and wood stain. For some more facts, check out http://www.nationalpeanutboard.org/classroom-funfacts.php. The Field Museum has an Educator Guide that is very informative and has some real photos of Carver http://fieldmuseum.org/sites/default/files/Carver_Guide.pdf. Here is a picture of Carver for your child to color. The primary idea in all of my work was to help the farmer and fill the poor man’s empty dinner pail. Carver, in a 1929 letter. This snack ties in Morgan's invention of the traffic light and what they look like today with Carver's use of peanuts--in this case, peanut butter! Peanut Butter Traffic Light Snack idea from Thingamababy.com Ingredients: Graham crackers, M&Ms, peanut butter Supplies needed: plastic knife or spreader What to do:
Take it further:
**All photos and text are property of Angela Pounders and can not be distributed without permission. If you share one of my posts, please include a link to my page. Thanks! source: www.about.com Children are never too young to learn of the contributions made by all different kinds of people. Black History Month is a great time to learn about a variety of people from sports players to scientists to musicians. Your children probably still remember what you did for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, so you can build on their prior knowledge of what things used to be like for "black" people. (In case you missed the post, check it out here.) There are also a number of different ways we can expose our children to learning new things. One of those is music. photo from www.amazon.com The spark for this idea came from this website. My girls love music and what a great time to introduce them to a type of music that black people are credited with creating. I am talking about jazz! There are several artists we could have looked at, but I picked the talented Ella Fitzgerald. A fun CD to check out would be this one pictured. It has familiar songs children will know, but they are done in the form of jazz. source: www.ellafitzgerald.com I started off our learning time by introducing my girls to what Black History Month is: a time to remember the accomplishments and contributions of black people. Sweet Girl was the first one to bring up Martin Luther King, Jr and how he wanted everyone to be treated the same. (See, children do listen to us!) Then, we talked a bit about who Ella Fitzgerald was and what she did. You can learn more about her by reading her biography here. We also talked about jazz music. You can learn more about the history of jazz here and for a number of kid-friendly sites on jazz, check out here. Listening to Ella Fitzgerald Sing I told the girls we were go ing to be listening to a different kind of music called jazz. They love music, so they were excited for the music to begin. I started off playing a familiar song from the "Jazz for Kids" CD, Old McDonald Had a Farm. I found a free recording to listen to here. Of course, the girls knew the song and they noticed right away that the style was different from the way we usually hear/sing it. Love Bug was moving in her seat and Sweet Bug wanted to hear more when the song was over. I love when the girls get into our lessons! We listened to Ella's music for at least an hour! I put her name in Spotify and just let the music play. I made sure to play some familiar songs like Christmas songs, too. Again, it was a great learning time to see how songs can be done in different styles. Before we started listening to music, I prepped a little craft for the girls to do while we listened to Ella sing. Ella Fitzgerald Collage Supplies needed: a color print out of Ella Fitzgerald (we used a print out of her postage stamp which actually led into a discussion on why her face was on stamp), print out of music notes (I used an outline-type of clip art picture so the girls could color them), scissors, glue stick, piece of colored construction paper and markers *Make sure you have some of Ella's music playing while your child is creating his/her collage. Depending on your child's age, an adult may have to do the cutting. What to do:
Take it further: Dance to some of Ella's music. Talk about what instruments your child hears when listening to her music. Listen to other jazz artists. Read books about Ella. "It isn't where you came from, it's where you're going that counts." – Ella Fitzgerald **All photos and text are property of Angela Pounders and can not be distributed without permission. If you share one of my posts, please include a link to my page. Thanks! **All photos and text are property of Angela Pounders and can not be distributed without permission. If you share one of my posts, please include a link to my page. Thanks! Happy little dessert groundhog. We pretty much celebrated Groundhog Day all day long. The day began with watching a video of Phil online. It took me three tries to find the one for this year, but it was worth it. One of the books we read is written almost exactly how the actual event takes place. Next, was breakfast. Sweet Girl shared with me the night before Groundhog Day that we could put something green on top of the breakfast yogurt and "hide a groundhog" in it. What a fun idea! So, that's exactly what we did. Sweet Girl getting started. After breakfast, we colored a picture of a groundhog where we had to circle the right prediction. We also worked on our headbands. Sweet Girl and Love Bug really got into coloring their headbands. I LOVE how Sweet Girl added feet to her groundhog. How adorable! The girls were very interested in watching me put the headbands together. They looked so cute in them! I even made one and wore it--and why not? It's all part of the fun! The headbands turned out great! I just love them! Taken through my windshield before we left. Before lunch, we headed to the library. It was "Take Your Child to the Library" Day, too! It was snowing just as we were going out the door. There weren't a lot of people there and we had a whole table to ourselves. I let the girls check out a couple of extra books since it was a special day. We also signed up for the library's annual "Snuggle Club" for children ages 0-6 years old which I will be sharing more about later. I thought it would be fun to have "Phil" pop up (pun intended!) at our different meals, so I hid a teddy graham on the girls' plates for them to find at lunch. Sweet Girl kept hiding her groundhog in different places as she ate her lunch. The yummy ingredients After quiet time, we got everything together for our groundhog pudding cups. This had been something the girls had been excited about for days. The girls took turns mixing the pudding. I used instant pudding and as you can tell, I had to use vanilla. I thought I had chocolate pudding and bought vanilla for another project. I ended up having four boxes of vanilla pudding in the cabinet. Hey, it could've been a snow covered ground, right? :) Each girl got a Ziploc bag with either graham crackers or Oreos to pound into crumbs. They had fun with this part. We also dyed coconut by putting some in a container with a few drops of green food coloring. I thought this would be easier for the girls to shake than a Ziploc bag as stated in the recipe post. Getting everything ready! The hard part came when we had to wait until after dinner to eat it, but it was worth the wait! The girls, sporting their groundhog headbands, really enjoyed assembling their own treats. Love Bug did exceptionally well scooping out the crumbs and putting them in her bowl. Sweet Girl loved layering crumbs and pudding and adding the grass on top. She even made Daddy's dessert! You'll notice I don't have a picture of Love Bug's dessert because she dug in before I could get a one! Can you find the groundhog hiding in Sweet Girl's dessert? Hint: He's close to the grass. I had a great time this past week learning and teaching about groundhogs and Groundhog Day. It was a nice change of pace for us and it was fun having a party at the end to celebrate the day and everything we had learned. I hope you enjoyed the week's activities. What things did you try out? **All photos and text are property of Angela Pounders and can not be distributed without permission. If you share one of my posts, please include a link to my page. Thanks! Who doesn't love a party?! I wasn't sure what we were going to do Saturday, but then thought I could have a Groundhog Day party at home. I mentioned it to my girls and they are very excited! The more I thought about it, I got excited, too! Here are enough ideas to keep the party going all day long! Groundhog Day Party Planning
Paper Plate Groundhog Supplies needed: two paper plates, groundhog template, craft stick, crayons or markers, scissors, tape What to do:
Sweet Girl colored the ground so nicely, but said it was for the "inside" of his burrow so her groundhog would be nice and cozy! You can't see it, but he's blocking the sun. Let your child act out the following song with his/her new friend. The girls just loved this song and we did it over and over! Good Morning Groundhog sung to "Are You Sleeping?" The Mailbox Magazine, submitted by Ann Schuft Little groundhog, little groundhog, Underground, underground. Now it's time to wake up. Now it's time to wake up. Yawn and stretch. Yawn and stretch. Little groundhog, little groundhog, Underground, underground. Climb out of your burrow. Climb out of your burrow. Look around. Look around. Little groundhog, little groundhog, Underground, underground. Do you see your shadow? Do you see your shadow? Down you run! Down you run! I'd love to know if you have some ideas for a Groundhog Day party! **All photos and text are property of Angela Pounders and can not be distributed without permission. If you share one of my posts, please include a link to my page. Thanks! Sweet Girl thinks the groundhog will see his shadow. When I asked her if she was sure since the forecast for Puxtawney, PA is cloudy and snowy she said something along the lines of: In my little world I can make anything happen. Yes, you can, Sweet Girl! Notice the blue rain boots. :) Love Bug thinks the groundhog will not see his shadow. When I asked her if she thought the groundhog would see his shadow, all I got was, "no!" She had fun pasting all of the clouds on her page. Here's a list of some of the things we learned about groundhogs. After dinner, we also learned that grizzly bears like to eat them. Check out this video to see a groundhog and other little creatures in their natural habitat. What's your prediction? Will "PHIL" see his shadow or not? **All photos and text are property of Angela Pounders and can not be distributed without permission.
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AuthorThe Master's Daughter, Angela Pounders, loves teaching and sharing her ideas with others. After working various teaching-type jobs, she now uses her God-given gifts with her children at home. Categories
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February 2014
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