Key Lime Pie

We couldn't possibly study the state of Florida without making key lime pie!  No way!

I used a recipe from The United States Cookbook by Joan D'Amico and Karen Eich Drummond.  I love this book.  It has a few facts about each state and a recipe for each state too!  If you are studying the states, I definitely recommend that you purchase this book!*

*I paid for my copy of the cookbook and I am not receiving anything for recommending the book!  However, if you do purchase the book through this link, I do receive a minimal amount through the Amazon Associates program.

From Oranges to Orange Juice

When I think about Florida, I think about orange juice!  I found the book, From Oranges to Orange Juice by Kristin Thoennes Keller at the library.  After reading about how oranges find their way to the container of orange juice we buy each week, we made some of our own freshly squeezed orange juice.

This provided an opportunity for R to see how many oranges are required for just one cup of orange juice.
 

Most importantly, the juice was delicious!  We have to make freshly squeezed orange juice more often.

Alligators

We are learning about alligators for the Florida section of our Fifty States Project.  We read:

• There's an Alligator Under My Bed by Mercer Meyer
• Never Kiss an Alligator by Colleen Stanley Bare
• What's the Difference Between an Alligator and a Crocodile? by Lisa Bullard

I found this alligator and liked the idea of using an egg carton for the body, but instead of using sequins to add texture to the nose and tail, we used bubble wrap.  C and R painted the egg carton and bubble wrap green and we assembled the alligator together.

R also made an alligator A like the one featured on No Time for Flashcards.  I cut out the A and she used dot markers to color it, and then glued on teeth and googly eyes.

A New Ride for Disney World

C chose to learn about the state of Florida because he LOVES Disney World.  It is his favorite place in the world, and the one thing he really wanted to do as part of this project was to design a ride for the park. 

I scanned in his drawing.  C described the ride to me:  The ride is called "The Godzilla and King Kong Washout" and it is a water roller coaster.  On the left, you can see King Kong holding Ann Darrow, and when you go by him, he tries to take you out of the roller coaster!  Down in the valley is Godzilla.  He swings his tail at the roller coaster cars and sprays water out of his mouth.  The water has food coloring in it to look like fire.  At the very top is Godzilla's head; when you go by his head, water drips down on you.  The green army men shoot bullets, but they are not real. You get really, really wet on this ride because there is a huge splash at the end and there is very cold water too.

Yesterday, C found out that there are people who actually design Disney World rides for a living.  He is so excited about this and has added it to his list of future careers.  In case you were wondering, he also wants to be an illustrator, a movie director, and a Kindergarten teacher. 

Florida

We began our Florida studies with two Florida alphabet books.

S is for Sunshine, A Florida Alphabet by Carol Crane (I love this series!)
My Florida Alphabet by Russell W. Johnson and Annie P. Johnson

We are very excited to explore alligators, manatees, the Everglades, oranges, and more!

Opposites

C is always proclaiming the day as "opposite day"!  I think this originated with an episode of Little Bear, but now it is a regular occurrence.  Black? White! Day? Night! by Laura Vaccaro Seeger is a fun book of opposites.  My kids love to lift the flaps (very cool die-cut pages) to see how black becomes white, day becomes night, narrow becomes wide, and more.  Seeger is an incredibly clever author; we love Lemons are not Red and First the Egg by her too.  We have read all of these books quite a few times.

We focused on black and white for our book project.

C and R folded a black piece of construction paper in half and then painted one side of the paper with white paint.  I helped them fold the paper to reveal the opposite of their painting on the other side of the paper.

This is C's creation; he said it is a butterfly:

Here is the work of art by R:

They also made collages placing black paper, buttons, pom poms, and googly eyes on white paper.

Notice that R added a pink button to her collage.  I guess she thinks everything needs a little pink!
Do you ever have opposite day in your house?  

More Wolves

 

We have read a lot of wolf books.  Here is part two of our list:

• Wolf! Wolf! by John Rocco
• Wolves by Emily Gravett
• Diego's Wolf Pup Rescue adapted by Christine Ricci
• Wolf's Coming by Joe Kulka
• Where's the Big Bad Wolf by Eileen Christelow

We enjoyed a lot of wolf play.

We learned quite a bit about wolves (we especially enjoyed listening to them howl) from National Geographic Kids and a Jeff Corwin dvd.

Wolf paw print cupcakes were a perfect treat.

Click here to read my first post about wolves.

I'm about to be cheesy so stop reading if you must, but we had a howling good time learning about wolves.

FYI:  The Little Red Riding Hood finger puppets are from Dollar Tree.  I think we bought them last summer.  The Three Little Pigs play set was purchased from a teacher supply store a few years ago; I have linked the play set to Amazon but it is currently unavailable there.  The idea for the wolf paw print cupcakes came from Gourmet Mom on the Go.