Flamingo Friday--Flamingos' Coloring

Welcome to our second Flamingo Friday!! We have been enjoying learning more about flamingos and hope you are too! Today we are sharing a non-fiction book with you and something we learned from it.

We have been reading several flamingo books. We will share each one with you eventually. If you missed the first one which was the wordless Flora and the Flamingo, you can check it out here. Today we are going to share Wild Flamingos by Bruce McMillan.

Now before I begin with what we did with this book, I would like to point out the wonderful picture on the cover. I love it because you can see the black flying feathers of the flamingo. Did you know they had black feathers?

Source

This book focuses on flamingos on the Caribbean island of Bonaire. The species of flamingo are the Greater Flamingos which are the largest of the flamingos. Their average height is five to five and a half feet tall. Their average weight is eight pounds for the males (who are taller) and six and a half for the females. Their populations is estimated to be half of the number there was before Europeans first came to the Americas. Bonaire protects the flamingos and their breeding ground. There is concern about the development of their feeding area in Venezuela though. The book goes through the lives of a flamingo from birth until adulthood and returning to nest again.

Now many people know that flamingos get their color from the food they eat. They eat small shellfish and immature brine flies at both the free-swimming larvae and intermediate chrysalid stages. All of these animals eat aquatic plants and bacteria that contain the same chemicals that make carrots orange. So for a simple craft we decided to paint with carrots. We experimented with a few different methods. First we took a carrot and tried to use it as a paintbrush. I gave Hazel pictures to color that I printed out. The first one came from Lucy Learns.

This method worked all right, but was not great. Here is our end result:

Our other method involved grating the carrot and then placing the pieces on the picture and hammering them into the picture.

We put a piece of paper on the bottom and top. I think we actually flipped it so the picture was on top. Immediately afterward the picture looked like this:

This coloring page came from The Color. Then after it dried a bit, I picked off some of the carrot flakes and we got this:

We also bought a can of carrots to try to paint with, but we haven't had time yet. 

The other interesting thing I learned about flamingos is how they eat. The flamingos always eat with their heads upside down. Their top jaw is hinged and moves like our lower jaws. They filter-feed and are able to separate the food from water and mud. Their bills are lined with hair like teeth that filter the food. Sometimes you will see a flamingo move its feet and bill around before eating. This is to stir up the mud a bit and get the food in the water since it is easier to filter water than mud. 

So that is our lesson flamingos this Flamingo Friday!! I hope you enjoyed it!! And definitely check out Wild Flamingos by Bruce McMillan for more about the Greater Flamingos in Bonaire!

August Schedule

Now August is always a special month for me. I mean it has my birthday (and yes I have been known to celebrate all month long) and my anniversary.  Here at Crafty Moms Share we have some exciting things happening in August as well. But first did you know August is:

• Admit You Are Happy Month
• Family Fun Month
• Romance Awareness Month
• National Catfish Month
• Peach Month
• National Picnic Month? (Source)

Then there are the special days in August like:

• 1st is National Raspberry Ice Cream Pie Day (hmmm....need to find a recipe I think)
• 2nd is National Ice Cream Sandwich Day (hmmm...noticing the theme of ice cream)
• 3rd is National Watermelon Day (we will celebrate this one, but not on the 3rd since it is a Sharing Saturday)
• 4th is International Friendship Day
• 6th is Wiggle Your Toes Day (I think they need to add in the sand to this one)
• 7th is National Lighthouse Day (mentioning this one for Steve)
• 8th is Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor's Porch Day 
• 10th is National S'Mores Day (Campfire anyone?)
• 14th is National Creamsicle Day
• 15th is Relaxation Day (Spa visit?)
• 22nd is Be an Angel Day
• 26th is Women's Equality Day
• 27th is Global Forgiveness Day (Does this mean there will be world peace that day?)
• 30th is Toasted Marshmallow Day (Source)

Now really, where do they come up with these? 

Ok, now onto what we are doing this month. We have our normal monthly things like the Virtual Book Club for Kids. This month's author is Donald Crews. 

Now I really had not read any of his books before, but they are growing on me. He definitely has his own style and you will know when you are reading one of his books. They are often simple and of few words and about action. If you have a child who is into transportation (planes, trains, trucks, etc.) than this is an author for you. he also has some books for older children. I hope you will join us on the 19th to check out what we do with his books.

Then of course we have Around the World in 12 Dishes. This month we are "traveling" to Egpyt.

Pictures from http://commons.wikimedia.org/

With our journey through food we will be including some stories, music and crafts as well. I hope you will join us on the 20th to see what Egyptian food we have been cooking. Also there will be an Egyptian fairy tale. Since we have already discussed the Egyptian Cinderella, we will expand to another story!

Then of course we will see where Flat Stanley is visiting. If you would like to host Flat Stanley one of these upcoming months, check out the information here. It is easy and fun!!

Plus with that wonderful list of special August holidays we will focus a bit on watermelon and we will continue our fun with Flamingo Fridays, Fairy Tales in Different Cultures and Sharing Saturday! Plus with schools beginning for so many this month (ours doesn't start until September here) I am thinking I may do a bit of a math focus for all of you. It is always good for me to keep my mind thinking mathematically. So those are some of the great things I have planned for Crafty Moms Share this month. I hope you will join us all month long!

Sand Art--Perfect for a Sick Day

Today Hazel was suppose to go to my mother-in-law's for the day, but when she gave me a hug this morning I realized she had a fever. Plans changed. After running a couple quick necessary errands we got ready for a sick day of rest. So much for my to do list which included getting outside on the most beautiful day in a long while for a walk and visiting Sharing Saturday posts. Oh, well somehow I will find time to do everything that was on the list. Unlike a normal sick day, Hazel did not want to watch to much television. She wanted to do some crafts and things with Mommy. It was a long day for me. However I pulled out some of the craft kits I buy when they are on sale or clearance and we did a couple of them. One of them was a sand art kit (well actually two). Hazel has loved doing sand art at the holiday stroll and other fair kind of things, so when I saw some on sale, I bought them. She had the best time. I did two and she did the rest.

Now they are decorating our living room and family room. But the truth is the best part of them is making them. Do you have things stashed away for days like this?

Book Inspired Painting

Today I want to share a wonderful library find! We have renewed this book, because we have been enjoying it so much. The book is Stars Beneath Your Bed: The Surprising Story of Dust by April Pulley Sayre. Now I have to admit I learned a lot from reading this book, so I do consider it educational as well as interesting.

The story begins with sunrise and discussing the colors in the sky. The story than discusses dust and what it is and where it comes from. It goes through the day explaining the different places dust comes from and how it never goes away so the dust we see could be from the dinosaurs or King Tut. Another wonderful connection is that it describes dust from various places like the African savannah (connection: Kenya), meerkats, ocean, Egypt with pyramids (next month's place on our trip Around the World in 12 Dishes) and finally space. The book ends with how the dust will scatter the light for the sunset and then create the colors of the sunrise tomorrow. At the end of the book is the explanation of what dust really is and where it comes from as well as how it makes the sunset.

Dry Paper

To go along with this book, I thought it would be fun to paint some sunset and sunrise paintings. I bought Hazel a water color set so we pulled it out and tried it. She had a blast. I made two of the papers wet so we could do wet-on-wet painting and left two dry.

Dry Paper

The best part of this activity was she had so much fun mixing colors and making new shades. I only gave her six colors to work with: yellow, brown, red, green, blue and white.

Wet Paper

I loved how the wet-on-wet came out. Hazel asked me to help her with these.

Ok, they did not come out looking like sunsets or sunrises, but we had fun.

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures: Moss Gown

This week we are sharing a fairy tale out of the Eastern part of North Carolina. This story seems to have so many different parts of other stories from all over the world. It amazes me how many seemed to come up in the story and remind me of the other Cinderella tales.

Source

First a little bit about North Carolina. North Carolina is in the Southeastern part of the United States. It is known as the Tar Heel State and the Old North State. The capital is Raleigh and is named after Sir Walter Raleigh. North Carolina is the 28th most extensive state and the tenth most populous.

In 1584, Elizabeth I granted Sir Walter Raleigh a charter for the present day North Carolina (then part of Virginia). He tried to establish two colonies, but both failed. However on August 18, 1857, the first English child, Virginia Dare, born on American soil was born on Roanoke Island (one of Raleigh's colonies). Dare County is named after her.

Sir Walter Raleigh (Source)

In 1663 King Charles II granted a charter to settle a colony and named it Carolina in honor of his father King Charles I. In 1710 the Carolina Colony split into North Carolina and South Carolina due to disputes in governance.

Some other interesting facts about North Carolina:

• In 1795 North Carolina opened the first public university in the United States, University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill
• Krispy Kreme donuts was started in North Carolina
• Pepsi Cola was first developed in North Carolina
• North Carolina's largest two metropolitan areas are among the top ten fastest growing in the US (Source)

Now onto our book. This week we are looking at Moss Gown by William H. Hooks. In his Author's Note, Hooks discusses some of the history of North Carolina. He discusses the tradition of storytelling perserving the Elizabethan culture as well as Virginia Dare's birth. He uses both of these to tie in the elements of King Lear as well as Cinderella to this story. There is apparently a similar story in the Western part of North Carolina called Rush Cape where the dress is made of something else since there was not Spanish moss in the Appalachia. He also discusses the term gris-gris being French and known in the Carolinas as a kind of spell that often, but not always is evil. These are the words the magic cat woman uses to help Moss Gown.

Now the story. A wealthy man lived in a large Southern mansion with his three daughters. He was growing old and no longer enjoyed riding his horse around his land or hunting in the swamp. He tended to sit on the porch and stare out. One stormy day his youngest daughter, Candace, ran out to get him out of the rain, but he said to call her sisters because he had gifts for them. The older daughters who had been watching it all came right out when hearing the word gifts.

The man told his daughters to tell him how much they loved him and based on their answers he would divide the land. The oldest two told him they loved him more than jewels and riches. While Candace thought about her answer and wanted something truly from her heart. She replied that she loved him more than meat loves salt. Now if you have been following this series for awhile you may remember this storyline from a Jewish Cinderella that takes place in Poland. The older sisters laughed at her answer and Candace could not find the words to explain what she meant. The father gave the oldest daughters all of his land. That night they chased Candace out into the storm since they now owned the land.

Candace wandered in the storm. Strangely she was not afraid even when the wind picked her up and flew her over the cypress treetops in the swamp. The wind put her down on a soft bed of Spanish moss. There she fell asleep. She was awoken by someone singing. When she opened her eyes she saw a black woman with green eyes who she felt looked like a cat. She was singing a song with the words, "Gris-gris" in it. As stated above this was known in the Carolinas to be a magic term that usually caused evil. The woman was holding a beautiful gossamer dress. Candace hid from the woman, but the woman left the dress with her and told her if she ever needed her to say the rhyme. After she left, Candace put on the dress and her feet seemed to know the way she should go. At sunlight her dress turned to rags made from moss. (Now this part of the story reminded me of the Alaskan Cinderella where the dress changed in sunlight.)

Her feet brought her to a house that looked very much like her father's. She knocked and the mistress of the house took pity on the girl dressed in rags and moss and sent her to do chores in the kitchen. Not wanting to reveal her real name, she told the first cook that her name was Moss Gown (like the cat woman called her in the swamp). The kitchen staff gave her the worst jobs, but she did them. She always dreamed of returning to her father's home, but after six months she realized she never would since she was not wanted there. 

One day the First Cook announced that the young master of the house was going to host a three-day frolic with a ball each night and all of the household staff could go to the balls if they had a ball dress. Since Moss Gown did not have a ball gown and only had her moss rags and borrowed clothes she was the only one not to go. While trying to fall asleep the first night she could not due to the noise. She remembered her moss dress that was under her bed and the cat woman. She pulled out the dress and called the cat woman with the line she had been told. The cat woman appeared and touched the dress. It became the beautiful gossamer gown again. She warned Moss Gown that it would be rags again as the morning star disappeared. 

Moss Gown made quite the entrance. The young master danced the night away with her. He asked her name, but she played coy with him. Then as the sun was rising he asked to walk her home. She slipped away. She repeated this the next two nights. 

After the frolic the young master went off to find the mystery woman he fell in love with. He rode the countryside searching. Eventually he sadly returned home and refused to eat. The First Cook was saying how he was wasting away and needed to eat. Moss Gown asked to serve his dinner that evening. She ran to her room and called the Cat Woman. The Cat Woman told her not to run in the morning this time. Moss Gown appeared with his food and when he realized it was her, he was so happy and ate. They spent the evening together talking and when the sun rose she did not run. Afraid he would no longer love her in rags, she asked him how he felt about her. He said rags could not hide her beauty. They were married the next week. 

At the wedding there were two unknown guests, a black cat-like woman and an old man. The black cat-like woman disappeared shortly after the wedding festivities, but the old man was confused and stayed. The kitchen staff took pity on him and let him warm himself by the fire and fed him. He told them a story of two daughters who spent all his money and kicked him out to beg for his food.

 The next morning Moss Gown saw him and asked him if he knew who she was. He did not. She told him he was always welcome at her table and went in and told the first cook to plan a dinner with no salt. The old man pushed away the plate. Moss Gown handed him the saltcellar and said to him, "I love you the way meat loves salt." At that moment he knew it was his long-lost favorite daughter, Candace. The husband invited the father to stay with them as long as he wished. They all lived happily together with much celebration.

As you can see I saw so many connections to other Cinderella versions. I found this one to be so interesting and since it probably morphed from tales brought to America with the colonists, it seems like the perfect American version.