Category: Recipe

Rainbows Day 2 -God’s Promise

 Today we learned why we have rainbows.  We reviewed the story of Noah’s Ark focusing on the end where they have the promise from God to never destroy the earth again with a flood.  We played with some Noah’s Ark toys and did some Noah’s Ark Crafts..  We also has some more yummy rainbows and did some more science experiments (the kids favorite).

God’s Promise

Discuss: Genesis 9:13 “I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is a sign of my covenant with you and all the earth.”

After a year of floating, the ark was finally on dry ground. Just a few minutes before, it was filled with growling, barking, honking, purring animals. Now the giant boat sat on a mountain top with the door wide open, the boat was all empty and quiet. All the animals had rushed out the door to fill the earth again. So what was Noah doing? He was gathering rocks. He was so thankful to be alive, he was building an altar to God. So Noah piled up the rocks to build a fire on them. This was the sacrifice Noah offered to God to thank him for saving him and his family. God was pleased with Noah’s sacrifice. But most of all, God was pleased that Noah was truly thankful. So God made a promise to Noah, “Never again will I destroy the world with a flood. I make this covenant with you and with all creatures. From this day on, there will always come a time for planting, and a time for gathering up what was planted. Day will always follow night, the warm days of summer will always follow the cold and snow of winter, as long as the earth shall be.” So God blessed Noah and his family. He told them to have many children to fill the earth with people again. He gave them the plants and the animals for food. Then God said to Noah, “Look up in the sky.” Noah looked up. The bright sun was shining, God made a brilliant rainbow appear. God said to Noah, “You see, I have set my rainbow in the sky. This will be the sign of the covenant I have made with you and all creatures, never again to destroy the earth by a flood. It will always remind us of the promise between you and me.” So, the next time you see a rainbow, you can think of Noah and the flood. Remember that God loves you, and that no matter how bad the storm, there will always come a bright new day. That is God’s promise, and God always keeps his promises.

Read: The First Rainbow By Su Box

Comprehension Questions:

  1. How many animals did God send to Noah on the ark? Two of every animal. (boy and girl)
  2. What did God send as a promise to Noah after they got off of the ark? (A rainbow)

Noah’s Rainbow

Materials:

  • 2 paper plates
  • paint
  • paintbrushes
  • Animals and Noah  (I used some that I had from a coloring book)
  • Scissors
  • Glue

Directions:

  1. First, cut one of the paper plates in half and let your child paint one piece brown.
  2. Paint a rainbow on the top 3/4 of the other plate. 
  3. Color all of the Noah animals and cut them out.
  4. Once everything is dry, staple the brown plate to the rainbow plate so that the rainbow is showing.

Noah’s Ark Play

Discuss: God sent the animals to Noah’s ark 2 by 2 (a boy and a girl).

Directions:

  1. Set up the Little People Ark and put Noah on it.
  2. Line up the animals outside the ark 2 by 2.
  3. Children can count by 2’s to see how many animals are on this ark.

Noah’s Ark ABC Puzzle 

We have a wooden Noah’s Ark puzzle that lines the animals up in ABC order.

Rainbow Lorikeet

Discuss:

This is truly where a picture is better than a thousand words. There intense colors have patches of emerald green, orange midnight blue, dull blue, ruby red,lemon yellow, purple, violet greenish gray. They are a small bird generally 11 to 12 inches long, on average females are generally a bit smaller and younger birds have duller markings. They are said to live over 20 years in the wild. Their vocalization is varied from “screeching” in flight to “chatting” during feeding.

                     

Rainbow Bible Verse

Read and talk about the verse with your child. Have the child draw a rainbow over the verse with crayons.

“I have placed my

rainbow in the clouds.

It is a sign of my covenant

with you and all the earth.”

Genesis 9:13

IMG_0Youngest child’s on the bottom up to the oldest child’s!539

Rainbow Jello

Ingredients:

  • Jello for each color of the rainbow
  • Knox gelatin (6 envelopes)
  • Jello mold or Clear cups

Directions:

  1. Mix the purple jello with an envelope of the knox gelatin.
  2. Pour in two cups of boiling water. Dissolve the gelatin.
  3. Add 1/2 cup of ice. Stir until thick.
  4. Remove any remaining ice cubes and any bubbles that may have formed.
  5. Pour a little into each clear cup and/or mold. Let set in the refrigerator.
  6. Repeat with the blue jello and pour it over the set purple (and then the other colors).

Changing Daisies

Discuss: As the colored water is absorbed, the children will be able to see how the water is absorbed into the plant and will be amazed when the petals of the carnation change color.

Materials:

  • Food Coloring (each color of the rainbow)
  • Water
  • 6 Clear Glasses
  • 6 White Daisies

Directions:

  1. Place 1 tablespoon food coloring and quarter cup of water in each glass.
  2. Place 1 stem of daisies in each glass and wait for a couple of hours.
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More rainbow fun that we had this week:

Rainbows Day 1 -Colors

We spent the first day of our rainbow unit study learning the colors of the rainbow.  We had fun with baking, crafts, reading, science experiments, similes, and math.  The favorite activity for the kids today was definitely the rainbow flower cookies that we made.  The three older kids can now recite all the colors of the rainbow.

Colors of the Rainbow

Discuss: What are the colors in the rainbow? (ROY G. BIV) Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Purple. Newton added indigo and orange to give a total of 7 colors similar to the number of notes in a musical scale and number of days in a week. Indigo is not really a color. It is a shade between blue and violet. Many people omit indigo from the rainbow spectrum because it is not a color and is hard for the human eye to distinguish between the blue and violet.

Read: Liz Makes a Rainbow by Tracey West

Comprehension Questions:

  1. What are the colors of the rainbow? Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple
  2. What is shade of color between blue and purple sometimes called? Indigo

Ordinal Numbers

Directions:

Give the child a blank rainbow and have him listen and follow the directions below as you read them.

Start at the top and color the first arc red.                    Color the fifth arc blue.

Color the fourth arc green.                                           Color the third arc yellow.

Color the second arc orange.                                      Color the sixth arc purple.


Rainbow Color Matching


Make a large rainbow out of poster board.  Place the rainbow on the floor with small items of each color in a basket.  The child places each item on the appropriate colored arc.

Rainbow Similes

Read: What Makes a Rainbow? by Betty Ann Schwartz

Discuss: A simile is a figure of speech consisting of a comparison of 2 objects using like or as. Similes tell you what something is LIKE. Similes are in What Makes a Rainbow? “Red LIKE a ladybugs wings.”

Materials:

  • Poster Board
  • Markers or Crayons
  • Printing Paper

Directions:

  1. Pick a color. Describe the color by answering the following…
  2. Tastes like
    Smells like
    Sounds like
    Looks like
    Hot like
    Cold like
  3. Tell in a sentence or group of sentences what this color looks like, sounds like, etc…
  4. Lightly sketch an outline of a large rainbow on the poster board.
  5. Write our poems in the stripes exactly how the children dictate it to you.
  1. Kids can make a smaller version of the Simile Rainbow on a piece of paper.
  2. Kids write the word color over and over for each arc in the rainbow.
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Rainbow Pudding Cups

Ingredients:

  • 6 packages of different colored Jello (purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red.)
  • 6 Cups of Vanilla Ice Cream
  • 6 Cups of Hot Water.
  • Clear glasses
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Directions:

  1. Follow the instructions on the back of the jello box, but instead of adding a cup of cold water, you add a cup of ice cream.
  2. Make sure you pour the pudding in a clear glass, and let each layer set up in the refrigerator before you add the next layer.  
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Rainbow Puzzles


I print off page 8 of this Rainbow Download and let the children cut them out and place them together.

Cotton Ball Rainbow

Materials:

  • Cotton balls
  • White paper cut in a cloud “shape”
  • Construction paper in each color of the rainbow
  • Glue

Directions:

  1. Give child the cloud shape.
  2. Cover the bottom of the cloud with glue.
  3. Child places color paper at the bottom of the cloud.
  4. Add additional glue all over the paper cloud.
  5. Place cotton balls to add “fluff.”

Planting A Rainbow

Read: Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

Materials:

  • Sugar Cookie Dough
  • Food Coloring
  • Unsweetened cocoa powder
  • Sucker Sticks

Directions:

  1. Divide the dough into 7 parts (one for each color and one for the flower centers)
  2. Color the dough with the food coloring (red, orange, yellow, green blue, purple)
  3. Add a tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder to the dough, for the brown, flower centers.
  4. Roll the dough into 1/2 inch balls.
  5. Place colored balls around the centers, to form flowers, on a greased cookie sheet. Press them together a little, so they stick to each other. T thought he was playing with play dough!
  6. Add a sucker, pushing it through the dough into the center of the flower. 
  7. Bake as normal for sugar cookies (350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes).

Baking Soda & Vinegar

Discuss: When the baking soda and the vinegar mix they create an acid-base reaction and the two chemicals work together to create a gas (the bubbles).  Observe the 3 states of matter: the baking soda is the solid, the vinegar is the liquid, and the bubbles is the gas.

Materials:

  • baking soda
  • vinegar
  • spoons
  • clear cups or containers
  • food coloring
  • a tray to hold any spills

Directions:

  1. Add a few drops of food color to each spoon.
  2. Fill the rest of each spoon with baking soda.
  3. Add ¼ to ½ cup of vinegar to each cup.
  4. Choose a spoon and stir it into one cup of vinegar.
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More rainbow fun that we had this week:

Rainbow Unit Study

In this unit study we learned all about rainbows. This unit has 5 days worth of lessons. We did this unit study with cousins, from tots to 1st grade, but it would be great for Preschool age. This unit study was tons of fun for the cousins, but I guess cousins are always ton of fun whatever their doing!  I made a lapbook for each child with their work from the unit so that they could go back and remember what they learned.

Day 1 Colors of the Rainbow

Day 2 God’s Promise

Day 3 The Color Wheel

Day 4 Double Rainbows

Day 5 What Makes a Rainbow

Rainbow Book List

Book can be read by the child or by the parent to the child, depending on the child’s reading level.

Books I used in the lessons… 

Liz Makes a Rainbow by Tracey West

The First Rainbow By Su Box

Take a Walk on a Rainbow by Miriam Moss

All the Colors of the Rainbow by Allan Fowler

What Is a Rainbow? By Chris Arvetis and Carole Palmer

What Makes a Rainbow? by Betty Ann Schwartz

A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman

I can eat a Rainbow by Annabel Karmel

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

Other age appropriate books…

Noah’s Ark by Barbara Shook Hazen and Diane Muldrow

Singing with Noah by Cissy Padgett

The Rainbow Mystery by Jennifer Dussling

Duckie’s Rainbow by Frances Barry

On Noah’s Ark by Jan Brett

Elmer and the Rainbow by David McKee

The Magic School But Makes a Rainbow by Joanna Cole

Over the Rainbow by Judy Collins

Song List

Roy G Biv by They Might be Giants

Video List 

  • Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! (Season 1 Episode 16) 
  • Elmo’s Rainbow 
  • The Magic School Bus Makes A Rainbow

Here are some of our other Elementary Unit Studies:

Ants Day 4: Ant Colony

Today we learned about the ant colony and did a science experiment outside. J loves science so we try to fit it in everyday that we can. We also had a fun ant hill craft and snack. T loves snacks, but I try not to make too many sweet ones!

Ant Colony

Discuss: How an Ant Colony Starts:

1) After hot summer rain, a young queen takes off on her wedding flight. She flies into a cloud of male ants and mates in the air.

2) Afterward, all the males die, and the queen returns to the earth. She breaks her wings off by rubbing them on the ground.

3) Then she digs a hole in the soft, moist earth and starts laying eggs. She will never leave the nest again.

4) During the next 3 months, the eggs develop through four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult ant.

5) After they have hatched, the first workers assume the duties of the colony– searching for food and protecting the queen.

Most ant species build underground nests. Worker ants dig tunnels and chambers, in the soil. Workers add more tunnels and chambers to the nest, as the colony grows. If you watch ants closely, you will see that they really do communicate with each other! Ant colonies can grow to be quite large. Some tropical ants build downward to make more rooms. Their nests can reach twenty feet deep. A group of nests can cover an area as large as a tennis court. Millions of ants can live in the big nests.

Chambers-

  • The queen has her own chamber for laying eggs.
  • Some chambers are nurseries for the growing young ants.
  • Food is stored in other chambers.
  • Still other chambers are resting places for hard-working ants.

Read: Ant Cities by Arthur Dorros

Thinking Skills:

  1. In economics, what does it mean to be interdependent? People are interdependent when they depend on each other to provide the goods and services they use.
  2. In what way does an ant city illustrate interdependence? The ants in an ant city have certain jobs.They all depend on each other  for survival.
  3. What are some of the special jobs done by the ants? Queen – lays eggs; Workers – do all the work in the ant city and also fight to protect the nest
  4. What would happen if the different types of ants didn’t do their special jobs? The ants could not survive unless they worked together.
  5. What are some of the special jobs in your city or community that people do? Teachers, electricians, pastors, doctors, mail carriers, police officers, farmers, store owners, etc.
  6. How do these people in your community depend on one another? The people in the community have certain jobs. Then, they exchange the money they earn and pay others for the goods and services that are provided. All of us are interdependent in that we rely on others to provide most of the goods and services we use.
  7. Is it good to be interdependent? Specializing in production and then trading to get the goods and services one wants does make production more efficient, providing society with more goods and services. Usually, this is good for everyone. But sometimes interdependence can be troublesome. For example, our country relies heavily on oil produced from other countries. In most cases, that is not a problem, but when there is political instability, prices may rise dramatically and our dependence becomes very costly.

Ant Hill

Materials:

  • Brown Construction Paper
  • Black and White Paint
  • Paint Brush

Directions:

  1. Cut out the brown paper in the form of a hill.
  2. Paint black ant tunnels going down and side to side. Let it dry.
  3. Use your finger to make fingerprint ants with white paint on the black tunnels. Then J wanted to decide what room would be best for each of the ant rooms so I wrote down what he decided.
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Study Ants

Directions: Go for a walk and look for ants. What are they doing? Follow them back to their homes. 

Have the child divide the plate into fourths with a marker. 

Set out a plate of 4 different foods (9 pieces/ crumbs of each food) near the anthill (away from the house). Predict what they will like the best. 

At the end of the day go out and check up on the plate to see if any ants have come for a meal. What did they like best? 

We used this Ant Graph to record the results.

Ant Hill In A Cup

Materials:

  • Clear plastic cups
  • Chocolate pudding
  • Graham crackers
  • Ziploc bag
  • Chocolate sprinkles

Directions:

  1. First put a layer of chocolate pudding into the cup for the “dirt”.
  2. Then crush up graham crackers in a plastic ziploc bag and poured the crumbs into the cup for the anthill “sand”.
  3. Last, they added chocolate sprinkles for the “ants”.
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Here are the other days of our Ant Unit Study:

Ant Unit Study

Day 1 Ant Anatomy

Day 2 Ant Live Cycle

Day 3 Ant Jobs

Day 4 Ant Colony

Day 5 Types of Ants

Day 6 Ant Enemies

Christopher Columbus Day 5

Today we explored with Columbus farther South to Cuba and Haiti. We also learned about his return to Spain after his discovery of the New World and what a Coat of Arms is. We learned about another landform, mountains.   The boys had fun making a mountain cake and eating it!

1. Review: read “A New World” on page 17 of Hands on History Christopher Columbus by Mary Tucker. 

2. Read: pages 38-43 in Columbus by Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire.

3. Map skills: Columbus sailed from San Salvador on to Cuba and then to Haiti. Find Cuba and Haiti on a map. What type of landform are Cuba and Haiti? mountain

4. Comprehension questions:

  • Can you remember which ship crashed? Santa Maria
  • What did the Indians call Columbus and his men? White Gods
  • Where did they finally find gold? Haiti
  • What ship did Columbus ride on back to Spain? The Nina
  • What were some of the things that Columbus brought home with him to show the King and Queen? Parrots, strange fruits, sweet-smelling herbs, small chest of gold ornaments, and some Indians
  • Was Columbus a hero now? Yes

5. Discuss: When Columbus returned from his voyage he met with the King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, the king and queen gave Columbus the right to have his own coat of arms.  A coat of arms is the official symbols of a family, state, etc.  A coat of arms is a form of identification that goes back to before Roman times.  Back then the coat of arms was used to identify groups of fighting men within the Roman legion.  In the Middle Ages the coat of arms was used to identify each noble family.  Each item chosen to be in the design had a meaning.  After a family decided on a coat of arms the design was placed on shields, embroidered on tapestries, and carved in stone throughout the house.  It was also placed on swords and banners, and on special occasions the design was burnt into the top of breads.  The coat of arms that Columbus was assigned had a castle and a lion on it.  A few years later he added the island and anchors as a reminder of his adventures.

Columbus’ Coat of Arms


Discuss: What the children would want on their coat of arms, the symbols should be reminders of significant events in their lives or of personal characteristics (sports, music, art, lion= courage, lamb= peace).  We used “Columbus’ Coat of Arms” on page 25 of Hands on History Christopher Columbus by Mary Tucker. 

Sailing, Sailing

Review: What it would be like to sail on a ship for 2 months and why Columbus took a ship on his voyage rather that an automobile or airplane.  We used the Sailing, Sailing color page to review this.

Mountain Cake 

1. Columbus was looking for gold on the islands. The Indians told him there was gold in the mountains on Haiti. Mountains are another type of landform.

Define mountain-

Mountain: a high, raised part of the earth’s surface, higher than a hill

2. Make a mountain of your own mountain cake.


Supplies: square cake (baking) pan, 1 glass oven-safe mixing bowl, 1 box cake mix, green frosting, chocolate frosting, oreo cookies, and whipped cream.

Directions:

  • Make cake mix according to the recipe. Pour into your square pan until it is half full and use the rest in a glass mixing bowl. 
  • Bake according to recipe’s directions. Test with toothpick.
  • Once cooled flip the cake in your glass mixing bowl on to your square cake.
  • Frost the square portion of your cake with green frosting. 
  • Frost the mountain part with chocolate frosting. 
  • Crush up Oreo cookies to crumble on your mountain. For a snowcapped effect you could top your mountain with whipped cream. 

Christopher Columbus Unit Study

Christopher Columbus Unit Study

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Christmas Sugar Cookies

We made Christmas sugar cookies for a family activity tonight.

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 ½ cup white sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

  1. In a bowl cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat until smooth.
  2. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir till soft dough forms.
  3. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
  4. Roll the dough on a floured surface.
  5. Use cookie cutters to cut out Christmas shapes.
  6. Grease a pan and place the shapes of dough on the pan.
  7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
  8. Bake cookies for 8 minutes or until lightly browned.

Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup Crisco
  • 4 cups powdered sugar (2 lbs)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 tablespoon milk (if thick)

Directions:

  1. Cream together the butter and Crisco with a mixer.
  2. Slowly add in 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time.
  3. Add the vanilla, if it seems too thick you can add a bit of milk.

Graham Cracker Gingerbread Houses -11

Our family Thanksgiving tradition is making Gingerbread Houses. This year we used graham crackers, we also tried chocolate graham crackers. I made buttercream icing to add the candies.

Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup Crisco
  • 4 cups powdered sugar (2 lbs)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 tablespoon milk (if thick)

Directions:

  1. Cream together the butter and Crisco with a mixer.
  2. Slowly add in 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time.
  3. Add the vanilla, if it seems too thick you can add a bit of milk.

Here are some of our past Gingerbread Houses.

Transformers Birthday Cake -6

J is now 6 years old and getting into superheros and technology.  He chose to have a Transformers cake this year.  I made a 9×11 sheet cake and frosted it with gray street colored frosting.  I added smaller squares of cake for the buildings and made windows by cutting mini marshmallows in half. I added green shrubs around the buildings with frosting too.  I made a stop sign with lollipops and wrote “six” on them instead of “stop”.  I placed a few of his mini Transformer toys on the graham cracker road and on the buildings.  Here the “6” candle is backwards… I didn’t notice until I got the pictures back, but otherwise he loved it.

Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup Crisco
  • 4 cups powdered sugar (2 lbs)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 tablespoon milk (if thick)

Directions:

  1. Cream together the butter and Crisco with a mixer.
  2. Slowly add in 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time.
  3. Add the vanilla, if it seems too thick you can add a bit of milk.

He got the Dino Transformers and a set of Schleich dinos for his gifts and was so happy!

Happy Birthday Big Boy!  I love you!

I have tons of other kids party themes: 

Bugs Birthday Party -1

We had a bug themed party for T’s first birthday!  I made bug balloons by filling latex balloons with helium and using rubber cement to hold them together.  For the Bee Balloon I used 2 yellow balloons and wrapped some black electrical tape around for the bee’s stripes.  Then I used tissue paper for the wings, black pipe cleaner for the antenna, and googly eyes for eyes.  I added a mouth with black sharpie.  For the Ladybug Balloon I found some red balloons with black spots. I glued a small black balloon for the head, used googly eyes for the eyes, and black pipe cleaner for the antenna again.  For the Caterpillar Balloon glued together 4 green balloons and used green pipe cleaner for the legs and antenna.  I used a sharpie for the mouth and added googly eyes to the caterpillar as well.  I set them up outside and it was a bit too windy for the balloons, most of them ended up popping before the end of the party!

We grilled burgers and hot dogs for lunch.  We also had ants on a lot and ladybug watermelon balls (I just put mini chocolate chips in the watermelon balls.) I taped black construction paper ants to my red and white checkered table cloth.

I filled red, green, and yellow water balloons for the kids to play with.

I got kind of carried away with the desserts and ended up making 3 sweets.  We had gummy worms in chocolate pudding with crushed Oreo’s on top.  We had a beehive cake with cream cheese frosting and bees made out of chocolate covered almonds and mini marshmallow wings.  And we had caterpillar cupcakes with candy faces.

I had my sister-in-law, Cloninger Photography, take T’s 1 year old photos and they turned out great!

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Boy!  I love you!

I have tons of other kids party themes: 

Diego Birthday Party -5

J is 5 now and loves Diego.  I tried my best to transform the living room into a jungle with twisted crepe paper vines, poster board and balloon trees, and stuffed jungle animals all around.  I try to decorate while he is not around so that when he enters the room he has a big surprise, I just love seeing him when he enters the party room.  I also set out his Diego books and toys for the kids to enjoy.

We had rainforest kabobs with fruit, yogurt, and coconut.

He just loved his Transformers that he got from his dad.

I made a 9×11 sheet cake and decorated it with his Diego toys.  I frosted the cake with chocolate frosting then added some green vines to it.  I tried to make trees with Pirouette Wafers and marshmallow on top.  I covered the marshmallows with green frosting.  I put blue frosting in the middle for a river and placed candy rocks along the river bank.

We had a treasure hunt too.  I placed the clues on his animals, each clue had animal facts about the next animal.  The hunt finally ended in a hidden door that I cut from the bottom of one the fake tree trunks that I had made out of poster board.  The kids all loved this!

Happy Birthday to my animal lover!

Be sure to check out my other kids party themes: Farm Birthday Party , Blues Clues Party,  Bob the Builder Party and Backyardigans Party.

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