Hummingbird Love

Ready to celebrate National Hummingbird Day with me? September 1st will be here before you know it!!! To kick things off right let's give my pal Jeanette Larson a bit of a shout out by checking out her seriously wonderful book, Hummingbirds: Facts and Folklore from the Americas. Talk about beautiful. Wowzers.

So let's party down by making two Simple Saturday crafts, want to? The first is a repeat of a previous Simple Saturday post in which we made a hummingird feeder out of a baby food jar, a long wire, water, and sugar. Go ahead and click HERE for all of the sugary sweet details.

And, to make a hummingbird party mask, gather up markers, glitters, scissors, feathers, glue, and a popsicle stick or a wooden dowel for a handle. I made a .pdf with a mask template on it for you to download by clicking HERE. (Actually, there are two templates on the .pdf - one for you and one for a pal. Birds of a feather flock together, right?) Print the template on card stock. Simply cut the mask portion out and create away!

Man, I am all a-goggle for the hummingbird. You will be too after you watch this PBS video. Good gosh. Did you know that hummingbirds can even fly upside down? Click HERE and watch for yourself.

It's no wonder hummingbirds have their our national day of celebration. Let's get making those masks and party down!

Guiding You to Pattison's Prairie Storms

These are winners. Some of the best!!!!!

I'm not only talking about the guides I made for Darcy. Oh, no, no, NO! I'm talking about the month-by-month lively, visual and textual descriptions of life on the prairie you can find in the book itself...and I ain't a-kidding you. Together, Darcy and illustrator Kathleen Reitz have created a treasure that will last the academic test of time, my friends. This book is incredible...for real. It is one that, if I were in a classroom today, kiddos would be working it. And I do mean work. Here's why...

The guides that I made for Prairie Storms are deliciously lavished with a study of mathematics, the passage of time, seasonal study, flora and fauna taxonomy, the food web, weather patterns, a weather map, biomes, and - like the cherry atop a blob of whipped cream - a science experiment specifically created in Simple Saturday-like structure to compliment the specific weather pattern depicted in each sensational month.

Yep. That's right. I'm talking twelve of those suckers. Twelve super fun, inexpensive, biome-specific scientific experiments. And...guess what...after you buy the book, Darcy's giving the guides away. Yep. Free for the taking!!!!!

Click HERE for more info about Darcy, the monthly guides, and all the other stuff my little buddy's involved with. And, when you do contact her, tell her Simple Saturday sent ya. She'll get a kick out of that!

Simple Saturday: Rainmaking

Making rain couldn't be simpler. Watch this...or even better... join me, okay?

Pictured are the supplies needed -- the tea kettle filled with water, a metal spoon, and some ice cubes. (Ignore my homemade mosaic utensil holder in the background. I'll show you how to make one of those another time.)

Turn the heat on high and let that tea kettle get so hot that steam whistles shrill out of it. (Making rain is noisy business, let me tell you.)

Balance a few ice cubes in the metal spoon.

Be careful with this next step, pal.

Hold the spoon ice cube over the kettle's screaming steam.

Rain!!! I know, I know...I didn't promise you a monsoon, but it is rain.Look! In no time at all, water droplets condense on the bottom of the spoon! Rain! We made rain!!! 

You know, my Simple Saturday friend, you might enjoy doing a bit or research regarding this weather-related phenomenon. This is the short and sweet version of what I know about the creation of real rain.

It's crazy cold way up high in the atmosphere...big time cold...like the ice cubes. Rain clouds form way up there, too.  When warm air and water vapor (the screaming steam) from the Earth rises and hits the cool air way up high in the dark and cloudy sky water droplets form and...pow...RAIN!

Don't take my word for this. Find out for yourself. Ask your weatherman. Read some books or good webpages. See if I'm right and then come back and tell me what you found out. 

Happy puddle-jumping!