Fun Friday Fact

September is National Honey Month. Yay bees!

Did you notice that I said, Yay bees and not Yay honeybees? Honeybees are not the only bees that make honey. Bumble bees make honey too. They don't have big colonies and don't produce extra so they only have small amounts for their babies.

Messy Fingers re-visited

This fall we are going to change up Messy Fingers. We will still have the same hands-on programs for parents and preschoolers but change the way we weave them together.

Messy Fingers will no longer be single classes.

We are going to run four consecutive weekly sessions per month and you and your preschooler will build your science skills together around a theme. For example, in October the theme will be Seasonal Science and the four sessions will be things like spiders, bats, and pumpkins.

When you sign up for the session, you come four Tuesdays in a row and we will build from one lesson to the next.

Messy Fingers will remain on Tuesdays and look for sign-ups soon.

Fun Friday Fact

Bull frogs gulp their dinner in mid leap. They open their mouths and can grab prey as they jump.

Bull frogs were named because their call sounds a bit like a cow.

Book Review: Some Smug Slub

Some Smug Slug is one of my very favorite books - ever. I cannot praise the author and illustrator, Pamela Duncan Edwards, enough. This book has amazing pictures that are accurately drawn, the words are delicious, and the suspense is great.

And what does this have to do with Bullfrogs, I hear you asking? That, my dear reader, is part of the suspense.

Look for the letter S on every page. All the animals depicted begin with the letter S except one.

Go. Now. Get this book.

5 out of 5 stars.

Animal of the Week: Bullfrog

Bullfrogs live in the eastern portion of North America and can be found livening up the nighttime symphony with their deep "jug-o-rum" calls.

These guys love to live in ponds and lakes and will eat anything they can get their mouth around. They are as omnivorous as it comes eating fish, grubs, insects, and even other frogs. What about plants, I hear you say? Well, when these guys are tadpoles they eat algae when young and will take on larger prey when they are large enough.

The tadpoles can live two years in a pond before metamorphosing in to frogs. They have big tadpoles and it is worth trolling murky waters with a net this year just to see them. They are fairly dark compared to other more petite tadpoles.

And these guys are actually farmed in the south as a food source. Yum, eh?

Go Fly a Kite

If you want to try a fun easy kite, try this. It is a simple kite that takes a piece of paper, tape, a plastic bag, and a coffee stirrer. Super simple and loads of fun. I will try and post a picture later - we were having too much fun for me to remember my camera!

We did this today at the library and found out that wrapping the string around a 3x5 card, folded in half worked well for the string. You can slip a pencil inside to allow you to let out the string easily.

If you flew these kites, what did you discover? Tell us about your adventure.

Sun and Shadows

Here some ideas for summer fun in the sun with learning. And here is one new idea that we will be trying later in the summer.

Solar oven: Line a kitchen bowl with foil. Put poster tack in the bottom. This holds the food in place. Stick a marshmallow on it and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Use rocks or sand to position the bowl so the marshmallow is facing the sun. Let it sit about 15 minutes. Check to see if marshmallow is soft. If not, go another 15 minutes. The plastic wrap holds in the sun’s rays and cook the marshmallow.