Cardboard Mom: global explorers

Showing posts with label global explorers. Show all posts

We continued our mini unit study of Mid-Autumn Festival by reading pages 8-12 in "Celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival" by Eugenia Chu and Y.Y. Chan. This section is all about preparing for the festival!

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I'm very excited to share my second Global Explorers GET'EM mystery with you all! I originally planned to have one ready last month but I ran into trouble when I tried to do too much. I was right in thinking creating the mystery this time around would go much more smoothly than with Korea. However, wanting to also add in a full meal menu proved to be a little crazy trying to test out recipes while doing everything else! (There were also various other ideas popping into my head distracting me...) So I've realized I should focus on one thing I want to do and if I end up with extra time I can add more. Since my kids like the mysteries the best, that's going to be my first focus!

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I'm very excited to finally be able to share with you my new format for the Global Explorers series! After testing this summer's original format at home, I found the activity books were a little hit or miss with my kids. Sometimes they were interested and did some of the activities and other times they looked at the postcard and booklet and just left it off to the side. So I started brainstorming ways to make it a little more fun and exciting and ideally involve the whole family. That's when the idea for a family dinner emerged. I thought providing an idea or two for a full meal menu along with some fun fact conversation cards and an activity placemat would make for a more complete experience. But then, I had another brain spark...

My kids are SUPER into mystery books and they've enjoyed mystery puzzle games like Carmen Sandiego and Highlights Top Secret Adventures. They also had a lot of fun when I created a Wild Kratts-Carmen Sandiego hunt across Africa last year to introduce our African savannah unit study. I thought, what would be more fun than a themed dinner followed by crime mystery to solve! And so began the task of creating such a game...

Let me just say that it took a lot more time to prepare than I was expecting. I had to come up with a crime. I had to research various locations in Korea. I had to create a guide booklet with information about each location. The plan was to use the format of the Carmen Sandiego games and have the players follow the thief from place to place until they were caught and the stolen item was recovered. But I wanted it more fun and interactive than just reading clues about the next destination. So I had to come up with clues AND puzzles about the locations and clues about the thief. Then I had to figure out how to make the puzzles as easy to set up as possible without needing specialized items. That meant creating a lot of printables. Then I had to print everything out, set it up, and test the game. Daddy and the kids were more than happy to test it out for me and provide feedback on what needed a little tweaking. And after the test run I realized I needed to provide very detailed instructions on how to set up and guide the game. BUT...it is finally ready to share AND I learned a lot during the process and I'm confident the next go around will go much smoother and quicker. So, without further ado, here is everything you need to have your own Korean Family Dinner Adventure!!

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Today is the last day of Oktoberfest in Munich and that means we should take a little trip to Germany! But...what exactly is Oktoberfest? I mean, most of us adults are familiar with Oktoberfest as a festival with lots of food and beer, but why?

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We're finishing our global summer vacation on the small island of Saint Lucia in the Caribbean Sea. Saint Lucia may be less than 650 miles from Venezuela in South America, but all the Caribbean Islands are officially part of North America. The original inhabitants of this island were Caribs, but it was a French colony, then a British colony, and finally Saint Lucia achieved independence in 1979. Because of all the colonization, the culture and language of Saint Lucia are now an interesting blend of Carib, French, and English.

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This week we're going to visit another island country full of volcanoes - Iceland! But since Iceland lies just at the edge of the Arctic Circle, the weather definitely won't be hot so don't forget to pack some sweaters and jackets! Like the Philippines, Iceland is more than just one island. There's one big island plus about 30 smaller islands. This includes Westman Islands which are considered to have the largest Atlantic puffin colony in the world and are featured in this week's story.

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We're leaving Paraguay and continuing to travel west, this time across the Pacific Ocean! Our destination is a collection of over 7,500 islands that make up the country of the Philippines! The Philippines lies just above the equator which means the temperature will be nice and warm today - a perfect day for the beach so don't forget to pack your swimsuit, towel, and sand toys - and a lot of sunblock! The sun is really strong near the equator and we definitely don't want to burn!

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Today we're jetting across the Atlantic Ocean to another landlocked country divided in two by a long river - Paraguay! Paraguay sits right in the middle of South America and is often referred to as the heart - or corazón - of South America. Because South America lies in the southern hemisphere, the seasons there are reversed from the northern hemisphere. That means it's winter in Paraguay now and Christmas is in the middle of summer! (Here's a good video explaining why we have seasons: Why Are There Seasons?)

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Today we're traveling north from Kenya to visit Hungary in central Europe. Hungary is a small country - only about the size of the state of Indiana - that is surrounded on all sides by other countries. But Hungary has some very interesting features and foods that we will explore!

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This week we're heading to Kenya - just in time for the great migration! Every year, millions of wildebeest, zebra, and gazelle follow the rain and lush grasses from the Serengeti in Tanzania to the Maasai Mara in Kenya. At this time of year, the herds are heading north to Kenya. The zebra usually lead the way and eat the uppermost grass, leaving the shorter greener grass for the wildebeest. I love this example of animals living in harmony with each other and the earth!

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We love getting scallion pancakes when we order Chinese takeout so when I came across a recipe for some on The Hong Kong Cookery, I knew we had to try it! They are not quite the same as the ones from the restaurants - not as thin and oily - but I think I actually prefer them better! They're not necessarily hard to make, but they do take a good amount of time. What's great about this recipe, though, is that your kids can easily be involved with the entire process. So let's get cooking!

Chinese Scallion Pancakes (adapted from The Hong Kong Cookery)

Ingredients:

- 2 cups all-purpose flour

- 1/2 cup boiling water

- 1/3 cup water (plus more if needed)

- 1 tbsp flour

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- 1 cup chopped scallions

Directions:

1. Add boiling water to flour and stir with a spoon until the water is absorbed.

2. Add in room temperature water and knead until everything comes together into a soft dough. If needed, add water 1 tbsp at a time. Cover and let dough rest 20 minutes.

3. In a small bowl, combine flour, salt, and oil.

4. After 20 minutes, divide your dough into 4 portions and shape into balls. Sprinkle some flour on your working surface and thinly roll out one of the balls of dough.

5. Brush the oil paste all over the round.

6. Sprinkle scallions over the dough - sprinkle a little or a lot!

7. Roll up the pancake, gently flatten it, and then spread the oil paste all over the roll.

8. Roll the pancake once more into a spiral, so it looks like a snail shell, and tuck the end underneath. Repeat this process with the other 3 balls.

9. Now lay the spiral down with the tucked end underneath and roll it out into a thin pancake.

10. Heat a non-stick or cast iron pan over medium heat. When hot, add the pancake and cook until the top looks dry and white. Flip and cook a few more minutes.

11. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Finally, add a tablespoon of oil to the pan and cook each pancake a second time until both sides are golden and crispy. Cut into wedges and serve hot.

Mala beads are used in Buddhist prayer and meditation to help you stay focused on your mantra. Traditionally, mantras were repeated in sets of 108 and so strands of mala beads have 108 beads plus a guru bead. Mala bracelets can be made with 18 beads to help you keep track of 18 cycles of chanting. Here's how to make your own mala bracelet.

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Here we go! We're off on our first adventure! This week we're zooming off to Asia, to explore the third largest country in the world - China!

When I came up with the idea for Read and Rise Global Explorers, I was thinking about those world subscription boxes like Little Passports and Little Global Citizens. Both of those are super cute and Lil C absolutely loved getting a new package in the mail (she'd been gifted 6 months of Little Passports for a birthday). However, I know subscription boxes can get pricey - especially if you have multiple children - and not everyone can afford them. So I wanted to create something that could be done with virtually any budget, utilizing library books, video read alouds, and printables to help you and your children explore various countries around the world! But the first things we needed were a suitcase and a passport! You can get the printable passport in the post for "My Granny Went to Market," but just keep reading to find out how to turn a simple shoebox into a suitcase!

For this project, almost any cardboard shoebox can be used, but the easiest are ones where the lid is attached to the base. If you only have boxes with separate lids, you'll have to snip two of the corners and glue one of the long flaps to the base so you can open it like a suitcase. After that the instructions will be the same for both kinds of boxes.

Supplies needed:

- cardboard shoebox

- scrap pieces of corrugated and thin (like cereal box) cardboard

- 2 small brads (paper fasteners)

Instructions

1. Open up all the flaps on the shoebox and reassemble it inside out so the outside of your suitcase is a solid plain color.

Box open

Box closed

2. Cut a 3/4"x4" piece of corrugated cardboard and a 2.5"x10" piece of thin cardboard. You're going to wrap the small piece in the large piece to create a handle. To make sure everything's centered, draw lines at 3" and 7" and place your small piece in between those lines. Then mark lines on either side of your small piece so you know where to fold in the next step. (Fyi, don't do what I did, mark your lines on the patterned side of your cardboard not the plain.)

4. Fold along the long lines you made in the last step. I always use a ruler to help make long straight folds.

5. Place your small piece inside and fold the cardboard around it, gluing it shut. Fold the sides up.

6. An inch and a half from each end, fold the cardboard in the opposite direction as shown below.

7. Make a small hole in the middle of each end flap (I used a very small Phillips screwdriver).

8. Attach to the middle of the front side of the shoebox using the two brads (it doesn't have to be exactly precisely in the middle, but doing some loose measurements will help it not be lopsided).

9. To create the latch that will hold the suitcase closed, you'll need 4 more pieces of corrugated cardboard. The long piece should be as tall as your box and about 3/4" wide. The other long piece should be about 3/4"x4" and the two short pieces will be about 3/4"x3/4" (if mine don't look square it's because I didn't actually measure...)

10. Glue the long strip to the inside of the lid.

11. Glue the two small pieces to the ends of the 4" strip.

12. Glue the 4" strip at the bottom of the box over the long strip. The vertical strip will slide underneath the horizontal strip and keep the suitcase closed while you're carrying it.

Now you're ready to decorate your suitcase and come travel with us!

This summer we will be traveling the world, visiting and exploring 7 amazing countries through stories, activities, and cooking! This week, we need to prepare for our world tour by making a suitcase to hold all our treasures, printing a map to track our travels, and creating a passport to hold memories from each country!