Homemade Koolaid Playdoh

Last night we made some homemade koolaid playdoh with the kids.  :) .  I went off two recipes, and tweaked them - one was for playdoh with food coloring, the other koolaid one. Both I had found on Pinterest.

Both recipes called for the same amount of flour, water, salt, and oil…. but one recipe called for 2 tsp cream of tarter, and the other 2 TBLS …

On hand we had Koolaid, Food Coloring, Salt, Flour, Oil, Creme of Tartor, and measuring devices, and a bucket of water.... spoons, cutting board, and a pan (we washed the last three things after making each one and reused for the next)

So … with Kaedyn’s (he used invisible Watermelon Kiwi koolaid, smells so good, and we added neon green food coloring and then added some reg green too) I put 2 TBLS in this one of Cream of Tartor in …  Dennis didn’t cook it long enough - and I forgot the oil, so we ended up using a lot of flour after to dry it out because it came out super wet and super sticky.  Whoops.  But we fixed it.

Nathan’s turned out perfect, he used Blue Raspberry Lemonade koolaid and added some blue food coloring.   I remembered the oil, Dennis cooked it until it was in a ball pretty much, and had used 4 tsp of Cream of Tartor.  It turned out perfect!

I pre-measured Nathan's things, I put the salt, 4 tsp of Cream of Tartor and the Blue Raspberry Koolaid in the pyrex cup, the flour in one cup and water in the other ....

Noah’s was Cherry koolaid, used 4 tsp of Cream of Tartor again, extra red food coloring so I added a little bit more flour again - maybe 3-4 tablespoons worth of extra flour ….  and his came out a little wet too, so we used a little bit of flour again while we kneaded it to dry it out.  

So Noah's was still wet and a bit sticky - so we added some flour to it ........

And as we kneaded it ... the flour would help bring the wetness out and bring it up to the right consistency.  If after the first dose of flour, if it's still wet and sticky, just add more until it's just right.

So this is our recipe …

HOMEMADE KOOLAID PLAYDOH

* 1 cup flour (may need extra flour) 
* 1 cup water (we used warm water) 
* 1/4 cup salt
* 4 tsp Cream of Tartor
* 2 packages of koolaid
* food coloring for color adjustment 
* 1 TBLS oil

Mix all the ingredients except the oil.  That is added last, right before cooking.  Put all the ingredients into a sauce pan and give it a good stir.  Add food coloring if you want a color adjustment (darker, different, whatever, have fun) …..  IF you add food coloring (and more than four drops) I would add a little more flour to help take care of the extra wet you put in.  We used 10-15 + drops in the blue and the red, and added 3-5 tablespoons of flour.  Use your discretion. (about the same amount you would sprinkle on dough if you were kneading it for bread, you can always add more later)    

After things are pretty well combined - I added the oil and then stirred it a few times, then took it to the stove.  

Over medium heat - stirring constantly for about 3-5 minutes, until the playdoh forms into a ball.  You will see the playdoh start getting thicker as it balls up a bit here and there, and you need to watch the bottom of the pan to make sure you are clearing the playdoh off that too, to make sure it doesn’t burn.  

When it is forming into a soft ball, dump it out onto a clean surface and let it cool for a minute or so.  Then knead it out until it’s soft.  If it starts sticking to your hands, sprinkle out some flour as you are needing it, and knead it into the playdoh until it’s dry and not sticky.  It’ll be a softer version of the store bought stuff.  

Store it in ziplocs or air tight containers.

Our Sun Art Project

Back on May 16th - we did this art craft ..... here is a recap ....

We cut patterns or pieces from one piece of paper (or scraps from one), and we used double sided sticky tape and put them on another - different colored paper.  We put them in the window with plans to take them off in one week to see what happened.   Well, one week turned into 2 months....  we would look at the project and comment on things, like....  well that piece is falling off or it looks weird now ... ha ha ...

So with the pieces falling off - I thought it would be neat if we prolonged it.

So here is what was posted on MAY 16th when we did it....

We cut out shapes on construction paper, and put them against the window.   Noah's prediction.

The paper exposed to the sunlight will burn, and the paper not exposed won't.  He also predicted this would take ONE DAY. 

So now we fast forward to July .....   and we take them down and I start taking off the pieces and we discuss what happened.  

So we did check it after one day - and he did see a slight change.   But after 2 months, this is what we got.  

You can see some of the double sided sticky tape that we couldn't get off......  

So here is the first one - you can see even at the age of 11, his cutting skills aren't the best ...  

Noah said ...  "Why is it pink?" ... I said "Did you pick pink paper?"  He said no ...   he picked red.  So the red paper actually lightened up a bit looking like pink, but the red paper isn't a "true" red either.  

This was purple paper .... and you can see that it turned out really well.

This half turned out .. (the eye fell off and the other eye and nose hung on the whole time, and the mouth kinda hung on ...)  ...

Love was super interesting .....   The L eventually fell off - you can see a shadow of an L ... the paper somehow (COUGH:::Kaedyn::Nathan:::COUGH) got bent and you can see the O ended up getting some exposure as did the big heart.

Noah knew that they were EXPOSED more than the darker parts and was commenting on how that happened.

This was a yellow paper with a face, that was put on a black piece of paper....  turned out pretty cool,, and black paper ended up turning purple.  So that'll be something interesting to talk about.  

Noah did a good job explaining the fading process (only he used the word BURNED) ... 

And that's how that project turned out.  

The Hermit Crab Story: RIP Max ... The Story begins for Max II

The Hermit Crab Story so far ....  

Hermit Crabs: Introduction

The Hermit Crab Story: Part 1

We ended up losing Max (the first) on May 15th.

On the 14th he ended up losing limbs and on the 15th lost more, and eventually by the time we got home, he wasn't with us anymore.

I want to state for the record, the following picture was taken AFTER he lost the first two limbs, but before he died :(

So luckily we managed to have the warranty and it was still in the time frame, so we took Kaedyn to pick out another crab.  He ended up naming him Max II (the second) ...

The lady at the register at the pet store was funny.  We put Max in a cup, took him in there, and I started explaining how I had called earlier and talked to someone and the whole thing...  and I showed her the cup, and I said "This is Max" ... and Kaedyn pipes up ... "He's DEAD!"

Yep, that's my kid!

So she calls some guy (I think the manager?) and she lifts up the cup and says "This is Max, this little handsome guy needs a new Max."

LOL....

So he took us back to the hermit crab cage and we were looking at all the shells and stuff...  and I saw this green one with spikes on it hiding, so I pointed, explained, and said I think he would like that one a lot.  He pulls it out (after having to box with another ...) and Kaedyn sees that it's a green turtle shell and he got all excited.  So ...  Max II was named immediately.  "That's my new Max!"

I also want to say that I was a bit disturbed by seeing a naked hermie....  I'm scarred for life.   I hope he was just changing shells :(

It was bad enough watching Max loose limbs :(

So anyway - here is the introduction for Max II ...

Dennis says that he's a ham already .....

Horton Hatches an Egg by Dr. Seuss

Today Noah listened to HORTON HATCHES AN EGG by Dr. Seuss ....

This is a video of her grandma reading the book for her grandchildren .... Noah liked this one better because he could see the book.

 There is one of the First Lady reading it HERE and an audio version HERE.

He answered the following questions:

What did you think of Horton?

He sat on the eggs - he is a boy of many words!

What did you think of Maisy?

She was lazy!

What did you think of what came out of the egg?

An Elephant Bird... it was funny

Why do you think it came out an Elephant Bird?

Because Horton sat on it for 51 weeks and it was an elephant because of that and a bird cuz Maisy was the Momma.

He drew a picture of Horton and the eggs, and Maisy.

Then we did some math games and some spelling games.

And then we did an art/science activity ...

We cut out shapes on construction paper, and put them against the window.   Noah's prediction.

The paper exposed to the sunlight will burn, and the paper not exposed won't.  He also predicted this would take ONE DAY. 

The Hermit Crab Story..... (part 1)

So if you haven't seen our INTRODUCTION to the Hermies ... please go check out that blog.

I had already written this blog once, however; I deleted it.  Yep... it's been one of those days....  PURE accident, I was TRYING to delete the blog I had started above it, but ... whoops!

So anyway - We had found this great page with a lot of Hermit Crab information.  Hermit Crab Association.  They have a forum too for Hermit Crab people :)

Well, we left the Hermies along for awhile after we got them, and then we took their first pictures.  Although they weren't named - completely - until just recently.

So I wanted to show off their painted shells ....  Sansa has already changed her shell and I included both.

However, I think we might be losing Max.  They dumped out their big shell of salt water, and the sand was super wet, so I didn't get a chance to take care of it right away, and today when we got home, Max had lost two legs, including his big claw :(   I'm worried.  Max has always been a very quiet crab.  He's always been the hardest to cox out of his shell.  Gandalf and Paco are the most friendly.  Sansa is getting to be more friendly.  Max has always been a loner.  Wants to be left alone. Of course he was in the middle of this wet sand, I'm hoping that he survives.  I'll share more on this later.

We'll be sure to update.

So here are their shells ... thus forth ...

We also spent some time trying to figure out what species they are.  We thought they were all one species, but learned they are not.

This is what we learned that they are...

We have found a few great links for some Hermit Crab work.

LINKS:
Anatomy of a Hermit Crab
Create Your Own Informational Booklets
Create Your Own List of Care Instructions
Hermit Crab Vocabulary

Hermit Crabs - Introductions :)

So back in the end of April - I was looking around on Freecycle.  Two things got my attention.  Someone was giving away their 10 gallon aquarium with four hermit crabs that their son had recently gotten for his birthday, but they were moving.  So they wanted the crabs going to a good home and and the supplies.  I thought this was fantastic, it's been something I have been wanting to do with my kids - definitely an interesting project AND great for learning.

The other thing was that same family was getting rid of their pet lizard and all the supplies for him (or her)....  but no terrarium for it.  They wanted to take their tank with them - who can blame them, right?   Well, we happened to have a big tank in our storage, so we got that and took both off their hands.   The kids have been hounding me to get a lizard - mainly Cal and Noah.  Actually, they were trying to talk me into getting a snake but I said if they wanted a snake - they'd have to earn money to get one.

So ....  we've had these guys for a little while.  I got a couple of things to put in the tank but everything else they provided.  The kids love them.  Nathan will park himself infront of the tank and just watch them do nothing.  Ha ha ...  because Hermies are nocturnal animals.

Shortly after getting them, well about three weeks after getting them, and just the other day - one of the crabs changed it's shell.   It was pretty cool to wake up and find that Sansa (yes we named them all) had changed her shell.

We did our homework of course, and now we're starting to teach the kids.  We figured four crabs was perfect, one for each of our boys.  That's the max "they" suggest for a 10 gallon anyway.  Each crab was in a painted shell.  For awhile, we called them by what was on their shells.... Cobra, Firetruck, Ladybug and Watermelon.  But after Dennis and I figured out how to tell their gender, we gave them a little more appropriate names.

Cobra - Calahan's ... Gandalf the Gray (cuz he's more brownish gray)
Ladybug - Nathan's - Paco, cuz Nathan's NOT Paco... but it's something he can say.
Firetruck - Noah picked as his - and seems to be the only girl in the bunch, so Dennis and I started to throw out names, and names from Game of Thrones ... and he liked Sansa.
Then last but not least, Kaedyn got saddles with the Watermelon one... he didn't care.  So he named him Max, cuz then there can be TWO Max's in the house.  (Noah's stuffed dog that he's had since he was a baby is named Max too) ...  

So ....  let me introduce you.