Jump to It

STILL COOKIN': Yesterday it was a Mars cake. Today, it was Curiosity cookies.

They're some dee-licious thick, soft chocolate cookies covered in Mars-marbled fondant, decorated with edible ink. 

We added (white chocolate) polar ice caps on a couple, and used a nifty new kit we had to emboss words on some. CJ impressed "Welcome to Mars Curiosity" on his.

THE COLBERT REPORT: Last night John Grunsfeld, Associate Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, was a guest on the Colbert Report, discussing the upcoming Curiosity Mars rover landing. The Mars talk started about 2/3 into the program, in case you interested in seeing it. (Just endure the ad and then fast forward.) 

After we watched the interview, I explained to the kids that Stephen Colbert is a huge NASA fan and that there was a treadmill on the ISS named after him after he got "Colbert Nation" to vote for him in a NASA contest. (Interesting story here in case you haven't heard it. 

THURSDAY MUSINGS: If you've ever spent much time with CJ, you know he spends a lot of time chuckling quietly at things that amuse him. Today, he was tittering at his computer and I asked him what the giggling was all about. It was a Cake Wrecks disaster a Santa cake with "Merry HooHoo" written on it. Hysterical, indeed. 


CJ kept going on and on about it and told him "Happy Hoo Hoo" sounded like a clown on a children's show to me. I thought as a writing assignment for the day, it might be fun for CJ to flesh that character out, so that's what he did.


The Legend of Happy Hoohoo! by CJ

Happy Hoohoo is a clown. The thing that makes him memorable is that instead of juggling balls, he would juggle hand grenades. Happy Hoohoo's origin is this: In 1987, a man named Steve Robert woke up. He went to a circus to get a job, and he signed up to be a clown.

After that, Happy Hoohoo went to the fair and started juggling hand grenades. Then, they landed on the ground and.... KABOOM! It blew up the whole fair, but Happy Hoohoo survived the explosion. After that, Happy Hoohoo came to court and said: WAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I AINT DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Hoohoo went to jail for explosion, but demanded another court trial. So another trial happened, and Happy Hoohoo was found innocent. So, Happy Hoohoo is a clown in circuses, and fairs.

LOL and my oh my, CJ. And that's all I'm going to say about that. 


Annabelle chose NOT to write about Happy Hoo Hoo. Instead, she fleshed out Cheetah Girl, a character she created in a drawing a few weeks back.


The Adventures of Cheetah Girl by Annabelle

Once upon a time there was a girl named Katie. She loved watching cartoons, especially the ones with super heroes and heroines in them. When she walked, it was more like running. And when she ran, she was a blur! Her parents thought that this was because she got so much exercise, and they did not mind this unusual quickness of their daughter.

When she was in high school, she was never late for class due to her speed. When she was done with school she would go home (she no longer lived with her parents) and think of an idea for a suit that would compliment her speed. She, loving animals, turned to her picture of a cheetah which she took on a safari. Then she thought of an idea. She then started gathering cloth that looked like cheetah fur, and stitched it together, making a dress with a hood that went over the head. She also sewed herself some gloves and boots (more like slippers) that looked like cheetah paws. Then she went out to do what she always wanted to do- be a super hero[ine].

When she went out, of course, she did good deeds like all heroes (and heroines) do. She was helping the police chase a criminal when the criminal ran right towards the police and hid behind them. A shadow towered over them. It was a giant frog with a dinosaur tail and dragon wings, but Gheetah Girl outsmarted the mutant frog, and defeated it.

THE END

CALENDAR GIRL: Today I finally took the time to sit down and do something I've been toying with doing for months/eons. I've wanted to create a 'this day in history' type calendar to remind me of landmark events in history so that the kids and I can cover them. I used three primary sources: History.com, the Pacific Science Center's online science calendar, and History Orb- a new-to-me  Web site .  

I like the idea of doing this for several reasons. First, of course it's a history lesson, and as they say, how do you know where you're going if you don't know where you've been? Second, these factoids usually wind op being cross-curricular. For instance, note the start of World War I on Aug. 2 and you're going to wind up talking geography, politics, math (how many years ago was it? How long did the war last?), and so on. A number of them have to do with science (of course!) and they would all have a language arts element, as no doubt we'll wind up reading some about them and often writing about them. 


MIGHT AS WELL JUMP: We got back into the swing of our MPA mini Olympics today with a standing long jump event. But rather than just jump jump jump, we turned it into a bit of a science lesson. I asked whether you could jump further if you were standing in place or running. Both the kids said running, because you're moving and you keep going. And so, we talked about momentum. I then had them experiment with standing jumps, including one where they couldn't bend their legs or move their arms. Why couldn't they go very far like that, do you suppose? Ah, physics!

They both made several jumps. CJ had the day's longest, at just over 50 inches.

I love Annabelle's body English in the background of this shot - 'helping' CJ jump further. That's probably why he won. :)