In addition to marketing cooking to dad, the Penny Powers division also focused its attention on children with a cookbook and a Saturday morning cooking children’s show. Some people may even remember watching the show as Martha Allan (Penny Power) and June Jacobs baked and cooked kid friendly meals.

Fun and simple chemistry experiments for kids. These cool science experiments will have your kids wanting to do science every day.

From Seed to Sprout For the past couple of years, my daughters have helped my husband with a garden in our backyard. They begin in early spring by planting seeds in peat pellets that are placed in a covered tray. The tray is set on a heating pad and covered with a thick blanket to provide a dark, moist environment. The girls use their resources wisely and label the pellets with old address labels. One end of the label is wrapped around a toothpick before being inserted into the dirt. A few days later, sprouts will appear. The pellets are transferred to a modified greenhouse. Supplies for the modified greenhouse: standard 10' piece of 3/4" PVC pipe cut to size as follows: 1 piece (4.5 feet) for the crossbar 2 pieces (18 inches) for the legs 4 pieces (8 inches) for the feet 2 PVC elbow joints 2 PVC Ts Fluorescent Shoplight (chains and s-hook come with the shop light) foil duct tape Steps: Construct your greenhouse PVC frame. Cut two 4.5' sheets of foil and lay on ground. Tape bottom and side edges of foil with duct tape to reinforce. Hang shop light from top of PVC frame using chains Tape foil sheets to edge of shop light. As the sprouts continue to grow, they will need to be transferred to larger pots, most likely more than once, before being planted in the ground. As long as the plants receive an adequate amount of sun and water in your garden, you will enjoy a bountiful harvest. Just watch out for those woodland creatures who always seem to get to those tasty veggies first! Hanging Gardens I happened to be watching an older episode of Kelsey's Essentials when Kelsey Nixon visited Rockaway Taco to speak with Andrew Day Field about his unique approach to tacos. In preparation for this post, I read that this taco stand has closed, but I wanted to share how Andrew was able to grow vegetables and herbs in a small space. Unfortunately I was unable to find a video of this episode online, but you can view other episodes of her show here. On a bright note, I did come across this picture which shows the hanging garden of various planters that caught my eye during Kelsey's visit to Rockaway Taco. Steps to make your own hanging garden: 1. Punch holes in the bottom of the container to allow excess water to drain. 2. Cut an opening in the side of the container near the top. 3. Fill the container with soil. 4. Insert the plant and add more soil as needed. 5. Create a loop with twine and secure on handle of container. 6. Hang on fence or deck. 7. Enjoy! Not only could these ideas help satisfy Scout badge steps, they could spark ideas for a future service project. For example, a hanging garden could be appreciated at a retirement or nursing home. Additionally, it's a great way to reduce, reuse, and recycle those plastic containers. Whether you are planting for someone else or for your own enjoyment, I wish you great success as you exercise your green thumb. Thanks for reading!

Sydney Opera House hat made from paper plates is a fun Australia Day activity for kids and a great way for them to show their pride for their country.

I'm getting ready for a year of Daisy Girl Scouts and wanted to make a fun Kaper Chart. Kapers are chores that the girls do in every meeti...

Set up the most fun giant pretend activity ever. This giant nail salon activity is an easy way to entertain kids indoors. Paint and decorate nails!

At 3 months, it's still hard to capture her smiling. Not that she didn't smile, but she looks so cool most of the time. Yao at 3 months. This photo was taken after Mass, we attended the Feast of the Holy Family together The most major milestone that happened on the exact day she turned 3 months was... she can flip! Too bad only Amah witnessed it, while Mommy was at the kitchen. And worse so it never happened anymore as of this writing (she's slightly over 4 months and 1week now), so I'm not sure if what Amah considered as flipping is the same as my definition. According to Amah, she can only do it on her left side, and it happened when she's really angry and kicked real hard. Important notes for my own reference: - She can lift up her head by herself, but not for long - She loves it best when I put her down to change her nappy The closest that I managed to capture her smiling - Sleep thru the night from 12am to ~5am. - She's an early riser, she'll wake up by 6am and goo-gaa with me. And what I love her best is she's a happy baby, always wake up smiling. - She 'talks' a lot with her Daddy, and only with him. Not so much with me or Amah. - I've stopped letting her wear mittens when she's ~2months old, so that she is able to learn how to grasp things. By now, if I let her wear her mittens again, they will be all wet as she loves to suck her hands. - She has a preference to hold our hands when we feed her - She drinks around 3-4 bottles of 4oz EBM at the babysitter's. Direct feed when at home with me. Bottled-fed when in Amah's care (when I need to go out). - I started her on pacifier when she's around 2 months. I can't help it as she's a light sleeper and easily startled by noise. She woke up once I put her down, but could sleep longer when I carried her. - She was 5kg when she's 2 months old (measured during the visit to the paed for her 2 months vaccinations). I didn't measure her at 3months - Both her Jie Jie adores her but I wouldn't let them carry her when I'm not around.

Explore Fluffy Flowers' 2599 photos on Flickr!

I love celebrity kids who are squarely in that zone of Old Enough to Be Fabulous/Young Enough Not to Give a Crap That the Cameras Are Watching. And this summer is brimming with pint-size badasses of just that variety. These little tykes are totally winning the summer: We've already been over this, but ICYMI: Willow Hart (daughter of Pink and Cary) is so totally nonchalant in her music video premiere. I'm so happy a paparazzo snapped this pic of Orlando and Flynn Bloom at the park so that I didn't have to ruin their day by staring creepily at them from a nearby bench. Don't get me wrong: I love your cute little niece and nephew. But Kaleo Elam (left, pictured with brother Makhari Elam) pulled in $42 million at the box office this weekend with his movie Grown-Ups 2, and his style is already ridic. Skyler Berman (Rachel Zoe's son) is the new dictionary illustration for "joy." Harlow Madden, certified heart thief, hanging out with mom Nicole Richie. I feel like we haven't seen Julia Roberts/Danny Moder's kids (Phinnaeus, Hazel, and Henry) in years, and I love how darling and grown-up they looked while visiting their mom on the

You won’t find these hilarious jokes for kids anywhere else! Click here to start laughing.

Thought I would do a quicky post to share my latest creation. I love the ever-so-popular subway art popping up everywhere these days, and I...

Babies to Bookworms provides reviews of 4 new Rainbow Rangers books, as well as fun and easy rainbow activities to pair with them!

I've been doing "Home Preschool" with Esther & Robby for a while now. I don't blog about it often because, frankly you guys aren't too int...

I am so excited that I finally made my alphabet rocks. I've been wanting to do these since I came across Shannon Martin's post from Kindergarten Hoppenings here. I wanted to put her great Chicka Boom Boom freebie and the alphabet rocks I saw on Pinterest together. So I did!! First I gathered clear stones from Michaels and printed out the letters from Shannon's freebie on cardstock. I also tried to make my own letters using good old comic sans in a word document. I left the printed letters together and painted Mod Podge on each spot. I then stuck the clear stones on top and let them dry. After they were dry I cut them out. I read that it was a good idea to seal the backs so I flipped them over and painted another coat of Mod Podge onto the backs. More drying time. Last I used Tacky Glue to attach the round button magnet. One word about that....distance. I looked with pride at the magnets I had just created and discovered that the magnets wanted to be next to each other. They did what magnets should and scooted close because they were still sliding around on the not yet dry tacky glue. Easy fix...slide the magnet back into place and separate them to finish drying. Voila!! I have two great sets of alphabet magnets to use first with my whole class and later in word work/alphabet centers. How do you practice the alphabet? I am thinking of making more consonants to use to make words with the vowels on the coconut tree. What do you think? Terri

This week's busy bag activity is a great activity to teach your preschoolers how to button. I have not made this one yet but think I might because my preschooler could definitely use some help with this skill. You can find detailed instructions here on how to make this button snake.

I have only been blogging for three months....but already I have so many great memories and moments of excitements that sends me running and screaming around my house. My kids are all grown so often I have my house to myself and that may find me running up and down my hallway with just my underwear on. My hubby doesn't mind when I do that...he'd like to see me in my underwear more often (but that's different story). Actually he is very supportive and never complains when I am sitting in our bed stalking or typing my own blog posts. My best memories have to do with the WONDERFUL blogging friends I have found. Bloggers who have noticed me and taken time to encourage me and given me great advice and tips. Not only about my blog, but my classroom as well. Insert Thank-You to Kristin at The Teeny Tiny Teacher (first one to comment on my blog ever!!!!), big screams after that, witnessed by my daughter and grandkids who happened to be at my house that day (no underwear...I had clothes on, although it might have been a swimsuit since we had gone to the pool that day). Thank-you to Hadar and Deedee and Fran who answered all the questions I posed and gave me great advice both about my classroom (when I thought I would have 31 kinders this year) and my blog. Blogging has made me a better teacher. There are such talented ladies (mostly ladies) out there. I have always said that my talent is recognizing a good idea when I see it. Blogging has challenged me to come up with my own ideas. I have always been good at finding something and then enlarge....decrease...cut it up and rearrange...making it my own. The copy machine was my friend. I have found so many great things on the blogs I stalked, some for free...some on teachers pay teachers. I wondered how can I do that? How can I share cool things I have made for my classroom when all I have is the cut and paste thing I put together with the copy machine. I had never really made anything digitally. That is the one thing I have learned to do....well at least I am beginning to learn to do it. This book is the first thing I have made. I used it to teach my anti-bully lessons. You can read about it here. You can click on the picture if you would like a copy. If you are new, like me, you might not know how to do anything like this. Here is what I have learned so far. First: Powerpoint is for more than making slide show presentations. I used powerpoint to create this book. Each page is a slide. Powerpoint is easier to manipulate than word...there are other programs out there you can use to create things, but I don't have them. So I am trying to learn how to use what I have. Second: I wanted to have a frame on each page to define my space. I went to the drawing section on the home tab, where all the shapes are and drew a box. Next I clicked on shape fill and for this book I clicked no fill. Then I clicked on shape outline and picked my dashes first, then the line width, then I changed the color. Actually I did that first, then I realized that even white fill was messing with my final product and I went back and set the shape fill at no fill. Now I just do that first. Third: When I get my frame the size I think I want, I copy it to see if two frames will fit on one page. Doesn't fit? I delete it and only mess with my first one...making it bigger or smaller, then copy it again. When I think I have it right I print it and check to make sure the page will fold the way I want. Fourth: I have one page the way I want? I duplicate the slide...lots of times. Now I am ready to add pictures (clip art) and text boxes. But before you add anything....SAVE IT! Save it as a blank book or something (otherwise the next time you want to make a book you have to do the first three steps all over again!) Yup...that would be me. Starting from scratch for my next little book. But I have learned my lesson. Hopefully I get another good idea because my Hide Turkey Hide book is almost done and I have my blank book file just waiting for some brilliant inspiration to hit. Last: When you are finished and you want to save your book or activity choose to save it as a PDF. You will then be able to upload to Google Docs or Dropbox or wherever you want to keep your creation and it will stay the way you made it. What do I have to look forward to now that I am on this blogging path?? Lots of fun...new inspiration...new friends...linky parties...better teaching and learning how to create a blog button and to use/buy/design a better looking blog.

...or not at all for our littles. Time seems so easy for us "old people". It is concrete, set in stone, we get it because we have lived it. Sometimes it is easy to forget our little kinders haven't lived as long as we have and they don't get it. For them time gets all mixed up. They can repeat some of the right words, day, week, year, January, Monday....but they still don't understand it (that's why they mix it up so much). I blogged about that over at PreK and K sharing. Click here to read my post. Then I saw this hat on Cupcake for the Teacher's blog. So to help my kinders understand a little more, we made these hats today. We started with the months of the year (today was the first day we sang them all). We looked at the letters, and stretched the sounds, then found the months we needed. We glued them to a sentence strip as we went along. If you need the months you can find them here. Be sure to glue them end to end, so you don't run out of room. Next we cut out our triangle, glued a star to the top, and came back for the die cut numbers. I told my students to glue the 2 and the 4 on first, then the 0 and 1. I told them that the 2 and the 4 had to hang off the hat or it wouldn't all fit. When those were glued, then you could add the last two numbers. Finally I stapled the word strip into a circle and stapled the hat onto the strip. Voila! A Happy New Year hat. Aren't they just too cute? You would think I was having a party in my room. Thank goodness for teachers who are willing to share. When I saw Teri's hat I knew I had to make it. Go check out her Happy New Year hat. Check out her blog too....she always has the cutest ideas. Tomorrow we start our personal timeline project. I will blog about that as the project progresses. For now the first day back has worn me out. It is time for bed.

Baby Doll Haircuts is an adorable and super easy to create fine motor scissor skills activity for preschoolers and kindergartners!

If you have already seen our previous post of 21 of The Most Insanely Genius Hacks That Every Parent Must Know, now here is a part two. In the cold winter

This is a first from Kinderland Kapers. What an adorable unit to go along with the book Mouse Paint. This unit includes a mini-book that kids will love reading over and over. There is a color roll and record sheet with a dice template, flash cards and graphing activity. Students will love learnin...

Hi! This is Terri from Kinder Kapers. In honor of Earth Day this month, I am going to step up on my soapbox for a bit and tell you that I...

Isn't it wonderful that our students look at us so funny when we talk about racial inequality. They cannot understand why someone would have to drink from a separate drinking fountain or not be allowed in a restaurant. But they do need help remembering that being different on the outside is a good thing. That is what makes us unique and special. One activity I use is Find Your Potato. I have ready access to potatoes of all shapes and sizes and colors too. Give each student a potato, Make a big deal of naming their potato, examining it closely, generally getting to know their spuds. After a few minutes (or stretch into half a day and let their potato sit on their desks), place all the potatoes into one big pile. Then make the students find "their"potato. Good discussions can occur about how they know which one was theirs, cut several open and talk about being the same on the inside even if we are different on the outside. You can also talk about how important we are to our families and those who love us. Next if you have access to the multicultural construction paper, have each student trace their hand. You could them have them cut it out, and create a banner like the one I pinned from the Activity Village. I typed up some quotes that I thought would be a little easier for my Kinders to understand. You can grab them here. Finally I also plan on having my students work on empathy. I made this little interactive book to help my kiddos be kind to others. I wanted them to reach out and help each other. You can click on the pictures or here to grab it. When you make this little book you fold each page in half with the fold on the right and the open ends on the left. Staple the open ends together and add a strip of paper for good looks. I have even made a cover using blank page and cradled the book inside the fold of the cover. When you do it this way....You are sad is on the left and I can ______. is on the right. It can look strange when you see it printed out, but when you make the book it all makes sense. Because I think that my students can never have enough books to take home I am also planning on making this little book from Simply Kinder. You can grab it here...it's free! And isn't it cute!

Can you believe it?? The school year is almost gone! Where did the time go? This time of year we get so caught up in what needs to be done, and what we want to get done .....that I, for one, run out of time. Last year I saw this post by Katie Mense of Little Warriors and just had to give these keepsake pictures a try. They turned out so wonderful I wanted to share this idea with you. It is easy and you can pull it together fairly quickly. I loved giving these to my students on the last day. I create these keepsake pictures in powerpoint and print them off at our local Walgreens or Walmart. They don't take a lot of time and if they are easy enough for me to do, you can do them too. Just follow these simple steps. First....find an empty wall (outside is good) and take a digital picture of each student. Make sure that the child is way over to one side (I like to use the left). Next...drop (insert) that picture into a powerpoint presentation. One picture on each slide. I love creating in powerpoint. For this you need to select: design, slide size, standard (4:3), landscape. I also change my settings to 11 inches by 8.5 (standard paper). Then, I add my textbox. I get all my fonts just the way I want them, and before I start typing in too much information I duplicate the slide. That way I can easily change the picture, change the text, and make one slide for each student. If I right click on the picture I can change it, or I can go to format and the menu there also has a button for change the picture. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy. Once you get all the slides with their pictures, then go back and change the name, the color, add information (did I say, don't forget to survey your students and keep those little slips of paper?) Last...when all the slides are done save it as either a jpeg or png. I save both my original powerpoint (in case I need to go back to edit) and then a jpeg file. Now you are ready to take them to where ever you have your pictures printed! Have a GREAT end of the year!!

You want to raise a really great kid, & you can. Knowing how to raise a really great child takes child training and an intentional mom like you!

I am so excited to be a part of this FABULOUS blog hop!! There are so many great bloggers with so many great ideas. I hope you are having as much fun as me finding new and bright things to use in your classroom. Here is one more. This is my bright idea for using those stones you find in the floral department of WalMart, craft stores, and even the dollar store. The clear stones have the amazing ability to magnify. That makes the clear ones great for reading. Place the stone on a word and you can still read it! Not only that, it makes that word a little bit bigger. I use them with "regular" books and paper books too. We find a word, or a punctuation mark, or just follow along reading each word. The stones help students to focus. I also made magnets with some of them. I have them with both letters and numbers. You can read how I made them here and here. We started the year using them to spell our names, and climb the coconut tree (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom). Then I made this tree out of scrapbook paper. Now we are using them to spell words. And we are using them with our chalkboards. There is just something relaxing about the feel of the smooth surface. Not only when you are reading...but they are great for counting too. I like to use the smaller ones for math. Are you ready for another bright idea? Next up is Jen Bengel from Out of This World Literacy. She is going to tell you about a topic near and dear to my heart....using picture books in the upper grades. Since my mom is a children's author, I have always had a great appreciation for picture books. I could go on and on with my reasons, but I will let Jen tell you all about it. You can also check out a topic of your choosing by clicking on one of the links below and move along to any other blog on the blog hop. An InLinkz Link-up An InLinkz Link-up

This month, our troop has been working on the aMUSE Journey. The girls have been meeting once a week to learn about different stereotypes and the various roles that women play in the world around us. To read about our first Journey meeting, check out this link: Day One. Our second Journey meeting is detailed here: Day Two. In preparation for today's meeting, the girls were asked to complete the Stereotype Tracker chart on pg. 27 of the Junior Journey Book. During this past week, our family has been very aware of and had many conversations about stereotypes. On Sunday morning, it was obvious I was annoying my family with the stereotype discussions. When we entered church, we passed a police officer eating a doughnut. NO JOKE!!! On the way home, we were giggling about the police officer's breakfast, and my younger daughter laughed and said, "He was?" I couldn't let this one go...the police officer was a WOMAN! Even though we have probably run this topic into the ground at our house, at least I know our daughters have gained an appreciation for stereotypes and how their lives are affected by them. During this third Journey meeting, our troop was challenged to write a story to educate an audience about stereotypes and inspire others to support women and girls. Here is how we spent our meeting time: 4:15pm Girls arrive. 4:30pm Girl Scout Promise and Sharing. The girls were asked to refer to pg. 31 in the Junior Journey Book. They each shared something they learned when they interviewed someone from their Casting Call Log (pg. 16-17 in the Junior Journey Book). Watch the Always Like a Girl video. My neighbor shared this video with me when she learned our troop was doing the aMUSE Journey. It ties in with the lessons perfectly, but I will let the video speak for itself... 4:45pm First, the Stereotype. Read pg. 50-51 in Junior Journey Book. Refer to Stereotype Tracker on pg. 27 in Junior Journey Book. Each girl shares one stereotype from her list. Make a troop list of stereotypes (refer to left margin of pg. 58 in Adult Guide for examples if needed). Answer the following questions (pg. 58 in Adult Guide): Which stereotype on our lists limits you and other girls the most? Is there one stereotype that you hear a lot in our community? Why? What can be done to stop that stereotype? The girls chose to bust this stereotype: All Girl Scouts do is knock on doors and sell cookies. 5:00pm Your Heart, Your Art, Your Part (pg. 44-45 in Junior Journey Book) Find your talent or what you love to do--that's what's in your heart. Next, find a creative way that you can use what you love to do--that's your art. Then see what role you can play when you and your troop tell a story about stereotypes--that's your part! (The girls were given a couple minutes to review the chart on pg. 45 in the Junior Journey Book. They were asked to mark their interests in the left column). Everyone share the top two things you like to do from the left column... Turn to pg. 47. Can you see how some of the values of the Girl Scout Law can apply to creative people like artists and leaders? Artists and leaders are "courageous and strong" when they... Artists and leaders are "honest and fair" when they... Artists and leaders are "responsible for what they say and do" because they... To be honest, our girls stuck with me up until I asked them these questions from pg. 47. By the second question, I was starting at glazed eyes. Though I know it's important to tie the lesson or activity back to the Girl Scout Law, I didn't want to lose them completely. We moved on to the next part of the meeting. 5:15pm Choosing our Audience and Deciding How to Tell Our Story (pg. 62-63 Adult Guide) Read pg. 53 in Junior Journey Book Brainstorm Audience Ideas Choose Audience Decide how to tell the story--musical performance, a picture book, mural, puppet show, or skit? The girls decided they wanted to do a puppet show, and they would like to perform for their families and the three Brownies who will be joining our troop in October. 5:20pm Next, the Storyline. (pg. 60-61 Adult Guide) Now you're going to work together to create a puppet show about the stereotype you chose. You can create whatever kind of story you want: serious, funny, real, fantasy. No matter what kind of story you create, the big message should be how stopping the stereotype can benefit girls, women, and everyone! (Review Tips for Creating a Story Line on pg. 61 of Adult Guide. Provide list of questions for reference). Use the paper and pens to brainstorm ideas. Then develop a basic story line with beginning, middle, and end. You can change it later if desired. 6:00pm Closing. Even though the girls were given 40 minutes to write their puppet show, they didn't come close to finishing. They will have the entire time next week to write the rest of the story and decorate poster board to set the stage for their audience. Our Service Unit has a Registration Event at the end of this month. I'm hoping we can encourage the girls to step outside their comfort zone and perform their puppet show for all the girls at the Registration Event. HOMEWORK: Thinking Like a Storyteller (pg. 52 Junior Journey Book) Bring in one accessory or article of clothing that reflects something about yourself to the next meeting.

The Brownies in our troop are currently working on their Senses badge. Step 5 is "Touch and Feel." When our older girls completed Step 5 to earn their Senses badge, they created a "feel wheel." I emailed the families prior to the meeting and assigned each girl a different texture like bumpy, furry, hard, sticky, smooth, and rough. The girls were asked to find an item from home that felt like their assigned texture. They each brought that item to the meeting to share with the other girls in the troop. Now that we have another group of Brownies, I wanted them to try something different to complete Step 5 for the Senses badge. One of the alternative choices for Step 5 provided in the list of badge requirements encourages the girls to learn about Braille. They are asked to use the Braille alphabet to figure out how to write their names in Braille. For the past year or so, I have had a part-time job as an assistant to an author. I have accompanied her to radio interviews that happen to be recorded at the Cincinnati Association for the Blind. Knowing our girls would be learning about Braille, I was able to talk with a couple people while waiting for the author to finish the interview. They offered some printed information for me to take back to the girls, including cards with both the Braille alphabet and numbers. They also gave me a Braille edition of an issue of Reader's Digest. I decided it would be fun to have the girls make Braille name tags during one of our meetings. We also had the Junior Girl Scouts in the troop make them because I had plans to use the name tags in a future activity. Using my resources wisely, I found some paper scraps among my scrapbooking supplies and cut strips for the name tags. I measured the strips 1.5" high, and I allowed about 1.5" for each letter in the first name. For example, a name tag strip for "Laurie" would measure 1.5" high by about 9" wide. Referring to the Braille alphabet, I drew two rows of six, small, blank dots for each letter in the name. I included one dot on the bottom left of the first letter to indicate a capital letter. I darkened in the dots that corresponded to each letter in the name for this picture. The girls should be able to look at the alphabet and darken the appropriate circles themselves. I purchased a package of 4mm multicolored rhinestones from Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off, of course! The girls glued the gems on the name tag, using either tacky glue or Elmer's glue. Most of the girls decided to use one color rhinestone per letter. This was a relatively easy and inexpensive craft. Even if your Girl Scouts are not working on the Senses badge, this craft could easily be tied into other programs. Our Junior Girl Scouts are working on the Detective badge. Step 2 is "Communicate in Code," and learning about Braille satisfies this step. Additionally, Step 1 for the Detective Badge is to "Practice the Power of Observation." As we talked about Braille, we discussed the ways blind people can be observant even though they can't see and how those ways are similar and different from observation skills used by people without impaired sight. Years ago, we had an Everybody Counts program for our girls. Braille name tags would have been a fun craft to include in our agenda. Next time! Please check back to see how these name tags will be used in our Self Esteem Workshop planned for the beginning of March. Thank you for reading!

Photo: Getty Images We all know that sleep is important. But a new study from the US suggests that sl...