The Old Farmer’s Almanac
for
VOLUME 2
activity guide
by Faith Hickman Brynie
Welcome, teachers, parents, and kids!
Thousands of you used the Activity Guide with the first Old Farmer’s Almanac for Kids. (Thank you!)
We hope even more of you make use of this one.
This Guide is designed to help you identify opportunities for extending the fun and the learning
beyond the pages of The Old Farmer’s Almanac for Kids, Volume 2. In some cases, we ask questions,
but we don’t provide answers. That’s because looking for the answer is often more important than
the answer itself. It’s the process—not the product—that matters.
To get the most from The Old Farmer’s Almanac for Kids . . .
■
Begin by reading and talking together about interesting items in the Almanac.
■
Use entries in the Almanac to spur further discussion and research, whether in your classroom
or library or on the Internet.
■
Encourage questions. You may not know the answers, but perhaps you can find them together.
In such cases, the journey is as important as the destination.
■
Take every opportunity to turn your discussions or research into a tangible product.
Write a poem, story, or original song. Build a model. Make a scrapbook. Take photographs.
Paint pictures. Draw diagrams. Make bulletin board displays or a refrigerator gallery. (You’ll find
specific suggestions for these in this guide.)
We offer some ideas for each chapter at the links above, but the interests and ideas that will come from
children and adults exploring and learning together will generate many more. Have fun!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Faith Hickman Brynie is the author of 17 science and health trade books for children and young adults. Some of her books
have earned awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Science Teachers Association,
the Children’s Book Council, and the International Reading Association. She holds a Ph.D. in science education (curriculum
and instruction) from the University of Colorado, Boulder. A former high school biology teacher and university professor, she
also was the first teacher to serve as a “Scholar in Residence” in overseas schools of the U.S. government (for children of
embassy personnel, for example). She is a frequent contributor to ODYSSEY, a popular science magazine for middle-school
children, and has edited the ODYSSEY Teacher’s Guide.
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CALENDAR PAGES
JANUARY is National Hobby Month. Poll at least 20 people. Ask them to name their favorite
hobby. Organize the results into a bar graph to show your findings.
FEBRUARY is National Children’s Dental Health Month. Talk to a dentist or
dental hygienist to learn how best to care for your teeth. Create a brochure titled
“Keep the Sparkle in Your Smile,” writing the text and illustrating it with your own
original artwork or images clipped from magazines. Copy and share your brochure
with classmates, friends, and family members.
MARCH is National Women’s History Month. In your library, find a book about a famous woman
of the past. Read the book, and make a poster that shows who the woman was, what she did, and how
her contributions to society changed our world.
APRIL is Keep America Beautiful Month. Organize your friends and family to carry out an
environmental improvement project. You might, for example, pick up litter in your neighborhood or
create a poster to encourage people to stop littering. Or you might pull weeds from a vacant lot and
plant a communal garden.
MAY is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Resolve to get a little
more exercise every day. Make a calendar for this month and record your daily
physical activity, noting the activity and the time you spend doing it. Try to vary your
activities and increase the time from day to day. Record your feelings of success
as you set a “personal best” record for each new goal you achieve. Once your
good exercise habits are established, keep exercising and recording your
progress for the rest of the year.
JUNE is National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month. Go to a market and find a
fruit or vegetable that you have never tried before. Learn how to prepare it. Find a recipe for
serving it. Share your find with friends and family members.
JULY is National Anti-Boredom Month. Combat the blahs by making your own special activity
box to open and explore whenever you feel bored. Put in the box your favorite books, games, jokes,
and/or music CDs—anything that will get you up and moving again when you feel low. Share your
box with friends who have lost their sparkle, too.
AUGUST is National Water Quality Month. Purchase some water test strips
at an aquarium shop or spa supply store. Use them to test the pH, alkalinity, and
other characteristics of your home’s water. Find out what the results of the
tests mean.
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SEPTEMBER is National Courtesy Month. Resolve to do something polite every day of the month.
Make a calendar and record your good deeds every day. Write an essay about one of the occasions.
OCTOBER is Computer Learning Month. Purchase some printable transfer paper at an office
supply or crafts store. Print a picture on the transfer. Iron it onto a T-shirt.
NOVEMBER is Aviation History Month. Find out how the following people
contributed to the development of air and space flight: Pilâtre de Rozier and
Pierre Romain; Wilbur and Orville Wright; John Alcock and Arthur Brown;
Charles Lindbergh (right); Yuri Gagarin; Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Write
a poem to honor one or more of these individuals and their accomplishments.
DECEMBER is Write a Friend Month. Write a real letter (not an e-mail). Include the date, inside
address, salutation, body, and close. If you do not know what those are and where to put them, find out
by doing some research on how to write a letter. In the body of the letter, tell your friend what you have
been doing all year. Mail your letter in an envelope, with your friend’s address, a return address, and
the correct amount of postage. Ask your friend to respond with a similar letter, telling you about the
main events of his or her year.
All-Year Activities
AY1. Nearly every day of the year is special for some reason. For example,
January 28 is National Kazoo Day. August 6 is Wiggle Your Toes Day.
Go to www.holidayinsights.com/everyday.htm and check out the days that
interest you. Plan a party for your favorite special day, complete
with costumes, decorations, and theme-related food.
AY2. In China, years are named for animals such as the rooster,
ox, or horse in a cycle that repeats every 12 years. Find out which
animal represents the year you were born. According to Chinese
folklore, what are the characteristics of people born in that
animal year?
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ASTRONOMY
AS1. On a Styrofoam ball, use markers (green for landmasses and blue for bodies of
water) to make a globe that looks like Earth. Into the area that is the South
Pole, insert a pencil representing Earth’s axis. Find where you live on the globe
and stick a pin into the ball to mark it. Remove the shade from a lamp and, using
a low-watt light bulb for the Sun, position the ball in ways that demonstrate how
Earth’s tilt and its annual journey around the Sun explain the seasons in the
Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
AS2. Get scientific. Design and conduct an experiment to show that the angle at which light
strikes a surface affects how warm the surface becomes. (Want some help? Put a thermometer on
a white piece of paper. Shine a desk lamp straight down on it. Wait five minutes and read the temperature. Repeat, with the lamp at an angle. The temperature is greater when the angle is 90 degrees.)
AS3. Right here on Earth, you can demonstrate how the relative positions of the Sun and Earth
change throughout the year. In a sunny spot, place a tall stake or pole in the ground. At the same
time daily or weekly, use string and tent pegs to mark the direction and length of the stake’s shadow.
Label the date for each string. Take photographs or make drawings to show your results.
AS4. Make a poster to show how the relative positions of the Sun, Earth, and Moon
produce the phases of the Moon. Use the terms full, new, gibbous, quarter, crescent,
waxing, and waning to label the phases.
AS5. Get the most from your digital camera. Learn how to take pictures at night.
Then take pictures of the Moon in its different phases. Make a scrapbook or
download the images into your computer with dates, times, and phases clearly identified.
AS6. Get some Sunprint paper and use it to capture images of everyday objects. The paper
changes color when exposed to light. Objects that block light prevent a chemical change on the paper,
making interesting patterns. Sunprint paper is sometimes available in hobby or craft shops, or you can
order it from many online sources.
AS7. Make a diorama box of an “Astronomers Hall of Fame.” Find out about five famous
astronomers who contributed a lot to their
science. Draw their pictures on stiff
cardboard and mount them inside the box
to resemble a miniature museum with statues. Write a
“Self-Tour Guide for Visitors,” telling something important
about each astronomer.
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AS8. Using a file box and index cards, make a “Comet Factoid File.” If you have PowerPoint on your
computer, use it to make a presentation of the info in your “Comet Factoid File.”
Here are some facts to get you started:
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A comet’s tail gets longer when the comet is close to the Sun.
■
A comet has two tails. One, which is made of dust, is white.
The other, made of ionized gas, is blue.
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Some comets are “short-period” comets. They take five to ten years to complete an orbit
around the Sun. Some comets are “long-period” comets. Their orbital journey can take tens,
hundreds, even thousands of years.
AS9. Comets can have interesting or unusual names. In your library or on the Internet, research these
comets: Halley, Shoemaker-Levy, Hyakutake, Hale-Bopp, Comet Wild 2, and ChuryumovGerasimenko. Find out what is special about them and how they got their names. Use your findings
to build a board game where players win because of their superior knowledge of comets.
AS10. Try to understand both sides of an issue. Write two “letters to the editor.” Argue in one that
Pluto is a planet. Argue in the other that it’s not. Show the letters to classmates, friends, and family
members. Ask which argument they find more convincing.
AS11. If you could place Saturn in a gigantic pool of water, it would float. Experiment with objects
around your home to find those that, like Saturn, are less dense than water. Want to do more?
Extend your project by researching a way to calculate the density of objects. Compare your calculated
density to Saturn’s density of about 0.7g/cm3.
AS12. Saturn’s magnetic field is stronger than Earth’s. To determine
the strength of different magnets, get some horseshoe and bar
magnets from a hobby shop, toy store, or craft supply center. Use steel
paper clips to compare the strength of the magnets. (Hint: The more
paper clips a magnet can pick up and hold, the stronger it is.) Make a bar
graph of your results.
AS13. Today, our Sun is a yellow dwarf star. Five billion years from now, it will
grow to become a red giant. As it dies, it will cast off its outer layers. Its core
will be a white dwarf. Slowly, its light will fade until it becomes a black dwarf.
Find out about the different colors and sizes of stars and how they are
classified. Make a poster or booklet about what you learn. Write a science
fiction story or a play about Earth’s citizens facing the death of the Sun
5 billion years from now.
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AS14. Sunspots affect the Earth in 11-year cycles. They disrupt power grids and interfere with radio
transmissions. Explore the definition, history, and modern research on sunspots. San Francisco’s
Exploratorium Web site, www.exploratorium.edu/sunspots/index.html, is a good place to start.
Find out what cycle we are in, what direction it is going (up or down), and what effect it could
have on Earth.
AS15. Experiment to see how the size of a meteorite or the speed of its fall affects the size of
the crater it makes. Put a thick layer of flour in a shallow metal pan. One at a time, drop metal ball
bearings of different sizes from different heights. (The farther the bearing falls, the faster it is going
when it hits.) In every trial, use a meter- or yardstick to measure the height of the drop. Use string to
measure the circumferences of the bearings. Use a magnet to carefully pull your “meteors” from their
craters. Measure the diameter and depth of the craters. Make a table of your data and a graph of your
results. State your conclusion in mathematical terms.
AS16. The planet Mercury is named for the Roman god of the same name. It’s an apt name because
Mercury was the swiftest of all the Roman gods, and the planet Mercury moves around the Sun in less
time than any of the other planets take. Find what other planets, stars, and
constellations are named after gods and goddesses from Greek and
Roman mythology. Try to find a reason why each name is appropriate.
Make a wall chart of your findings.
AS17. Use a star chart to find the sizes and relative positions of
the stars in some of the major constellations such as Orion or Ursa
Major. Punch holes in black construction paper to make the same pattern.
Put the paper over a lamp to project the constellation on a ceiling in your house.
AS18. Invent an imaginary constellation name, such as the Bucking Bronco or the Bicycle.
At night, find a pattern of stars you think fits the name. Make a drawing or take a picture. Punch
holes in black construction paper to make the same pattern. Put the paper over a lamp to project the
constellation on a ceiling in your house. Explain why the stars and the name you made up are a
good match.
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IN THE GARDEN
G1. The dandelion is an invasive species. Such foreign intruders are so
successful that they force out the species native to a region. Contact
your state department of agriculture to find out which plants are
native in your area and which are invasive. Make a poster showing
both types. On your poster, show people what they can do to preserve
native species and combat invaders.
G2. Make dandelion salad. Combine 1⁄ 2 pound washed and torn
young dandelion greens (picked from a clean, safe place or purchased at
a grocery store) with one-half of a chopped onion, 1⁄ 4 cup chopped green pepper, and
six sliced cherry tomatoes. Toss with a little oil and vinegar, plus salt, pepper, and fresh basil to taste.
G3. Design and carry out a scientific experiment to find out whether the number of seeds that
remain on a dandelion head after it’s been blown on three times predicts the
correct hour of the day. Put your data in a table. Write what you did and what
you found in the form of a scientific paper, with separate sections for your
hypothesis, materials, procedures, data, results, and conclusions.
G4. Make temporary play jewelry from dandelions. Pick flowers with
long stems. Tie the stems together in loops to make chains of flowers. Make
short chains for bracelets. Make long chains for necklaces or belts.
G5. The seeds of dandelions are dispersed parachute-style. Find out about other methods of seed
dispersal. Collect seeds from a variety of plants and make a catalog of seed-spreading strategies, with
examples.
G6. Find a flower in your yard or in a park and give it a name, based on your first impression
of it. In a notebook, draw a picture or tape a photo of the flower and write a short essay about why you
invented the name. Invent a word for the phobia that means fear of that plant. Collect flowers
throughout the season, until you have a “bouquet” of pictures and invented words.
G7. Grow your own cactus garden. Visit a garden center to obtain a shallow
planter, sandy soil, and tiny cacti. Plant your cacti (watch those spines!) and water
it sparingly. Use photographs or drawings to record the growth of your cactus
garden over the months that follow.
G8. Save the shells of the eggs that your family uses in cooking, and the cartons that
they come in. Use the shells to start some vegetable or flower seedlings. Put eggshell halves in
egg cartons. Fill the eggshells with soil and plant two or three seeds in each one. Put the carton in a
sunny window and water to keep the soil moist but not too wet. After your seedlings have sprouted
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and grown about 2 inches tall, carefully cut or remove the smallest seedlings, leaving only one strong
one in each shell. Then lift the shells from the carton and transplant your tiny plants—shell and all—
into pots or your outdoor garden.
G9. Place four dried beans in a small bowl of water and soak them
overnight. While the beans are soaking, place a horizontal row of staples close
together across a plastic sandwich bag, about 1 inch up from the bottom. The
next day, place the wet beans into the bag so that they rest on the staples. Add
fresh water to the bag until its level comes to just below the staples. Do not seal
the bag. Tack the open bag to a bulletin board or tape the bag to a windowsill so that it hangs
down over the edge. Add water whenever the level gets low. Watch as the beans sprout roots, stems,
and leaves. Keep day-to-day records with drawings or photographs. (Hint: If your beans start to smell,
your seeds are too wet. Discard and start again, making sure you have enough air flow inside the bag.)
G10. Put some dried beans inside a baby bottle, clean milk carton, soft drink can, or 35-mm film
canister. Use the percussion instrument you have created to play rhythms.
G11. Fill a clean jelly jar with dried beans. Hold a contest to see who can guess the number of
beans in the jar. Give the winner the jar along with a recipe for bean soup.
G12. Grow your own avocado tree. Remove the pit from an avocado. Rinse it well and dry it with
a paper towel. Carefully push a toothpick about 1⁄ 2-inch deep into the widest part of
the pit. Go one-third of the way around the pit and push in another toothpick. Put
the third toothpick one-third of the way around again. Fill a glass with water
almost to the top. Rest the toothpicks on the rim of the glass, keeping the bottom
(largest end) of the pit in water at all times. Place the glass in a sunny spot.
In three to six weeks, a sprout will emerge from the top of the pit. Roots will
begin to grow at the bottom. When your avocado tree is about 6 inches tall,
transfer it to a large pot filled with potting soil. If you live in a warm climate,
plant the avocado outdoors.
You can use the same technique to grow a sweet
potato. Choose a whole one that shows signs of
sprouting or has several eyespots. Insert toothpicks
and continue in the same fashion.
G13. Grow lemon, grapefruit, or orange trees from the seeds in the
fruit. Take the seeds directly from your fruit and plant them about 1⁄ 4-inch
deep in good potting soil. Keep the soil moist but not soaking. Be patient.
Citrus seeds can take a long time to sprout, but eventually you may be
rewarded with tiny trees that bear shiny, dark green leaves. If you live in
California or Florida, perhaps you can plant your tree outdoors.
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G14. Use a turnip to make a block print. Ask an adult to cut a turnip in half for you. Use a pencil
to scratch a simple design in one of the flat, cut sides. Using a small spoon, scoop out the background
behind your design. (Only the raised parts of the turnip will print.) Dip the flat side of the turnip into
tempera or fabric paints. Press the turnip gently onto paper or white cotton muslin.
G15. Does popcorn weigh more before or after it is popped? Design and
carry out a careful, scientific investigation to answer that question.
G16. Make a doll from cornhusks. Dry fresh cornhusks in the sun for two to
three days, or until they become dry and brittle. Soak them in warm water for 15
minutes to make them pliable again. Trim the husks to the lengths you want. Fold
over bundles of several husks for the head and body. Using the fold as the top of the head,
tie one piece of string where the doll’s neck would be and another at the waist. Fashion arms from
rolled or braided husks. Make hair from corn silk or yarn. Make clothes from more husks or from bits
of paper or fabric. Paint features on your doll with a brush or colored markers.
G17. Make a watermelon vase. For safety, ask an adult to help you cut the watermelon. Remove a
thin slice from one pointed end of a watermelon so that the melon stands up straight like a vase. Take
care to cut only the green rind, not the pink flesh. Cut a larger slice off the other end; it will be the top
of your vase. Remove all the watermelon flesh and enjoy it for snacks or salads. Carve designs into the
outside of the remaining rind, being careful not to cut through. You don’t want holes in your vase. Fit a
plastic bag inside the vase. Hold the bag at the top while you fill it with
water, so that it doesn’t slide down inside the vase. Add flowers in an
attractive arrangement.
G18. Organize your own watermelon seed-spitting contest (see
page 61). Put a piece of colored tape or rope on the ground to mark the
starting line. Use a flexible, metal carpenter’s tape to measure distances.
Give watermelons as prizes for those who can spit the farthest.
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ON THE FARM
F1. Sheep are ruminants. Like cows, they have four separate chambers in their stomachs from which
they regurgitate and rechew their food, or cud. Find a diagram of the stomach structure of a
ruminant. Copy it onto a poster and write an explanation of how it works. You might show also how
the stomachs of nonruminants (having only one chamber, like people and dogs) and
pseudo-ruminants (having three chambers, like llamas) differ.
F2. Many different types of yarns are made from wool. Purchase skeins of
three or more types of yarn. Measure a 10-yard length of each type. Roll the
yarns into tight balls. Weigh each ball on a diet scale. Which has the
greatest mass per yard?
F3. Make your own ricotta cheese. Get an adult to help with the cooking.
Boiling milk can burn you. In a large pot, heat 1 quart of whole milk until it
nearly boils. (You will see a few small bubbles starting to rise.) Add 11⁄ 2 tablespoons of any vinegar.
Stir the mixture and remove it immediately from the heat. Cover and let stand for 20 minutes. Check
under the cover. A thick curd should be floating on top of a clear solution, which is called the whey.
Line a sieve with a piece of cheesecloth and pour the mixture through it, running the liquid into the
kitchen sink. The curds that remain in the cheesecloth are a delicious, nutritious, and inexpensive soft
ricotta cheese.
F4. Test wool and other types of fabrics to find which can hold the
most water. Be sure to control all conditions, keeping fabric samples the
same size and wetting conditions always the same. Report your findings
in the form of a science project: hypothesis, materials, procedures, data,
results, and conclusions. Expand your investigation by testing and
comparing the insulating abilities of wool and other fibers when they are
wet. (Hint: The better an insulator, the less heat it allows to escape into the
air.) One way to find out is to wrap insulating materials around aluminum
soft drink cans. Leave one can unwrapped; it is your control. Fill the cans with equal amounts of hot
water. Put in thermometers and seal around the holes with modeling clay. Record the temperature in
each can every five minutes. The better the insulator, the higher the temperature of the water will be
after 30 minutes.
F5. Find out how the Percheron, Belgian, and Clydesdale
horses got their names. Write your own version of a presi-
dential proclamation, making a date of your choice National
Draft Horse Day. In your proclamation, tell why draft horses
are special and why they are being honored with a national day
of celebration.
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F6. Find out why horseshoes are hung over doors for good luck. Write a short story in which a
good luck horseshoe is important to the plot.
F7. Write a script for a one-act play involving two characters: one a human and one a horse.
Have the horse play its part by using body language alone to show its responses—whether startled,
happy, interested, or mad.
F8. The pitch of a sound is measured by its
Species
frequency (in a unit called the hertz, which is
written as “Hz”). The higher the frequency (or the
greater the number of hertz), the higher the pitch.
cat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45–64,000
chicken. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125–2,000
dog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67–45,000
elephant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16–12,000
horse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55–33,500
human . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64–23,000
mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000–91,000
porpoise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75–150,000
sheep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100–30,000
This table shows the frequency range of
hearing of several different animals. Make a
bar graph to compare them. Tell which animal
is best at hearing low-pitched sounds. Which is
better with high–pitched sounds? Which do you
think has the best hearing? The poorest? Why?
Approximate Range (Hz)
F9. Stretch your imagination with the “Animal Crosses
Game.” Make up names for impossible crosses between
animals. A cross between a dolphin and a rabbit might be
called a dolbit. Or a cross between a pigeon and a turkey
might be named a pigerkey.
F10. Find the average number of seeds contained in
different types of fruits and compare them. Make graphs of your data and
report your findings in the form of a newspaper article with the banner headline, “Fruit X
Contains More Seeds Than All Others, Researchers Find!”
F11. Make your own dried apples. Get an adult’s help. A kitchen knife can cut you and a hot oven
can burn you. Preheat the oven to 115°F. Wash, peel, and core some apples. Cut them into slices about
1
⁄ 4-inch thick. Rinse them in a solution of 1 quart water mixed with 1⁄ 4 cup lemon juice. (The lemon
juice will keep your apples from turning brown.) Place the slices in a single layer on an ungreased
cookie sheet. Put the sheet into the oven for 3 to 4 hours. Turn the slices and return them to the oven
for another 3 to 4 hours. Cool and enjoy as snacks or in recipes.
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WEATHER
W1. The English sonnet is a poem of 14 lines and four stanzas, with the end
words in the lines rhyming in this pattern: abab cdcd efef gg. Sonnets are often
composed as love poems. Write yours about how much you love the
rain man, Charles Mallory Hatfield (see pages 78–79), or rain.
W2. Using the tune of “Bah, Bah, Black Sheep,” write and sing a song that honors ice scientist
Irving Langmuir (see pages 79–80). Include in your lyrics information on what Langmuir did and
how his experiment turned out.
W3. Make a weather instrument that will tell you a lot about the wind’s speed and direction.
Cut six thin crepe paper streamers about 2 feet long. Staple or glue them along the edge at one end of
a paper plate. Punch two holes in the opposite edge of the plate and run a string through them. Use
the string to hang the plate in a breezy spot. Watch what happens when the wind blows.
W4. A record 1.64 inches of rain fell on Phoenix on June 11, 1972. Use
Almanac.com/weathercenter to find local weather history for your community
and note the dates on a wall calendar.
W5. Make a cloud in a jar. Caution: Matches are dangerous. Have an adult help you.
Prepare and seal a zip-top bag half full of ice. Tape a piece of black paper to a glass jar,
wrapping about one-half of it. (A pickle jar works well.) The paper will help you see your
cloud. Fill the jar about one-third full of warm water. Light a match and hold it inside the jar
for a few seconds; then drop it into the water. Set the bag of ice on top of the jar. Shine a
flashlight into the jar to see the cloud. Try to explain what the cloud is, where it came from,
why it formed, and why you needed the match.
W6. Do the weather forecasters get it right? Check the daily weather forecasts
in The Old Farmer’s Almanac and your local newspaper, or find them
online. Then record the daily weather you actually experience. Do
this every day for one month. Calculate the percentage of days that the
Almanac and the forecasters were right.
W7. Conduct an experiment. Every day for one week, at the same time
of day, place an ice cube in the same spot outdoors. (Make sure that each ice
cube is exactly the same size.) Record the time required for the cube to melt
completely. Compare melt times to the temperature on an outdoor thermometer.
Make side-by-side line graphs of melt times and outdoor temperatures. Is melting
time a good gauge of temperature?
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W8. Make your own herbarium. Put fresh leaves and flowers between two
sheets of wax paper. Press the sheets between the pages of a large book until
the plants are dry. The drying time will depend on your climate and the types
of plant you press, but usually about a week is enough. Glue your dried
specimens to construction paper. Protect your “botanical mounts” with clear
plastic sheet protectors. Place them in a three-ring binder. Do some research
to find the common names and scientific names of your specimens. Write
the names on the pages.
W9. Set up your own weather station equipped with homemade weather instruments. An
olive jar makes a great rain gauge. A flag on a pole reveals wind direction. Measure wind speed by
building your own anemometer. You’ll find construction techniques and tips on many Web sites and
in books at your local library.
W10. The average radius of a water droplet in a cloud is 10 micrometers.
The radius of a raindrop is 1,000 micrometers. (A micrometer is one
millionth of a meter.) How many water droplets make one raindrop?
To find the answer, use the formula for the volume of a sphere: ␲r 3/3,
where ␲(pi) is approximately 3.14 and r is the radius of the droplet.
[The answer is 1 million.] By the way, a small cumulus cloud weighs
more than a fully loaded 747—about 500 metric tons!
W11. Learn more about the Dust Bowl era. Beginning readers will
appreciate Richard Levey’s Dust Bowl! The 1930s Black Blizzards (from
the X-Treme Disasters That Changed America Series, Bearport, 2005).
Older children may choose Dust to Eat: Drought and Depression in the
1930s by Michael L. Cooper (Houghton Mifflin, 2004).
W12. Demonstrate how drought can lead to Dust Bowl conditions.
Sift equal amounts of fine, sandy soil into thin layers on two cookie sheets.
Do this outdoors (so that you don’t make a mess), and let the soil samples
dry in the sunlight. Next, spray one sample lightly with a mist of water
from a spray bottle. Leave the other one dry. Then, blow gently on the soil
samples from the side. Observe and explain differences.
W13. To measure the amount of particulate matter (dust) in the air,
attach several rows of double-sided tape to index cards. Tack the cards to
the tops of fence posts, mailboxes, windowsills, or paving stones—any
surface where you think dust will settle. After a period of time, retrieve the
cards and compare them, using a magnifying glass. Rate the relative
amounts of dust on a scale from 0 (no dust) to 10 (a massive amount of
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dust). If you have a microscope, you can quantify (get numbers) for your results.
Carefully remove the double-stick tape from the card and place on a glass
microscope slide. Count the number of particles you see in each of five
microscopic fields from each sample. Find the average per field. Graph and
compare the averages.
W14. Write, edit, and publish an issue of the Woolly Bear Daily News.
Interview a weather expert for the front-page story. Report the expert’s opinion
about whether woolly bears can predict the weather. Write and illustrate
“A Day in the Life of a Woolly Bear” for the magazine section. Show woolly bear coats on the fashion
pages. Don’t forget the comics, crossword puzzle, and horoscope.
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NATURE
N1. Outdoors, where spilled water won’t do any damage, make a model of a tsunami. Inflate and
tie off a balloon. Fill a large dishpan with water. Hold the balloon under the water. Wait for the water to
settle, and then burst the balloon with a pin. The wave you see is much like the tsunami wave produced
by an undersea earthquake or volcanic eruption. What happens at the sides of the pan? How is this like
the action of a tsunami on a coast?
N2. The position of the Moon relative to Earth and the Sun has a big effect on
ocean tides. If you live near the ocean, get a tide table or get the tide times at
Almanac.com. Find out when the neap (strong) tides and spring (weak)
tides occur in your area. Make drawings to relate the position of the Moon
to these variations in tidal strength.
N3. Decorate mirror frames or picture frames with seashells and glue.
If you collect the shells from the beach, make sure you wash and dry them
thoroughly before gluing. Ask an adult to drill some small holes in some shells
so that you can make necklaces and outdoor wind chimes with them.
N4. Make a beachfront landscape in a jar. Roll some fine, white sand with different colors of
chalk. The chalk will color the sand. Keep the colors separate. Put layers of different colors of sand
into a jar until it is full. Poke a pencil down along the inside of the jar to make peaks and valleys. Seal
the jar, glue a shell onto the lid, and you have a great paperweight for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.
N5. Build a bird feeder. Remove the label from a clean, dry, 2-liter soda
bottle, with a cap. Ask an adult to drill two small holes in the bottom of the
bottle. Thread a piece of cord or wire through the holes and tie a knot to make
a hanger for the feeder. Seal the holes around the cord with hot glue so rain
can’t get in. (The bottle will hang upside down.) Make perches for the birds by
drilling holes in opposite sides of the bottle and pushing small dowels all the
way through. If necessary, seal the holes around the dowels with hot glue (ask
an adult to help). Drill small holes an inch or two above each perch so that the
birds can peck and get the seeds. Fill the bottle with birdseed and screw on the
bottle cap. Hang your feeder and enjoy watching the birds that visit it.
N6. Do some research about spiders. Find a species that interests you and study the colors and
designs of the spider’s markings. Then make a paper spider that is colored the same way. Cut eight
long, skinny strips from a sheet of white construction paper. Color the legs to match your spider’s
true colors. Accordion-pleat the strips: Fold them back and forth in opposite directions in 1⁄ 2-inch
segments. Paint a white paper plate in the same colors as the real spider’s body. Glue the eight legs to
the edge of the plate, four on each side. Tape an elastic thread to the center of the plate. Tie your
spider in a tree or hang it from the ceiling in your bedroom.
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N7. Make spider treats you can eat. Get an adult to help you to make cupcakes, following the
directions on a package of devil’s food cake mix. When the cupcakes are cool, remove the paper
liners from the cupcakes and stick eight strings of black licorice into the sides. Use white frosting
to make eyes for your spider cupcakes and draw webs on their backs.
N8. Spiderwebs are often classified into three categories: orb, sheet, or spatial. Find out what these
terms mean. Then take photographs and collect pictures of spiderwebs. Organize them into the
three groups. Make a poster or scrapbook to show what you’ve learned.
N9. Learn how to build a bat house at
www.batconservation.org/content/buildyourown.htm
Visit the home page of the Organization for Bat Conservation
www.batconservation.org to find out how you can help
protect bats worldwide.
N10. Find the names of ten or more species of bats. (Nearly a
thousand are known!) Fit them into a crossword or word search puzzle,
or make them into anagrams. Trade puzzles with neighborhood friends or classmates at school.
N11. Hold an essay contest, using a panel of adults as judges. See which contestant can write
the most humorous essay about toads. The more specifics and the more laughs, the more likely the
essay is to win. Publish all the essays in a book for friends, family, and classmates to share.
N12. Squirrels and mice aren’t the only hibernators. Read
about some others in Why Do Bears Sleep All Winter? A Book
About Hibernation by Mary Englar (Capstone, 2007); Hibernation
by Anita Ganeri (Heinemann, 2005); or Animals Hibernating: How
Animals Survive Extreme Conditions by Pamela Hickman and Pat
Stephens (Kids Can Press, 2005).
N13. Demonstrate why it’s smart for animals to cuddle in the
cold. You’ll need seven clean, empty,
aluminum soft drink cans with the pull-tabs removed. You’ll also need a
large rubber band, modeling clay, two thermometers, and some hot water.
Here’s what to do: Cluster six of the cans together with the rubber band
around them. Leave the seventh can as a single. Fill all of the cans with hot
water. Put a thermometer in the hole of the single can. Put another
thermometer in the hole of the can in the center of the cluster. Seal all of
the holes with modeling clay, including the cans with the thermometers.
Every ten minutes for one hour, read and compare the temperatures in
the cans. What conclusion can you draw?
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N14. Test to see which materials make the best insulators. Cover clean, empty, aluminum soft
drink cans with materials you want to test. You might try wool, felt, cotton, paper towels, aluminum
foil, bubble wrap, and more. Use rubber bands to hold the insulation material in place. Add an equal
amount of hot water to each can and put a thermometer in each can. Seal the holes around the
thermometers with modeling clay. Every ten minutes for one hour, read and record the temperature
of the water inside the can. Which material holds in heat the best?
N15. Find and take a picture of an animal track. Use a computer or
photocopy machine to transfer the picture to fabric or to canvas-textured
paper. (You’ll find photo-transfer fabric and textured papers in office
supply stores.) Sew or glue the picture onto a pillow form or frame it to
make unique work of art to display in your room.
N16. Find out what a dichotomous key is. Then construct one to use in
identifying animal tracks. These facts will help you get started:
■
Tracks that have four toes with claw marks both front and rear belong to members of
the dog family (dogs, wolves, foxes, and coyotes).
■
Four-toed tracks without claws belong to members of the cat family (bobcats, lynxes,
mountain lions, house cats).
■
Four-toed tracks with back feet much bigger than the front feet belong to rabbits.
■
Tracks that have four toes on the front foot and five on the back belong to rodents (mice,
rats, chipmunks, squirrels, woodchucks, beavers, and muskrats).
■
Clawed, five-toed tracks in both front and rear belong to members of the weasel family
(skunks, otters, badgers, minks, weasels, and wolverines).
■
Clawed, five-toed tracks that look like a human foot or hand were probably made by a
bear, raccoon, or opossum.
■
Hoofed animals such as deer, cows, moose, sheep, and mountain goats make prints that have
two large, crescent shaped “toes” side by side.
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HISTORY
H1. A eulogy is a speech that honors a person after death. Write and deliver a eulogy for one of the
leaders of the Donner Party (see pages 112–115). Do some research on the person you choose so
that you’ll have good things to say about his character and achievements.
H2. Find out about the routes that America’s pioneers followed as they
moved westward in the 18th and 19th centuries. Some trail names to research
include California, Oregon, Santa Fe, Mormon, Applegate, Gila, Bozeman, and
Denver. On a large map of the modern-day United States, trace each trail’s
route and label its name. Color-code the trails for ease in telling them apart.
H3. Most of America’s westward-moving pioneers walked or rode horses, but
some used Conestoga wagons to carry themselves and their household goods. The
wagons were named after the Conestoga River Valley in Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
where they were first made. According to the National Park Service, the Conestoga,
also known as a Turnpike Freighter, averaged 17 to 19 feet in length (22 feet in length, including a
canvas bonnet) and 11 feet in height, and weighed about 3,500 pounds. It could carry 6 to 10 tons of
cargo. Find pictures and plans for a Conestoga wagon and build a scale model from cardboard,
balsa wood, glue, string, and plain muslin fabric.
H4. Use fingers cut from old gloves to make finger puppets. Create and perform a puppet play to
tell the story of the Donner Party. Include George Donner, Jacob Donner, and James Frazier Reed as
puppets. Others can be pioneers who followed them west.
H5. Write a cinquain poem about gold, following these rules:
Line 1: One word (a noun) names the subject of the verse. (Your first line will be “Gold.”)
Line 2: Two words (adjectives) describe the subject.
Line 3: Three words (verbs) describe the subject’s actions.
Line 4: Four words give the writer’s opinion of the subject.
Line 5: One word (a noun) offers another name for the subject.
H6. Renovators of the Smith House restaurant in Dahlonega, Georgia,
discovered a fortune they didn’t know was there. Hide some small
treasure in a place where you think your friends won’t find it. Draw
a map to the treasure, and challenge your friends to discover the
“fortune” you’ve hidden.
H7. West Virginia had the first sales tax in the United States. Find a
“money first” for your state. Write a poem or song about it. Here are a
few hints, if you’re stuck: Every state has recently received—or will soon have—its own quarter. State
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centennials have been honored on stamps of different monetary values in different years. Every state
has a year when it first enacted or abolished some tax. Then there are things like the first bank, first ATM,
first or famous robberies, record-breaking lottery wins, lost treasures discovered, and the like.
H8. Invent a tongue twister using m words with money or g words with green.
Examples: Money-mad morons marvel at the mint. Or, Greedy, grubbing gadabouts
gather to gaze at greenbacks.
H9. Visit www.secretservice.gov/money_detect.shtml to learn about ways to tell
counterfeit money from the real thing. Get a magnifying glass and a dollar bill.
Examine the bill, looking for the features explained on the Web site. Can you tell if
your bill is real or fake?
H10. Have a teddy bear party. Put pictures of Teddy Roosevelt on the invitations. Decorate with
old Smokey posters. Serve teddy-bear-shape graham crackers and “bear-y” smoothies made from
“straw-bear-ies” and milk. Wear teddy bear hats. Make a teddy bear piñata for friends to break open.
Give tiny stuffed teddy bears as favors.
H11. Make your own strawberry ice cream. In a quart-size zip-top bag, mix
1 tablespoon sugar, 1⁄ 2 cup half-and-half, 1⁄ 4 teaspoon vanilla, and two chopped
strawberries. Seal the bag. In a gallon-size zip-top bag, mix 6 tablespoons of rock
salt with enough ice to fill the bag about halfway. Put the small bag inside the
bigger one. Seal. Shake for five minutes or longer until you see solid ice cream
form inside the small bag. Open, eat, and enjoy!
Go to Almanac.com/food/icecream.php to find recipes for brown cows
and other ice cream treats.
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Brown Cows and Other Ice Cream Treats
Did you know that ice cream drinks vary by name depending on where
you are. But no matter what you call them, these easy-to-make soda
fountain recipes will keep you cool on the next hot summer day!
Milkshake
Usually made with ice cream, milk, and flavored syrup. (In Boston,
Massachusetts, these are called “frappes”; In Rhode Island, “cabinets.”)
Recipe:
Double Chocolate Milkshake
4 scoops chocolate ice cream
1 1/2 cups milk
4 tbs. Chocolate syrup
Combine all ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth. Pour into a tall glass. Makes about 2 servings.
Malted milkshake
A milkshake with added malt powder to give it extra flavor, similar to the inside of a malted milk ball
Recipe:
Chocolate Malted Milkshake
Use the recipe above and add 2 tablespoons malted mix powder to the blender.
Ice cream sodas
Ice cream, flavored syrup, and unflavored soda water or seltzer
Recipe:
Strawberry Ice Cream Soda
1/4 cup strawberry syrup
3 small scoops strawberry ice cream
3/4 cup seltzer water
whipped cream, optional
In the bottom of a tall glass, stir together the strawberry syrup, 1 small scoop of ice cream, and about 2
tablespoons of soda until blended. Add the remaining ice cream and enough soda water to fill the glass.
Top with whip cream, optional. Makes about 1 serving.
Recipe:
Black and White Ice Cream Soda
2 tbs. chocolate syrup
3/4 cup seltzer water
3 small scoops vanilla ice cream
Follow the directions for the Strawberry Ice Cream Soda, substituting chocolate syrup and vanilla ice
cream for the strawberry syrup and ice cream.
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Ice cream floats
Carbonated soda with ice cream
Two favorites are the Brown cow aka Root Beer Float (root beer with a scoop of vanilla ice cream) and
black cow (Coca-Cola with a scoop of vanilla ice cream).
Brown Cow
About 1 cup cold root beer
3 small scoops of vanilla ice cream
Fill a tall glass about half full with root beer. Add 2 scoops of ice cream and about 1/4 cup more root
beer. Add another scoop of ice cream and enough root beer to fill the glass. Makes 1 serving.
Black Cow: Follow directions for a Brown Cow, substituting Coca-Cola for root beer.
Egg creams
Once popular fare in New York City soda fountains, these concoctions do not contain any eggs. They
are made with milk, seltzer water, and chocolate syrup. They get their name from the frothy topping
formed by the combination of the seltzer water with the other ingredients.
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AMUSEMENT
A1. Have your friends use finger paints to make prints of their left hands. Cut out
the handprints and paste them into a collage titled “Deft Lefts.”
A2. Have a friend hold a yardstick in front of you. Sit comfortably
with your thumb and index finger at the 0 (zero) mark on the
yardstick, without touching the stick. When your friend drops the
stick, catch it as quickly as you can between those fingers. Write
down the inch number where your fingers catch the stick. Do this
three times with your dominant hand (the one you use most). Average
your results. Repeat with your nondominant hand. This experiment measures your response time,
or how quickly you can act. Can you act more quickly with your dominant hand?
A3. Use a questionnaire to find out which hand your friends prefer for activities such as writing,
drawing, throwing a ball, batting, sewing, unscrewing a lid, cutting with scissors, and brushing teeth.
Are some people ambidextrous (able to use both hands equally well)? Make a bar graph of your
questionnaire results.
A4. Design a tool for a lefthander. Possibilities for new designs include scissors, a mug, a computer
keyboard, a pencil sharpener, and a can opener. Make a drawing of your design or build a model.
A5. Cut ten strips of paper, all the same size (using two pieces of 81⁄ 2x11-inch paper, they
would be about 11⁄2 inches wide by 11 inches long). On each one, write an activity you do
with your dominant hand. You might write such things as “eat soup with a
spoon,” “throw a baseball,” or “comb my hair.” Glue the ends of one strip
into a loop. Thread another strip through the first one and glue its ends
together to make the second loop in a chain. Keep looping and gluing until
you have made a chain ten links long. Every day for ten days, tear off one link
and read the activity on it. For that day, try doing the activity with your nondominant
hand. Is it hard? Does it get easier with practice?
A6. Write your own “Mind Manglers” like those on page 133. Create puns,
number puzzles, silly riddles, and word games. Need inspiration?
Check out the riddles at www.azkidsnet.com/riddles.htm and
“Jokes and Trivia” at www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/jokes.htm.
A7. Use a star map to find in the night sky the constellations that lend
their names to the astrological signs.
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The Old Farmer’s Almanac for Kids • VOLUME 2
A8. A mnemonic is a series of words or letters that aids memory. (For example, “Camels often sit
down carefully” helps earth scientists remember the oldest periods of
geologic time, in order: Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian,
Carboniferous. The first letters of the words are the same as the first
letters of the periods.) Invent a mnemonic for remembering the signs
of the zodiac in order: Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer,
Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, and Capricorn. (Some people like
to collect mnemonics. It’s a hobby you might enjoy, too.)
A9. Every day for one week, keep a diary of things that happen
that day and how you feel about them. After you have written everything
down, read your daily horoscope in a newspaper. Was the astrological
prediction correct? Be skeptical! Don’t “spin” the facts to fit your horoscope. When were you born?
See if your personality matches our birthday lore characteristics at Almanac.com/birthday.
A10. The symbols below are often used to represent the signs of the zodiac. Set up a code that uses
these symbols and write a secret message. For example, if c equals C, T equals A, and 7 equals T,
then together they spell CAT. Your code may get complicated because you’ll have to represent several
letters with one symbol or combine two symbols to make a new form.
o
7
i
c
=
Aries
=
Taurus
=
Gemini
=
Cancer
q
r
f
m
=
Leo
=
Virgo
=
Libra
=
Scorpio
e
n
T
j
=
Sagittarius
=
Capricorn
=
Aquarius
=
Pisces
A11. Make an eggshell mosaic picture of a sign of the zodiac. Trace and enlarge a pattern from
the list in A10. Ask an adult to help you hard-boil some white-shelled eggs. Color the eggs different
colors in cups of hot water, food coloring, and a few drops of vinegar. Dry the eggs. Peel the shells
and crack them into tiny pieces. Glue the pieces, colored side up, on your paper pattern, fitting them
together in flat layers to form the design. Try making mosaics on white paper and black paper. Which
do you like best?
A12. Play a zodiac game. You’ll need 12 people. Buy 12 inexpensive
painter’s hats from a paint or hardware store. Paint the symbol of a zodiac sign
on the front of each hat. Clip a piece of paper over the zodiac signs and have
players don the hats. Then remove the paper coverings, so players can see
everyone else’s sign, but not their own. Tell everyone to mix and mingle, asking
one another questions until they figure out which sign is on each hat.
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A13. Perform this card trick: Before the show and out of anyone’s sight, put the
following eight cards on top of the deck in any order: the 3, 5, and 7 of clubs; the
6 and 9 of spades; the 3, 6, and 7 of hearts. Make sure that the cards all face in the
same direction—that is, the symbol(s) in the center face(s) one way. In front of
your audience, turn the cards face up and place them in a row on a table, keeping
the center symbols facing the same direction. Turn your back and ask a
volunteer to turn one of the cards so that it faces the opposite direction.
Then return to face your audience and point to the card that was turned.
You’ll know because its center symbol is facing in the opposite direction.
You’ll notice the difference, but your audience probably won’t. Figure out
if there are other cards that will work for this trick.
A14. Some people think that magnetic insoles relieve aching feet or that copper
bracelets cure arthritis. The effects, they say, are magic. Ask a parent, librarian, or school
media specialist to help you find solid scientific information on whether these magical remedies
actually work. Write a report about what you learn.
A15. Use this “magic trick” to amaze your friends. Ask an adult to help you. Boil some red
cabbage in a small amount of water. Save the water for your trick, and eat the cabbage for dinner. When
the water is cold, put some in a glass jar and show your friends its purplish color. Then, add a few drops
of vinegar into the water. Magically, it will turn red. Add a pinch of baking soda and its color will
change to a greenish yellow. Want to do more? Drop a red raspberry into a cup of water
that has 1⁄ 2 teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in it. Watch the berry turn purple. Do
some research online or in your library to find out why these tricks work.
A16. Organize a rope-skipping contest using the rope-jumping rhymes
on pages 141 and 142. Have friends compete to see who can jump fastest or
longest without missing. Make up your own rhymes and invent tricky
competitions for friends who can jump backward or on one foot.
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SPORTS
S1. Draw a comic strip to tell the story of Ben Franklin, the swimmer (see pages 144–146).
S2. Paint a self-portrait of you engaged in your favorite sport or recreational
activity.
S3. Make a crossword puzzle or word search puzzle from the sports terms
on page 147. Make copies of the puzzle and challenge your friends to solve it.
S4. Make a sports balloon to use when watching a big game on TV. Cut strips
of paper 1⁄ 4-inch wide and 2 inches long. Write sports records, trivia, or the
names of star players on the strips. Roll them up into tiny rolls. Put them inside
a balloon. Blow up the balloon and tie it off. At halftime, pop the balloon and
let everyone catch a paper roll. Talk about the subjects on the paper strips
during the commercials.
S5. Watch how earthworms eat their way through soil. Place alternating layers of light-colored
sand and dark-colored potting soil in a quart jar. Add 3 or 4 earthworms. Cover them with a thin layer
of rotting leaves or compose. Spray lightly with water. (Don’t drown your worms.) Place a paper towel
over the top of the jar and secure it with a rubber band. Put the jar in a dark, cool
place. Take it out every day and observe. The colored tracks will
show you where the worms have traveled.
S6. Place several earthworms on a damp paper towel in a small, shallow pan. Place them
lengthwise in the pan, so that half of them have their heads facing in one direction, half in the other
direction. Put a large book or a piece of black construction paper over one-half of the pan (not touching
the worms), so that the worms are half in the shade and half in the light. Watch what they do. Can you
explain their behavior? Don’t keep the worms out of the soil for more than 20 minutes or you will
hurt them. Return them to a grassy, moist spot as soon as you finish watching.
S7. Earthworms aren’t the only animals that live in the soil. You know about moles, pill bugs (also
known as sow bugs and roly polies), and prairie dogs but have you ever looked for tiny soil animals?
To find some, build a Berlese Funnel. Pack some soil and decaying
leaves into a funnel. Put the funnel into the open mouth of a jar.
Position a desk lamp so that its warm, bright light shines down on
the top of the funnel. Tiny animals in the soil will move down,
away from the heat and light, and fall into the jar. Use a hand lens
or magnifying glass to study the rich mix of species you
collect there.
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S8. Find out what is required to get a fishing license in your state. Read up
on the regulations. What fish are endangered or protected species? What are you
allowed to catch and keep in your area? What fish must you return to the water?
S9. In an egg carton, make a mini-museum of fish memorabilia. You might
display different types of fishing lines, hooks, or lures in each egg cup. Put
different types of fishing knots on display, too.
S10. Wilma Rudolph was the first woman to win three Olympic gold medals.
Read about her in Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became
the World’s Fastest Woman by Kathleen Krull (Harcourt
Voyager, 2000). You might also enjoy Storm Run: The
Story of the First Woman to Win the Iditarod Sled Dog Race \by Libby Riddles
(Sasquatch Books, 2001); or Sasha Cohen: Fire on Ice: Autobiography of a
Champion Figure Skater by Sasha Cohen (Avon, 2005). When you are ready
for some in-depth historical research, check out Let Me Play: The Story
of Title IX: The Law That Changed the Future of Girls in America by Karen
Blumenthal (Atheneum, 2005).
S11. Let the portrait book Superwomen: 100 Women, 100 Sports by Jodi Buren (Bulfinch, 2004)
inspire you to become a sports photojournalist. Take pictures of girls and women participating in
sports of all kinds. Capture as much of the action as you can. Write captions to accompany your photographs. Talk to the editor of your school paper or local newspaper about publishing your pictures.
S12. Champion cyclist Lance Armstrong (page 163) has a resting heart rate, or pulse, of 32 beats per
minute. The average for people under 18 is 70 to 100. The average for adults is 60 to 100. Find your
pulse. While you are sitting quietly, place the tips of your index and middle fingers (not your thumb)
on your lower neck. Don’t press too hard. Move your fingers around until you feel a
steady, rhythmic throb. Using a clock or watch with a second hand, count your pulse
beats for one minute (or for 15 seconds and multiply by four). Strong hearts and
relaxed bodies produce lower numbers. Want to do more? Calculate the maximum
rate your heart can achieve during strenuous exercise. The formula is 220 minus
your age.
S13. The Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and Museum of the American Cowboy is
in Colorado Springs, Colorado. If you can’t go there in person, visit the
“Inductees” page of the Web site (www.prorodeohalloffame.com)
and read about the best of the best in rodeo. Pick one of the rodeo riders
inducted into the hall of fame and find out everything you can about him or
her. Write a speech that details the advice you think that person would
give to young rodeo riders today.
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S14. If you have a large open area to play in, you can set up an obstacle course for bicycles.
(Be sure to wear your helmet and elbow and knee pads!) Place
garbage cans, laundry baskets, lawn chairs, a wheelbarrow, and
other obstacles on a playground or grassy field. Draw a map to
show your friends the route they should ride around the obstacles.
Compete to see who can ride the course without running into an
obstacle. Use a stopwatch to measure the fastest time.
S15. Pick your favorite sport or recreational activity.
Make a timeline of its historic milestones like the one
for bicycling on pages 158–163.
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activity guide
HEALTH
HE1. Write and illustrate a travel brochure for tourists who plan to visit the lungs. Imagine
that travelers can actually walk through the lungs and breathing tubes. Show
them—in words and pictures—the wonders of the human respiratory system.
HE2. Measure the most air you can exchange with one breath.
You need a balloon, a bucket, water, a shallow pan, and a measuring cup.
Inflate and deflate the balloon several times so that it becomes flexible.
Set the bucket in the pan. Fill the bucket to the top with water. Take as
deep a breath as you can and blow up the balloon, pushing all the air you
can out of your lungs. Tie off the balloon. Push the balloon down into the water,
using just the tip of your finger to submerge the balloon completely. Water will spill out of the bucket
into the pan. Pour the spilled water from the pan into the measuring cup. The volume of water equals the
volume of air that was expelled from your lungs. (It’s not all the air that was in your lungs because you
never empty your lungs completely.)
HE3. Make a model of your lungs. You need a 1-liter soda bottle, a plastic soda straw, two small
balloons, rubber bands, modeling clay, masking tape, and scissors. Ask an adult to slice off the bottom of
the bottle. Place the soda straw into the neck of one of the balloons. Make an airtight seal with rubber
bands. Put the balloon inside the bottle, with the soda straw coming out the neck of the bottle. Using
modeling clay, seal the soda straw in the mouth of the bottle tightly. Have no air leaks! Tie a knot in the
neck of the other balloon. Cut away its bottom half. Stretch the cut edge of the balloon across the bottom
of the bottle. Secure it snugly on the bottle with rubber bands and masking tape. The balloon at the bottom
acts like a diaphragm. The balloon inside the bottle acts like a lung. What happens when you pull on the
knot and lower the diaphragm? How is this action like breathing?
HE4. How can you grow some of the microbes that are floating around in the air? Ask an adult to
cook some “microbe food,” using this recipe: In a small pan, mix 2 packets unflavored
gelatin and 1 teaspoon sugar with 1⁄2 cup canned chicken broth and 3⁄4 cup of water.
On medium heat, bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until the gelatin dissolves.
Let the mixture cool slightly, then pour equal amounts into four small, clean,
canning jars. Cover the jars with a clean towel until the gelatin sets. When it’s
solid, remove the towel and expose the “microbe food” for a minute or two
to air in different places, such as your kitchen or garage, or a spot outdoors.
Immediately put lids on the jars and seal them tightly. Put the jars in a
warm (not too hot), dark spot. Watch as colonies of bacteria and fungi
grow on the microbe food. Do not open the jars. Some microbes
cause disease. Discard the jars and contents when your observations
are done.
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activity guide
HE5. If you play a musical instrument, compile a sheet music collection of songs
related to tears and crying. If you don’t play, make an iPod collection. Look for
such oldies-but-goodies as “Tears on My Pillow” (Little Anthony & the Imperials)
and “Tears in Heaven” (Eric Clapton). Add some country hits such as “Crying”
(Roy Orbison) and “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” (Willie Nelson). Think about the
songs’ lyrics. Feeling inspired by them or events in your life? Compose your own ballad.
HE6. National Sleep Awareness week is observed in March. Celebrate the occasion
by making a trivia game about sleep to play with your friends. You’ll find many
useful facts in 101 Questions About Sleep and Dreams That Kept You Awake Nights . . . Until Now by
Faith Hickman Brynie (Twenty-First Century Books, 2006). From it you will learn, for example:
■
why yawning is contagious
■
whether it’s possible to sleep with your eyes open
■
why kids who nap do better in school
■
what’s happening in your brain when you’re dreaming
HE7. We all have to sleep, but is all sleep the same? Find out about sleep stages and how they
differ. Do some research on the echidna, a rare Australian animal that has taught us a lot about how
and why we sleep.
HE8. Conduct an experiment on sleep and the electric light—if you have the willpower! During
summer vacation (when you don’t have to get up or go to bed at any particular time), with the lights,
TV, and other electrical devices turned on as usual, keep a sleep diary. For one week, record the time
you go to bed and the time you get up each day. Note, also, whether you wake up during the night
or experience any sleep interruptions. Now, here’s the hard part. All the next week, after dinner, turn
off the lights, computer, video games, and other electrical devices. In the evenings, read quietly by
candlelight until you feel sleepy. Again, record your bedtimes, rising times, and sleep interruptions.
Do you sleep more when the electricity is off?
HE9. Need a science fair project? Some new research suggests that sleep helps us learn.
Design and conduct a series of experiments to find out if newly learned
knowledge, or a newly acquired skill, improves after sleep. Present your
findings in the format your local science fair requires.
HE10. Draw a small picture of George Washington (right) or print one
from an Internet source. Cut it out and glue it to a Popsicle stick. Use your stick
puppet and funny voices to let George tell the story of his ill-fitting teeth (see
pages 174–176).
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HE11. George Washington’s teeth must have been brown and ugly. He didn’t have the tooth whitening
products we have today. Do these whiteners work? Experiment to
find out. Ask an adult to help hard-boil some white-shelled eggs. Stain
them by soaking them overnight in liquids such as coffee, tea, or cola.
Then try different whitening products on the eggs, following the
instructions on the package. Ask a dentist if you can borrow a tooth
color chart so that you can be accurate in your comparisons.
HE12. Identify your friends by their bite marks and maybe you can
solve a pretend “crime.” Ask an adult to cut a Styrofoam picnic plate into
six or eight equal wedges. (Use six if your friends are older and their mouths are bigger. Use eight
if the mouths you will test are small.) Cut the points off the wedges, so that the Styrofoam pieces will
fit easily into your subjects’ mouths. Stack the wedges in pairs, and ask each volunteer to bite down,
gently making an upper-teeth bite mark on the top wedge and a lower-teeth bite mark on the bottom
wedge. Write your friends’ names on the wedges, label them upper or lower, and file them for later
reference. At another time, let someone surprise you, the forensic scientist, with a bite mark on
Styrofoam collected from “a crime scene.” Can you identify the “criminal” from the bite mark?
HE13. An ode is a formal, lyrical poem that praises a person or an object. Odes are usually serious, but
they can be humorous. Write an “Ode to a Wart.” Make it so funny that people will laugh out loud
when they read it.
HE14. Take digital or film photographs of warts—your own or your friends’.
Make a photo album to show people what warts look like and how they can vary
from one person to another.
HE15. Write and sing a rap song inspired by the 16 wacky methods of
wart removal (see page 177).
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The Old Farmer’s Almanac for Kids • VOLUME 2
activity guide
USEFUL THINGS
U1. A riddle is a word game that requires a clever listener to reason or guess an answer, such as
“What did the mayonnaise say to the refrigerator?” Answer: “Close the door. I’m dressing.” Make
up other riddles about mayonnaise and put them on index cards. Have friends,
family members, or classmates do the same. Then trade the cards and try to
guess the answers.
U2. Write a poem about mayonnaise using iambic pentameter in some
of the lines. This is a classic, rhythmic pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables alternating in five pairs, like this: ho-HUM, ho-HUM, ho-HUM,
ho-HUM, ho-HUM. (To get an idea of its rhythm, sing, “Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho.
It’s home from work we go.”) Make sure your poem uses words, images, and
pacing to convince readers that mayonnaise is truly wonderful stuff.
U3. Find out if different kinds of mayonnaise are equally effective as
cleaners. Make identical crayon marks on a marker board. Clean them off with different brands of
mayonnaise, using exactly the same method every time. Compare results. Can you identify a superior
cleaning product? Repeat the process, using mayonnaise to remove stickers or labels attached firmly to
a wooden surface. Does the same brand “win”?
U4. Make a time capsule in an envelope that you’ll open after only one
year. Choose a memorable date to make it, perhaps the first day of a month
or your birthday. On a piece of paper, write the names of your favorite book,
movie, song, TV program, game, musical performer or group, color, and
sport or recreational activity. Seal the list in an envelope. Exactly one year
later, make another list of the same things. Open the envelope and compare.
How have your ideas changed? Can you think of reasons why?
U5. Make a family chart like the one on page 183. Put in pictures of your family members. Interview
family members. Ask what’s the funniest thing that has ever happened to them, the most interesting
place they’ve ever been, and the most important thing they have ever done.
Create a book titled A Treasury of My Family’s Memories to go along
with your family tree.
U6. Are you interested in your ancestors and your family’s history?
Learn more by reading a good book about genealogy. You might
enjoy Climbing Your Family Tree by Ira Wolfman (Workman, 2002) or
Through the Eyes of Your Ancestors by Maureen Taylor (Houghton Mifflin, 1999).
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U7. How accurate are the units of measurement on page 184? Find out for yourself. Choose a unit
and measure something with it. Do the math to convert to inches or feet.
Then measure the object using a rule or tape measure. How close did you
come using a “body rule”? Have a friend try the same thing. How much
difference is there between your measurement and your friend’s?
U8. Find out how the knots on page 185 got their names. Then invent
a knot of your own and give it an appropriate name.
U9. Make colcannon, a popular dish in Ireland. It’s tasty and a great way to
use leftovers. Ask an adult to help prepare the vegetables and set the oven
temperature. You’ll need 1 pound cold mashed potatoes; 1⁄ 2 pound chopped,
cooked cabbage; and a slice of cooked ham or bacon, cut into tiny pieces.
Chop 3 to 4 green onions. Mix potatoes, cabbage, meat, and onions together.
Cover the fingers of one hand with plastic wrap and use them to spread
1 tablespoon of butter or margarine on the bottom and sides of a casserole.
Spread the potato mixture in the casserole. Put it into the over and bake in a
350°F oven for 20 minutes, or until warmed through. Serve with butter and
some fresh parsley on top.
U10. Make an alphabet cookbook of international foods. Put in a picture for each letter of
the alphabet and include a recipe. You might begin with A = arroz con pollo (Spanish for “rice with
chicken”). Work your way to the Italian pasta, Z = ziti.
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