Travel to China

As part of the One World Many Stories summer reading theme this program will bring kids to China through crafts, cooking, and folktales.

The recipe we will make:

Cold Sesame Noodles (p.14 from the book Recipe and Craft Guide to China by Joanne Mattern)

1 pound thin spaghetti or lo mein noodles
3 tablespoons sesame oil
1/2 cup tahini (can use peanut butter but why not spend an extra few dollars and give kids and authentic experience)
1/2 cup vegetable broth
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup chopped peanuts or chopped green onions

1. Fill saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Cook noodles about 8-10 minutes or until just soft. Drain and add 1 tablespoon sesame oil, mix and set aside to refrigerate for 1 hour.
2. Place Tahiti, broth, soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugr in a jar with a lid. Cover and shake well. Place in fridge about 1 hour.
3. Place the cold noodles on a serving dish. Top with Tahini mixture and mix well.
4. Garnish with chopped peanuts or chopped green onions if you want to. Serves 4 people.

Bubble Tea

Ingredients:

1/2 cup chilled, cooked large tapioca pearls (if substituting smaller tapioca, use 1/3 cup, can be purchased in Asian food market)*
1 cup crushed ice
1 cup very strong chilled black tea (or orange pekoe tea or Lichee tea, try and go for decaf for kids sake!)
1 cup milk, or to taste
Honey or sugar to taste

Directions:
Place the pearls in a large clear glass. Combine all remaining ingredients in a cocktail shaker (or cans with lids so the kids can help out), and shake vigorously until the mixture is frothy.
Pour into the glass, and serve with extra-thick straws.

How To Cook Tapioca Pearls:

6 to 8 cups water (the ration is a minimum 7:1 water to tapioca pearls)
1 cup tapioca pearls
In a large pot (Make sure the pot is big enough so boiling tapioca water will not spill over) over high heat, add water and bring to a boil.
Slowly stir in the tapioca pearls so that they do not stick together (after 1 minute, the tapioca pearls should float). Reduce heat to medium and let boil, covered, for approximately 15 minutes; turn the heat off and let the tapioca pearls site, covered, for an additional 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove from heat, rinse the tapioca pearls in cold water, and drain.

NOTE: The cooking time above is a general guideline. If you shorten the cooking time, you will get chewier tapioca balls. Cook longer and you will get less elastic tapioca balls.


Crafts:

Paper Cutouts (p.37 from the book Recipe and Craft Guide to China by Joanne Mattern)
Chinese people often use paper cutouts to decorate their homes. They cut out pictures of animals, flowers, or decorative designs and tape them to windows or doors.

Materials
-Construction paper in 2 different contrasting colors
-Pencil
-Scissors
-Glue

Trace template and cut out. Glue the cutout design to a darker piece of construction paper.

Paper Tangrams

Book:
Tiki Tiki Tembo by Arlene Mosel

Cinderella Around the World Program

This is a program I am doing for grades 3-5 as part of the "One World, Many Stories" summer reading theme. I will read a couple Cinderella tales from around the world. The group will help me make a list of common elements that make these Cinderella stories. Class will be broken up into groups of three or four and will compose their own 1 page Cinderella story to read in fron of the class. Sillyness is encouraged! I will have Volunteens going around and helping each group.

* Post program note: Only had 3 of the kids show up! So instead of writing our own Cinderella story on our own we went around a circle and each told one line of the story. The end result was pretty hilarious and the kids and myself had a ball!

The Books:


Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal by Paul Fleischman

(Blend of worldwide tales)

The Rough-Faced Girl by Rafe Martin

(Algonquin Indian) * Read aloud

The Gift of the Crocodile by Judy Sierra (Indonesia)

Domitila adapted by Jewell Reinhart Coburn
(Mexico)




The Korean Cinderella by Shirley Climo
(Korea)



Fair, Brown & Trembling by Jude Daly
(Ireland)

The Egyptian Cinderella by Shirley Climo
(Egypt)




Kongi and Potgi by Oki Han
(Korea)

Cendrillon by Robert D. San Souci
(Caribbean)

Sootface by Robert D. San Souci
(Ojibwa Indian)




Smoky Mountain Rose by Alan Schroeder
(Appalachia)
*possible read aloud





Yeh-Shen by Ai-Ling Louie
(China)





Adelita by Tomie dePaola
(Mexico)





Little Gold Star by Robert D. San Souci
(Spanish)




Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe
(Africa)




Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl (Cinderella section)

Best Buy Grant

Youth Programs in Company Communities Funded
Best Buy Community Grants Program
The Best Buy Community Grants Program provides support to nonprofit organizations that are located within 50 miles of a Best Buy store or distribution center. Grants averaging $4,000 to $6,000 will promote programs that provide opportunities for young teens in the areas of learning, life skills, and leadership. Special consideration will be given to programs that provide youth with access to opportunity through technology, serve a diverse population, build skills in early adolescents (primarily ages 13-17), show positive results against a demonstrated community need, and reach at-risk children in working families. The grant application process will open on July 1 and close on August 1, 2011. Visit the Best Buy website to review the program guidelines.

Teen Iron Chef

As part of our teen summer reading program I am trying out a Teen Iron Chef Competition. The teens will work in pairs to create a dessert using the ingredients I give them. Because of the international theme this summer I will include ingredients from other countries to introduce teens to some new foods. I had them make one dessert and an accompanying drink. Each team gets one fancy plastic plate to display their dessert on and a fancy glass too in addition to their prep plates and utensils. Steer clear of any nuts or peanut butter in case any participants have allergies.

Food Shopping List:

• Marshmallow Fluff
• Sprinkles
• Interesting things from the Asian, Indian, British or other import markets
  
• Colorful Icing
• Chocolate Chips
• Chocolate Syrup
• Cream Cheese
• Milk
• Ice
• Lemonade
• Ice-Tea
  
• Canned Fruit
• Jelly
  
• Pudding
  

A local chef, a teachers, and our executive director will score each dessert/drink team using a ruberic. The teams will need to present their creations to the judges and give their dessert a name.

The judges will score from 1-5 on the following categories:

• Creativity
• Presentation
• Taste

Teams may choose at least 3 ingredients and have 30 minutes to complete their creations. The winning team both get a copy of the book "Eat Fresh Food: Awesome Recipes for Teen Chefs."

Here is how I ran the program:

Before the event Volunteens help put out all the supplies on the ingredients table. We created a seperate table for drinks with the blenders and ice. When the teens arrived (I had about 25) they broke into teams of two and went to their table to choose a name for their group (some memorable ones such as "Team Sheen", and "The Winners"). They had 5 minutes to look at ingredients and plan their dish.

After they knew what they wanted to make they had to come up to dish out their ingredients onto their prep plates. They had a total of 45 minutes (could be shorted with a smaller group) to make their dish. After they were done we had the judging which took about 30 minutes due to the volume of dishes.

Each judge had a score sheet (click here for the sheet) where they scored the F (food) and the D (drink.) The three judges included a local chef, English teacher, and our Executive Director. They were such good sports about it and I gave them each a gift for volunteering their time (and stomachs).

All in all the kids had a blast and that made this one of our most successful teen programs ever!

Booklist: Books About Self Esteem

-From Listserv, compiled by Bridget R Wilson, Youth Services Librarian


The Fast and the Furriest By Andy Behrens
Shredderman Series By Wendelin VanDraanen
The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy By William Boniface
Schooled By Gordon Korman
A Week in the Woods By Andrew Clements
The Boy Who Owned the School By Gary Paulsen
S.O.R. Losers by Avi – a seventh grade soccer team made up of the
non-athletes
The 18th Emergency – Betsy Byars (a boy going through being bullied and
thinking his way out of every emergency but being bullied)
Almost anything by Daniel Pinkwater (Lizard Music, Snarkout Boys, Alan
Mendelson the Boy From Mars) generally feature boys who are “different”
Slake’s Limbo – Felice Holman (loner boy goes to live in the subway)
Maniac Magee – Jerry Spinelli (more a boy hero to a loner boy)
Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon, by Patti Lovell
I'm gonna like me by Jamie Lee Curtis
Jim Hensen's muppet's in flip flap flop by Stephanie St. Pierre
'Stick Up For Yourself!: Every Kid's Guide to Personal Power and Positive
Self-Esteem' by Gershen Kaufman, Lev Raphael, and Pamela Espeland
Welcome Comfort by Patricia Polacco
Diary of a Wimpy Kid books by Kinney

Non-Fiction that reads like fiction

Books for fans of fiction:

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King
Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron
The Emperor of Scent by Chandler Burr
Fast Food Nation: the Dark Side of the All American Meal by Eric Schlosser
Flyboys: a True Story of Courage by James Bradley
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
In the Heart of the Sea: the Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles by Anthony Swofford
Julie and Julia: 365 days, 24 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell
The Lost City of Z: a Tale of Deady Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Open by Andre Agassi
The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Seabiscuit: an American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

Little Crab and His Magical Eyes

This is the story I am learning and will be telling at my Elementary School visit in a month to promote summer reading. I meet with each grade level for only 10 minutes so I do a quick spiel about summer reading and show off some cool prizes. I usually bring fun props, for example last year I brought a giant inflatable pink flamingo dressed as a pirate. Last year I told "Why the tides ebb and flow" and it was brilliant to see all the kids faces completely absorbed in my story.

This tale has a little gross element to it with the crab taking out his eyes but I think Elementary school kids will appreciate a little grossness. I really wanted to do "The Gunny Wolf" but thought it may scare the younger kids.

Have the kids sing the crabs sea chant along with you. Bring a picture of a crab and a jaguar in case the audience does not know what they look like. It is not know exactly where this tale comes from but have fun giving the characters exotic accents to emphasize the One World, Many Stories theme. I am thinking an east Indie accent for the jaguar, not sure why just feeling it!

Here is the story from the book "Twenty Tellable Tales" by Margaret Read MacDonald, page 24:

Once upon a time
there was a little crab who had magic eyes

He could make his eyes
pop out of his head
and go flying out over the ocean...
and then fly back and pop into his head again.

He would sit along the seashore
and play his eye sailing game.

He would call:
'Little eyes...
Little eyes...
Sail out
Over the deep blue sea"

And little crab's eyes would
pop out of his head
and sail over the deep blue sea

Then he would call:
'Little eyes...
Little eyes...
Sail back
Over the deep blue sea"

And his eyes would sail back and
pop into his head again

It was a good game

Little Crab's eyes could look down into the blue sea
They could see the seaweed....
the coral reef....
the fish swimming about...
It was fun!

One day when little crab was playing his eye sailing
game along came jaguar

Jaguar said:
"Little crab
what are you doing"

"I'm playing my eye sailing game.
I can make my eyes sail out
over the deep blue sea
and come back again!"

"Little crab, let me see you do it.
Do it for me little crab."

"All right!" said little crab
And little crab began to play his game

He called:
"Little eyes...
Little eyes..
Sail out
Over the deep blue sea."

And little crab's eyes
popped out of his head
and sailed out over the deep blue sea

Then he called:
'Little eyes...
Little eyes...
Sail back
Over the deep blue sea"

And his eyes sailed back and popped into his head again

"Ohhhhhhhh
that looks like fun,"
said jaguar

"Little crab,
could you make my eyes go sailing?"

"I could,"
said little crab
"But I'm not going to.
It's too dangerous."

Out in the deep blue sea
there lives a big
Oonkaloonka fish
And the Oonkaloonka fish
might swallow your eyes.

"I'm not afraid of any old fish,"
said Jaguar.
"You make my eyes go sailing.
you make my eyes go sailing or
you'll be s-o-r-r-y."

So little crab said, "Alright!"
he began to call:
"Jaguar's eyes....
Jaguar's eyes....
Sail out
over the deep blue sea."

And Jaguar's eyes popped out of his head
and sailed out
over the deep blue sea

Then little crab called:
"Jaguar's eyes....
Jaguar's eyes....
Sail back
over the deep blue sea."

And Jaguars eyes sailed back and
popped into his head again

"Ohhhh!
that was wonderful! said Jaguar
"I could see the fish
and the coral reefs
and everything!"

"Do it again!
Do it again little crab!"

"No, It's too dangerous.
That Oonakaloonka fish
might swallow your eyes."

"I'm not afraid of any old fish!
You make my eyes go sailing again
You make my eyes go sailing or
You'll be sorry."

So little crab said:
"All right, all right
Jaguar's eyes....
Jaguar's eyes....
Sail out
over the deep blue sea."

Jaguars eyes
popped out of his head
and sailed out over the deep blue sea

The little crab called:
"Jaguar's eyes....
Jaguar's eyes....
Sail back
over the deep blue sea."

But just then up came the Oonkaloonka fish
and swallowed Jaguar's eyes

"Oh little crab!
It all went black!
I can't see!"

"Bring them back!
Bring back my eyes!"

"It's too late,"
said little crab
"That Oonakaloonka fish has swallowed
your eyes."

"Little crab
you make my eyes come back
or you'll be sorry"

But little crab had backed under a rock
and Jaguar could not find him

jaguar began to moan and groan

Just then down flew Vulture

"Jaguar,
why are you crying? said vulture

I'm crying because Little Crab took my eyes away
and he will not bring them back. I can see nothing at all

"What would you do if I brought you some new eyes?" asked Vulture

"I would do anything.
From now on whenever I kill and animal
I will leave the carcass, the bones, and some of the meat
for the Vulture family"

"Very well" said Vulture

And Vulture flew away
Soon he flew back with 2 bright blue berries

Jaguar popped
them into his eyes
And he could see as well as ever!

Everything was bright and blue and shiny

"I can see
I can See" said Jaguar

"Than you, Vulture.
From now on whenever I or any member of the Jaguar family
kill an animal
We will leave the carcass, the bones, and sme of the meat for the Vulture family"

And so it is to this day

Then Jaguar called:
"Little Crab
I am going to catch you
and make your sorry"

But little crab had backed under a rock
and Jaguar could not catch him

If you go to the beach
You will find little crab still hiding under his rock
for Jaguar never did catch him