Explore Outdoors ~ Make your own (very quiet) Fourth of July Explosions!

 With the Fourth of July just a couple days away, I thought I'd share some alternatives to fireworks. These hands-on activities will provide plenty of pop, sizzle, and fizz without the big noise.

Chances are you have many of the ingredients in your cupboards, but check the materials lists in case you need to stock up before Friday. Then, after the parade and potato salad, invite friends and family to create their own Fourth of July celebration in your back yard.

Exploding paint Bags ~ more pop than boom!

Blobs in a Bottle ~ a simple take on lava lamps. All you need is oil, water, food coloring - and some alka-selzer.

Erupting Rainbow ~ Of course vinegar is involved!

Fizzy sidewalk chalk fireworks ~ pffff!

For more activities, check out this post from a few years ago

I'm taking a summer break to explore nature in my neighborhood, and catch up on some writing. And of course, I'm tucking a bunch of books in my beach tote for summer reading! 

Enjoy! See you in August!

Invent Machines Like Rube!

Smash, Crash, Topple, Roll!: The Inventive Rube Goldberg―A Life in Comics, Contraptions, and Six Simple Machines 

by Catherine Thimmesh; illus. by Shanda McCloskey 

60 pages; ages 8-12

‎Chronicle Books, 2025 

Rube Goldberg was born in 1883 – on the brink of technological revolution. During his life he saw inventions and machines that were meant to make life simple. But… (as many of us have discovered with today’s tech) too often those inventions left folks befuddled. The tech was Just Too Complex!

Rube’s response? Draw his own contraptions – crazy, complex machines that went through multiple steps to achieve a simple goal. 

Starting with a Table of Contents that is, itself a Rube Goldberg contraption, we get drawn into Rube’s world of cartoon and satire. There's a section on becoming an artist the "Rube Goldberg way" and great sections that describe how each type of machine works. And a wonderful bit about Rube's invention cartoons. Back when he drew them, those crazy contraptions captured the imagination of kids and adults. Even today, more than 100 years later, people are designing and building “Rube Goldberg Machines” and posting videos online. Why? Because it’s fun. These machines do such ordinary things in unexpected ways. Even Honda got in on the action with their 2009 ad that uses car parts in an elaborate machine that rolls out their newest model. 

Rube Goldberg machines are, by design, whimsical - like the plant-watering machine. But the science behind them is real. Most are powered by gravity (things rolling, falling, swinging) and some combination of the six basic simple machines: lever, wheel and axle, inclined plane, wedge, screw, and pulley that are introduced on the front endpaper.

Back matter includes a section on How to Build a Rube Goldberg Machine in eight simple steps. My favorite is step 8: embrace Murphy's Law. You know - the one that says if anything can go wrong it will. Something will happen, writes author Catherine Thimmesh. "Something will fall off its track. Count on it." Just be ready to troubleshoot and fix it. There's also a glossary and lists of resources for curious inventors.

Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copy provided by the publisher.

Explore Outdoors ~ Sneaky Spiders

 I've got some Very Sneaky Spiders hanging out in my garden and surrounding area! They don't advertise their presence by spinning sticky webs that net unsuspecting fliers. Instead, they hide in and under flowers, waiting for dinner to come to them - to settle on the flower for a sip of sweet nectar - and then they POUNCE! 

 

Do you have sneaky spiders in your flowers?