Kitsap Adventures

Nature Preserve Terrarium	Sugar Cube Building
Volcano Cake	Penny Magic
Root Beer Recipe	Neighborhood News
Fish Print	Absolutely Incredible Cookies
Pasta Necklaces	Classic Leaf Rubbings

Nature Preserve Terrarium
Make your own nature preserve with a terrarium. What you’ll need:
Wide-mouthed jar with a lid (restaurant sized pickle or mayonnaise jar)
Potting soil, gravel & charcoal pieces
Small plants
Carefully wash and dry your jar. Using a funnel cover the bottom with about 1-inch of gravel. Add about 2 inches of potting soil and place a few pieces of charcoal on the top. Add small houseplants like ferns, ivy, sensitive plants, miniature roses, African violets or asparagus plants. Include rocks, pines cones or driftwood for special effects. Maybe add a few well placed Lego men for fun. Close with the lid and place in shaded area until plants are adjusted. Then place the terrarium in a well –lit area, but never in direct sunlight.

Sugar Cube Building
Create your own playground, pyramid, igloo or imagination place by using sugar cubes What you’ll need:
Small square sugar cubes
One egg white
Confectioners sugar
Paint brush
Mix up a batch of “mortar” by beating one egg white with 1 ½ cup confectioners sugar. Using a paint brush apply the mortar and begin building using the sugar cubes. Your children can make fences, houses, boats, towers, even people. Create it, color it and then set it outside in the rain and watch it disappear.

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Volcano Cake
Without intending to bring about disaster you can make a fun volcano cake together. What you'll need:

· 1 chocolate or other flavor bundt cake, baked

· 1 (29-ounce) can cherry pie filling

· ¼ to ½ pound dry ice chips (available at Central Market - Poulsbo)

· 3 Solo Ultra Clear (9-ounce )plastic cups
After the cake is cooled spoon the cherry pie filling on the top of the cake. Place an empty plastic cup inside the hollow center of the cake. In two of the plastic cups put chips of dry ice (Always use gloves when handling dry ice. Never touch dry ice with bare skin.) Just before serving add hot water over one of the cups with dry ice and insert into the empty cup in the hollow cake. After the first “eruption” dies down replace with the second cup filled with dry ice and hot water.

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Penny Magic
Here's a chance for your children to turn something old into something new. This easy experiment in the kitchen will turn your children into budding scientists eager for more chemistry magic. What you'll need:
Old pennies
4 TBS. Vinegar
1 tsp. salt
Vegetable Oil
Soft cloth
Mix the vinegar and salt in a small mixing bowl. Have your children drop the pennies in the solution and stir them with a wooden spoon. They can watch as the pennies change. After the pennies are clean, dry and polish them with a drop of vegetable oil to make them shine. Other fun chemistry experiments can be found at http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/scifun.html and http://www.mcrel.org/resources/whelmers/index.asp?.

Root beer Recipe
Although not as good as A & W root beer, you can make your own root beer using this recipe. What you'll need:

· 3 oz Root beer extract

· 4 gallons water

· 6 cups sugar

· 4-5 lbs. dry ice (Dry ice is available at Daily Stop in Brownsville with 24 hours notice. (360) 692-2073.
Combine all ingredients together. Mix for 20 minutes or until all dry ice is dissolved. (Be sure not to touch the dry ice with your bare hands) Enjoy!!

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Neighborhood News
Take lots of pictures. Encourage your children to interview neighbors and put together a block party newsletter. The “Neighborhood News” could be the perfect fall/winter adventure for your children.

Absolutely Incredible Cookies
Make some Absolutely Incredible cookies for your Absolutely Incredible Kid. What you’ll need:
1 ¾ cups integrity (all-purpose flour)
1 teaspoon joy (baking soda)
½ teaspoon hope (salt)
2 sticks of loyalty (margarine or butter, softened)
1 ¼ cups respect (firmly packed brown sugar)
½ cup patience (granulated sugar)
2 jokes (eggs)
2 Tablespoons perseverance (milk)
2 teaspoons kindness (vanilla)
2 ½ cups courage (quick or old-fashioned uncooked oatmeal)
One package honesty (semi-sweet chocolate pieces)
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Beat together loyalty, respect and patience until creamy. Add the jokes, perseverance and kindness; beat well. Add combined integrity, joy and hope; mix well. Stir in courage and honesty; mix well. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9 to 10 minutes. Cool. Serves everybody by making the world a better

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Fish Print
Make a fish print. What you’ll need:
a whole fish, cleaned but with the head on
old newspapers
tempera paint, large soft brush
clean sheet of white paper
Lay the fish on a piece of newspaper, and paint the entire fish with the tempera paint. Carefully pick the fish up and place it on another piece of clean newspaper. Lay the clean white paper on the fish, gently rubbing the paper where it covers the fish, be carefully not to move the paper. Peel the paper back and lay it paint side up. flat to dry.

Pasta Necklaces
Use a piece of wool thread to make a beautiful necklace with colored pasta. What you’ll need:
1 cup rubbing alcohol
Food coloring
Raw pasta noodles
Mix alcohol and food coloring together. Put in macaroni a little bit at a time. Soak for 1 to 2 minutes then remove and let dry in a strainer (don’t pour this mixture down the drain). Help your children thread the pasta onto the wool and tie it with a bow. Not baaad.
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Classic Leaf Rubbings
Take a walk outside and collect different size leaves for rubbing. What you'll need:

· white unlined paper

· dark green or black crayons

· maple leaves
Place the leaf, bottom side up on a smooth hard surface. Put your paper over the leaf and hold firmly. Make strokes with the side of your crayon, back and forth, from top to bottom until the veins and margins of the leaf appear.

Been there? Done that? What did you think? Have any new ideas?
Send your comments now.

"Thanks for this great idea. The kids appreciate it!"
Joy Presley, Port Ludlow

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