Make a Big Mooncake Phase Viewer!

Spoiler! In A Big Mooncake for Little Star someone is making the moon change shape! Thanks to the brilliant minds at Curious City, you, too, can do it. Using the download and these instruction make your own Moon Phase viewer!

  DOWNLOAD THE CRAFT HERE! And in case you need some help, watch the instructional video:

See all the Mooncake Activites I have available HERE!

And don't forget to share a photo of A Big Mooncake for Little Star on twitter* or instagram* with the #BigMooncake4LittleStar and to win one of these scarves!

Cold Weather Craft

Brr! It's cold here in New England! But when life gives us bitter cold, we make colored balls of ice!*

It's so easy and so fun! Want to do it to? 

YOU NEED:

balloons (the inexpensive helium quality kind)

food coloring

cups

funnel

a sink with a faucet you can get the balloon around

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Mix food coloring of your choice with a small amount of water (2-3 tablespoons) in a cup. Stir it up.

2. Using the funnel, put the colored water into the balloon.

3: Affix the balloon opening to your faucet. Fill balloon with water, slowly.  So that it does't accidentally fall off and make a mess, best to hold the balloon with one hand underneath for support and your other hand holding where the balloon is attached to the  faucet.

4: When the balloon is at your desired size (we made ours about the size as a large grapefruit), detach from the faucet an tie  shut (like a water balloon). Repeat with different colors as desired.

5: Bring the balloon outside and leave overnight.  If possible, do not leave in the snow (we put ours on the porch). If you do put them in the snow, make sure you turn them over sometime in the night as the snow makes a blanketing affect and half of your balloon may not freeze.

6: After the balloons are frozen, take off the the balloon from the ice. After an initial cut the r rubber, it should peel easily

and then, Voila!

Beautiful colored ball of ice! You can make a rainbow!

And the cold weather is suddenly a lot more fun...

*special thanks to Anna Alter for the idea

Make a Monkey Chain for Lunar New Year!

Check out my Lunar New Year newsletter and please sign up!

As part of my Lunar New Year Story Time  for my newsletter subscribers (I'm starting to shift most of my stuff there, so please sign up!), I suggested that readers make a monkey chain decoration!  Isn't it super cute? This is how you do it:

You need:

-a 4.25 x 11 sheet of paper (a normal 8.5 x 11 piece of paper cut in half the long way). 

-a ruler

-a pencil

-scissors

-this monkey template, printed out, preferably on cardstock

-maybe some tape

Directions:

1. Measure 2.2 inches from one side of the paper and mark:

nice straight line, don't worry if it's not exactly 2.2 inches, it all gets fudged when you fold

2. Fold on your marking and then use that width to accordion fold the rest of your paper. You should be able to make 4 folds (which will equal five monkeys after cutting).

accordion fold is like making a paper fan

3. cut out the template and trace the monkey onto the folded paper.  It's pretty small, so you might want to use a small piece of tape to help hold the template down while you trace. Make sure the arms of the monkey go right to the edge, if not off the edge of your paper.

a little bit of tape helps it from moving around, but just tack it on gently as you want to take the template off!

it should be traced like this!

 4. Cut out the monkey from you folded paper, making sure you cut all five layers. Do NOT cut along the folds where the monkeys arms touch the edges of the paper (that is where the chain connects!)

When finished, unfold and...Ta-Dah!

Five monkeys to go with the Five Monkeys Rhyme I made Lunar New Year!

*Want to make this a craft with kids?  Consider:

-Enlarging the paper and the template proportionally so that it's easier for them to cut.
-If the kids are young, pre-measure the folds for them
-If the kids are very young, make the chains for them and let them color them red (to go with the rhyme)

See how you can use this monkey chain for a Monkey New Year Story Time in my newsletter! (and please sign up for future editions).

Ling and Ting paper dolls for you!

I'm so thrilled there has been so much good news recently for Ling & Ting (as well as a New York Times Best 2010 Notable Children's Book, Ling & Ting is a a recommended holiday gift by the San Francisco Chronicle)! I truly hope this book finds its way into the hands of many young readers for the holidays!

As an added incentive, I've made a special activity to accompany the book. Here are some Ling & Ting Paper Dolls! These paper dolls are ready for you to color and cut and are completely FREE. It is my small holiday gift to you!

Hope you like everyTING and everyLING!

Just:
1. download HERE!
2. print (preferably on a lightweight cardstock)
3. color (any way you want!) & cut
4. dress! fold the clothes flaps over Ling and Ting and let them wear their warm winter booties or their party dresses!

fyi, these paper dolls are for personal enjoyment only and copyright remains with the artist. aka, print and play as much as you want, but print and sell is wrong.

Moon Poetry

In my book, Thanking the Moon, you'll notice one of the elements the family brings to their night picnic is a book of poetry. Traditionally, it was during the Moon Festival that one waxed poetic--inspired by the beauty of the moon. If you read any Chinese poetry, you'll notice that a great many poems mention the moon. In fact, a legendary Chinese poet from the 8th century, Li Po (also known as Li Bai), is said to have died while trying to catch the image of the moon reflected in the waters of a lake. Here is a translation of one of his most famous poems, Drinking Alone With the Moon (See other translations HERE):

I take a bottle of wine and I go to drink it among the flowers.
We are always three–
counting my shadow and my friend the shimmering moon.
Happily the moon knows nothing of drinking,
and my shadow is never thirsty.

When I sing, the moon listens to me in silence.
When I dance, my shadow dances too.
After all festivities the guests must depart;
This sadness I do not know.
When I go home,
the moon goes with me and my shadow follows me.

But for your own Moon Festival Celebration, you might want something more child-friendly (and not about getting drunk!). You could try reciting my good friend Elaine's poem from her wonderful THINGS TO DO poetry collection (which is looking for a publishing home--hint, hint to any editors reading this!):

THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE THE MOON

Live in the sky.
Be bold…
OR
be shy.
Wax and wane
in your starry terrain.
Be a circle of light,
just a sliver of white,
or hide in the shadows
and vanish from sight.
Look like a pearl
when you’re brim-full
and bright.
Hang in the darkness
and dazzle the night.

But the best thing would be for you to write your own. This would be a fun activity for you to do during or in preparation for the Moon Festival celebration. An easy way to begin is use the simplified haiku format (5-7-5 syllables per line). I've found that this is a great way to take the intimidation factor out of writing poetry, especially with kids. Here is a poem I wrote, inspired by a night canoe ride on my vacation:

PADDLING A CANOE AT NIGHT

My canoe follows
the rippling silver path.
Will I reach the moon?

Try it yourself! Let the moon and the night inspire you!



In honor of my new book Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival (now available!!) I'm running a week-long series of posts on the Moon Festival. Don't forget you can celebrate the book & the festival with me this Sunday in NYC at the MOCA's Mid-Autumn Family Festival!

tea eggs

In my book Thanking the Moon, you'll notice that part of the night-time picnic meal includes eggs (eggs are also eaten in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, too!). That is because eggs are round--symbolizing harmony and fullness--just like the moon! So eggs, are a customary snack during the Moon Festival. You could have them simply boiled or even deviled, but a traditional preparation that is easy, delicious and also quite pretty is to make tea-stained eggs:

Chinese Tea Egg Recipe
Ingredients:
6 eggs
3/4 cup soy sauce
2 star anise
2 tablespoons black tea (or 2 tea bags-stronger tea, the better)
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon pepper
2 strips dried tangerine or mandarin orange peel (optional)


1. Gently place the eggs in a medium pot and fill with water to cover the eggs by 1-inch. Bring the pot to a boil, lower the heat and let simmer for 3 minutes. Remove the eggs (leaving the water in the pot) and let cool under running cool water.

2. Using the back of the teaspoon, gently tap the eggshell to crack the shell all over. The more you tap, the more intricate the design. Make sure to keep the overall shell intact:
the eggshell should be cracked but still whole

3. To the same pot with the boiling water, return the eggs and add in the remaining ingredients. Bring the mixture to a boil and immediately turn the heat to low:
I like extra star anise in my eggs--feel free to add more or less of the ingredients for your own personal taste

4. Simmer for 40 minutes to an hour, cover with lid and then let eggs steep for a few hours to overnight. The tea eggs will become more flavorful and with deeper patterns the longer you let them steep:


5. Remove the shells from the eggs:This is always the funnest part.

And you are done! Enjoy! They should be fragrant and flavorful and patterned--a joy for the mouth and the eye. Yum!



In honor of my new book Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival (now available!!) I'm running a week-long series of posts on the Moon Festival. Don't forget you can celebrate the book & the festival with me this Sunday in NYC at the MOCA's Mid-Autumn Family Festival!

Chinese Firecracker Craft

This Chinese Firecracker Craft is safe and fire-free!

Supplies:
-bubble wrap
-toilet paper roll
-pipecleaner
-red and yellow (or gold paint) & paintbrushes
-tape/stapler
-scissors

1. Staple (or tape) the ends of the pipe cleaner to the inside of the roll. Then twist the pipe cleaner together to make it look more like a fuse:

2.Cut a 2x3 inch rectangle of bubble wrap, roll it and put it into the tube. Use a little tape on the top and bottom so it doesn't move around.

3. Paint your tube red. With the yellow paint, paint decorations on the firecracker such as the Chinese word FU (you can use this for reference) or a border of your imagination!


4.Now you can set off your firecracker. Put your fingers or thumbs into the tube and pop the bubble wrap! When the bubble wrap is popped, it sounds like fireworks are going off! (This works best when there is a whole classroom of kids doing this at once!) Happy Lunar New Year!