DIY: Making the Eiffel Tower

So, we've been to almost every continent in the past weeks making something. Today the seventh continent Europe.
We are going to make the Eiffel Tower out of cake or cookies (you can choose)

The Eiffel Tower in Paris is a tower made out of iron. It was build in 1889 as the enterence arch of the 1889 World's Fair.
The tower is 324 meter high (you can compare it with a 81-storey high building).
Now we know a little about the Eiffel Tower so now we can start making our own.

What you need:
- a bowl with a little water
- powdered suger
- a spoon
- a knife
- cake or some cookies

First we are going to make the 'gluw' by mixing the water and the powdered suger. You have to try a bit and find the right amond (you probably need a lot of suger).
It has to be thick enouch to use as gluw.

Then cut you cake or cookies in the right sizes.
Now you start sticking them together. You probably need quite some waiting time to let the suger-gluw dry out.

Built till it looks like this.

 

Good luck trying to make your own!

Continent box Antarctica #1

Hi dear readers,

Today I will take you to the most Southern place in the world, Antarctica. It is a really special continent.
- Its the only continent that doesn't have a country (only territories)
- Its the only continent where nobody lives permanently (only the people staying in the research centers)
- Its is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent.
- 98% of the continent is covered under ice. This is 90% of all the ice in the world.

It is a difficult continent to make a box of.
For my continent box a made a piece of landscape!

I used styofoam, silver foil, transparent flower plastic and a glue gun. And for a finishing touch paper snowflacks.

Grey Explains: European Union

Today is Europe Day (9 may). On this day where they celebrate the peace and unity in Europe.

The Council of Europe was founded on 5 May 1949, and hence it chose that day for its celebrations when it established the holiday in 1964. In 1985, the European Communities (which later bedame the European Union) adopted the European symbols of the Counsil of Europe such as the Flag of Europe. However, the Community leaders decited to hold their Europe Day in commemoration of the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950. The declaration proposed the pooling of Frence and West German coal and steel industries, leading to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the first European Community, and hence is considered a principle founding moment.

Grey made a video clip to explain the European Union. Have fun watching it and I hope you'll learn something from it.

DIY: Felt Sushi

A while ago I found these pictures online of flet sushi and I thought, "I want to make those too".
I remembered I had some felt up in my hobby storage so I could get started right away.

What you need to make these is the following:
- felt in a few different colors but at least white and black or brown
- scissors
- needle & thread

 For each sushi roll you need a stroke of black and white felt and some smallers pieces of color. The one i'm make here is a crab sushi roll. For the crab I used red and some pieces of white.
Cut all pieces in the hight you want.

I placed the pieces of white on half of the red piece and folted in half then rolled it up.

The white piece is the rice in you sushi roll. I used special scissors to ruffel one side of the piece.

Roll it as tight as possible around the 'crab' piece, like this.

Now roll it all into the black piece.

I used a needle and thread to make sure the sushi can't be unrolled. Make sure to use the right color of thread.

Offcourse you can make all kinds of sushi rolls with different colors inside. Give it a try and be creative.

What the world eats

This photographic report exposes the proliferation of processed foods in the western diet and in the diets of many developing countries the world over. Is it any wonder that we are seeing increases in diet & lifestyle related diseases? What are your thoughts?

 

About the project:

These images are from the book 'Hungry Planet: What the World Eats' by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluision. It's an inspired idea, to better understand the human diet, explore what culturally diverse families eat for a week. Their portraits feature pictures of each family with a week's worth of food purchases. We soon learn that diet is determined by largely uncontrollable forces like poverty, conflict and globalization, which can bring change with startling speed. Thus cultures can move, sometimes in a single jump, from traditional diets to the vexed plenty of global-food production. People have more to eat and, too often, eat more of nutritionally questionable food. And their health suffers.  

Australia

Bhutan

Chad

Ecuador

Great Britain

Guatamala

India

Italy

Japan

Kuwait

Mali

Mexico

Mongolia

Turkey

USA

 What is in your weekly diet?

Continent box Australia #1

Hi guys,

We are going Down Under today.

Australia is a continent comprising mainland Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, Seram, possibly Timor, and neighbouring islands.
It is the smallest of the seven traditional continents in the English conception. New Zealand is not part of the continent of Australia, but of the separate, submerged continent of Zealandia. New Zealand and Australia are both part of the wider regions known as Australasia and Oceania.

I like to think that New Zealand is part of the continent Australia.

For my continent box I have the next things to start with.

This is a home made memory game with all kinds of Australian animals in Aboriginal drawings.

In a later blog I will tell more about it and how you can make one yourself.

 

 This is a dunnant stemp made out of wood.

 

 Thes chells are 'cerithium vertagus'. You can find them in Australia and Asia.

 

 A little statue of a coala bear and it's young.

Books: Holland - Charlotte Dematons

Holland – a land full of surprises, strange traditions, free-spirited people and a rich history.

Charlotte Dematons, known for her well-loved picture book The Yellow Balloon, grew up in France, but moved to the Netherlands to study art as so many have before her. With the eye of an outsider but a warm heart for the country that became her new home, Charlotte Dematons paints with a keen eye for the detail for everything that makes The Netherlands so Dutch.

It's easy to see how New York was first New Amsterdam when delving into modern-day Holland. The idiosyncrasies that make Holland so unique are revealed: from pensionada in unisex rain jackets on their bikes to a grandmother with her walker, skating on the ice, between the scenes of Avercamp, Bruegel and Bosch – and of course the multicultural Dutch society revealed and celebrated with wit and warmth.

Also Available: Holland and 1000 Things About Holland set. 1000 Things About Holland explains all the details of every amazing picture, making this book both an I Spy book and an armchair travel guide for anyone already fond of this small country of tulips, windmills and so much more.


For all the Dutch readers of my blog: hier een beschrijving van het boek in het Nederlands op mijn kinderboekenblog: http://www.mattysleukstekinderboek.blogspot.nl/2013/12/nederland-charlotte-dematons.html