Sunday Science - Ladybug Kites, Cookies, and Books

We returned to the dandelion filled, vacant lot, to check up on the ladybugs, but found they had all flown away - or blown away, as a strong wind was blowing.

Flying ladybugs, and strong winds made us think of kites. Our nice sturdy, store bought kites from last fall, were all destroyed by little hands, sometime during the winter, so we had to start from scratch.

Looking around for thin paper, and wooden sticks, we settled on pink and purple tissue paper, and a couple of thin wooden skewers.

We broke the end off of one of the skewers, to make it shorter than the other, and then taped it horizontally across the longer one.

We used the sticks as a guide...

...to cut a couple of tissue paper diamonds, the purple one to serve as the body, and the pink one, flipped over, cut in half, and glued, at the top, to the back, as wings (did I mention this was supposed to be a flying ladybug kite?).

We decorated the wings with marker drawn spots, and taped the sticks to the backside.

Then, we taped on a tail, made of a ribbon, with a few tissue paper, ladybug, circles, taped onto it.

Finally, we tied the loose end of a spool of thread to the center of the sticks.

And it flew!

But, the floppy wings, and unbalanced string, tied to the center of the sticks, made it fly in an erratic, attack kite, kind of fashion, which was fun, but eventually led to the string wrapping around the kite, and tearing the fragile tissue paper.

So, we headed back into the house, and started over, this time using a black plastic body...

...and heart shaped, tissue paper, wings, glued down securely.

Though, not securely enough, because they blew right off, on our first test run. So, we brought the kite back in, and taped them down, front and back. We also made a more balanced loop, tied to the middle poles, to connect our thread to...

...snipped off the very pointy end on our middle skewer, and taped down all the ends more securely, so our thread couldn't slip between the skewers, and the kite, while flying.

Stepping out onto the deck, we discovered, the wind had gone. Oh, the trials of science! But, that was okay, because the temperature was steadily dropping, and it was really getting too cold for kite flying, anyway.

So, we packed it in for the day, and decided instead to make our yearly batch of ladybug cookies.

I added a handful M&M aphids this year, just to keep things fresh.

While the children enjoyed their buggy snack, I read a few ladybug themed books.

A couple of simple, easy reader, science types:

Then, our favorite for the evening, Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld's Ladybug at Orchard Avenue. It reads like a very dramatic, fictional story, about a ladybug hunting for aphids, and being hunted for by ants, spiders, and birds, with the building urgency of cold weather approaching. But really, it is part of the Smithsonian's Backyard series, and is packed full of ladybug facts. We'll be looking for more of that series.

Finally, we read Bridget Fidget and the Most Perfect Pet, by Joe Berger - not a scientific tome at all, but rather a fanciful fiction, about a young girl who longs for a pet unicorn, and just happens to end up with a ladybug.

Of course, if it's science you want, then you should click on over to the Science Sunday link-up, at Adventures in Mommydom.

It's great to be a homeschooler.