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I'm Lillian.

Amazing Nature Party: The Big Day For Nature

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Hey, everyone! This is the 3rd in the Amazing Nature Party blog series. You will read about Nature’s point of view.

The nature team prepared for the party. Meanwhile, Nature chatted about the party made just for them. They were all excited. “I’m so excited.” said the eldest bird. “The nature party will be held at 1:00 pm. The time is 12:50 pm right now. Shall we be on our way?” said the wisest old tree.

All the nature things including the trees and bird said, “Yes, we should be on our way. I agree.” So off they went to the nature party. When they arrived, their eyes were wide open with shock and surprise from what they saw.

Can you imagine what they saw? Anyway, that’s the end of part 3 in the Amazing Nature Series. Keep your eye out for part 4 of the Amazing Nature Party. In the meantime, read my other blog posts.

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The Play of Art: History Of Art

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Hey, everyone! This play will help you learn about the history of art. For those who like art will probably be interested in the history of art. You can use this play for school and other educational uses if you want to.

Narrator: Welcome to History of Art! Let the play begin.

(Princess enters from Stage A).

Princess (dancing): Nobody knew exactly when the first people started producing art but it is believed that art has been created far back as 100, 000 years ago.

(Strawberry enters from Stage B; Princess exits to Stage B).

Strawberry (smiling bravely): The earliest art work came from Africa in form of stone carvings. There are many examples of cave paintings and carvings from Africa and Europe dating back to 32,000 B.C.

(Princess enters: Strawberry moves to the right of the stage to listen).

Princess: About 9, 000 B.C., people began to change from being traveling nomads to settling down in villages. At this time the art began to evolve into larger pieces. In West Asia and Egypt, the first stone and clay statues were created and that is how artists began to create decorated pottery.

Strawberry: About 3, 000 B.C., people learned how to work with metals and began to create small pieces of art from bronze which was often small statuettes. This was the era when people in Greece and India began to create art and in Egypt, sculptors were large, lifelike stone statues which were painted realistically and were life-size.

Princess: The Dark Age which was around 1, 000 B.C. in East Asia and the Mediterranean Sea led to most people not being able to afford art. Artists stopped making their pieces for several hundred years.

Strawberry: After the Dark Age, it was in Greece that the Archaic and the Classical sculpture was started, along with the black-figure and red-figure vase paintings.

Princess: The Etruscans in Italy started to create large stone and clay statues as well as painted pottery they created.

Strawberry: Things changed when Alexander the Great conquered West Asia in 325 B.C. and people were able to travel throughout the empire. Ideas about art were exchanged and this lead to the first Greek stone statues reaching India with Indian sculptors following Greek methods to carve large statues of Buddha.

Princess: The rise of the Roman Empire spread Greek art to the West as well with artists in North Africa and  North Europe creating pieces of art in the Roman style.

Strawberry: This Roman time was when blown glass became a form of art. It was invented by Phoenician artists  and sold both to England and China.

Princess: In 200 A.D., artists began to experiment and moved away from realistic painting and sculptures to a more abstract form. Statues with larger eyes were to indicate that the subject has a strong soul.

Strawberry: There was a second Dark Age in 459 A.D. after the autumn in Rome. Sadly, not very much art was made for several hundred years.

Princess: In China during this time, they began to make new kinds of painting using a new invention that we use today called paper.

(Princess exited to Stage A). 

Strawberry: In Medieval times, art was evolving and showing the world differently. Christianity became a big theme like Islam did.

Narrator: I hope you enjoyed our play about the History of Art.

(Princess re enters through Stage B). 

(The narrator, Princess, and Strawberry all bow/ curtsy at the same time). 

The End.

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Old Town #4

Amazing Nature Party: Spreading The Great Nature

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Hey, everyone! Remember the new blog series I started? Here’s #2 of the story. I hope you enjoy! Just a reminder that these new blog posts in the series will pop up anytime in the week (excluding weekends and holiday breaks). Did you guess the right answer?

As the leader wrote special invitations, the leader of the nature group suggested,”I got an awesome idea. How about we spread the great nature? Would you spread the news to our good nature-loving friends with the invitations?” and the group responded,”That’s an great idea. Let’s make it happen! Sure, we would love to spread the news.”

So the rest of the group set out to spread the news. The group leader began to spread the nature. After the group leader began, the leader waited for the rest of her group to spread the nature the rest of the day. The group worked all day and all night everyday and every night.

Can you guess what the nature group did after they spread the great nature? Find out in #3 of my blog series.

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nature

Books I Recommend: Horrible Harry and the Dead Letters by Suzy Kline

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Hey, everyone! This is the 48th book recommendation. I hope you enjoy! Who knew that with inspiration from a book could give you such a huge fabulous idea? So amazing the way life works.

1. Horrible Harry and the Dead Letters by Suzy Kline

2. Horrible Harry At Halloween by Suzy Kline

3. Lydia the Reading Fairy by Daisy Meadows

4. Hawks by Sharon Sharth

5. Mississippi by Pamela Dell

6.  Who Stole New Year’s Eve? by Martha Freeman

7. Oklahoma by Tamra B. Orr

8. Skillet Bread, Sourdough, and Vinegar Pie by Loretta Frances Ichord

9. Florida by Tamra B. Orr

10. Prietta and the Ghost Woman by Escrito Por Gloria Anzaldúa

11. The Race for the Chinese Zodiac by Gabrielle Wang

12. Yoshiko and the Foreigner by Mimi Otey Little

13. Stars Will Shine by Cynthia Rylant

14. The Beautiful Butterfly by Judy Sierra

15. The Prince of the Dolomites by Tomie De Paola

16. Unicorns and Other Magical Creatures by John Hamilton

17. How They Built the Statue of Liberty by Mary J. Shapiro

18. Paint the Wild by Pam Munoz Ryan

19. Full Cicada Moon by Marilyn Hilton

20. Cat Walk by Mary Stolz

21. The Star Maker by Laurence Yep

22. Violet Mackerel’s Remarkable Recovery by Anna Branford

23. Under the Lagoon by Kiki Thorpe

24. The Great Detective Race by Gertrude Chandler Warner

25. The Pumpkin Head Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner

26. Born To Fly by Michael Ferrari

27. Henry Huggins and the Paper Route by Beverly Clearly

28. The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars

29. Starring Prima! by Jacquelyn Mitchard

30. The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by E.L. Konigsburg

31. Gold by Milton Meltzer

32. Paleontology by Susan H. Gray

33. Butterflies and Moths by George S. Fichter

34. Ladybug by Barrie Watts

35. Uranium by Tyrone Mineo

36. Rocks by Roy A. Gallant

37. Heidi Heckelbeck Is a Flower Girl by Wanda Coven

38. 2015 Almanac For Kids by Scholastic Inc.

39. I Believe In Unicorns by Michael Morpurgo

40. I Am Sacagawea by Grace Norwich

41. Lunch Money by Andrew Clements

42. Mae the Panda Fairy by Daisy Meadows

43. Over My Dead Body by Kate Klise

44. Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Clearly

45. Autumn’s Secret Gift by Elise Allen

46. The Bright Shadow by Avi

47. Splash! by Melvin and Gilda Berger

48. Paper Fliers by Alan Folder

49. Photography For Children by George Sullivan

50. Very Short Fairy Tales To Read Together by Mary Ann Hoberman

(The blue links are Amazon Affiliates). 

The Great Universe

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Hey, everyone! This is an historic fiction which means that it will take place in a real place. I hope you enjoy!

It all started on a warm summer night in a cozy home where a girl lay sleeping until she felt a jolt and she realized she wasn’t in her home anymore. She thought, “Why is there nothing?” and she got her answer. A echoing voice said,”You are where the universe began. It’s up to you to make the planets including Earth. Once you’ve made Earth, start creating. Have fun!”

So the girl quickly discovered she could use her mind and creativity to make everything. First she designed Earth to look sparkly, clean, and rainbow colored. Second, she made other planets look like the colors of the rainbow. She went into Earth and saw she needed to make the moon and stars. So she made the moon look and taste like cheese. She made stars look like glitter.

She made the sky look indigo when it was daytime. She exited Earth to put the blue colored sun near Earth. She went entered Earth again and realized she needed to plant some plants. Luckily, she had some seeds in her pocket. She planted them. She added orange water to Earth to help the plant. She also needed rain. So she made red rain by circling her hand. She made green clouds too.

She realized she was lonely so she added animals of different colors. She created yellow grass so she could rest. Soon the animals became bored with just the little girl. The animals spoke to the girl about being lonely. She said, “No problem. I can make humans but first, I need to set aside some land for roads, buildings, homes, shops, stores and more.”

As she spoke, she created all the other things humans needed. After that, she formed the first 2 people. She also casted a spell to make a child and make it grow. The humans were magenta. The animals were amazed at how quickly the humans formed and adapted.

She thought she was done but the voice spoke to her saying that she would have to use creativity, quick thinking, and more. So she tried casting a spell to make the years speed by but it didn’t go as planned.

She made a makeshift bed and tried to get into her cozy home. That didn’t work so she tried to get the the people and animals to help her. They saw a note on the palm tree. The girl was able to reach it. She realized it was a riddle. She realized all she had do was fall asleep.

Before she fell asleep, she cast one final spell and it was the days of the week, months, and years. She fell asleep after that. There was a surprising jolt and she woke up. She was happy to find herself back in her bedroom. She couldn’t help thinking was it all a dream. Just then, a friendly voice explained that it wasn’t a dream. It was morning.

She went to the kitchen to tell her parents the most amazing thing happened to her. Her parents explained to her she had a real vision. Years later, she grew up to become a beloved author. Her name was Morgana and she had been 11 when the amazing thing happened. She lived in Australia at the time. She loved the book Anne of Green Gables. She thought it described her life perfectly.

The End! I hope you enjoyed!

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Nature’s Beauty

Amazing Nature Party: The Fantastic Idea

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Hey, everyone! This is a new blog series that you will see anytime of day and during the weekdays so you may have to keep your eyes open.

One day, a nature group was doing great with their nature learning. They thought they should have a theme party. Can you guess what theme it was? If you said nature, your right. So they set up the party.

They added animal balloons, foods, plants, and other nature things to their party. Suddenly, the leader of nature group who was helping hang up bird feeders that were protective got an idea. Can you guess what the idea was?

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Nature

Cookie Chat With Cinnamon and Peppermint

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Hey, everyone! If you love or like cookies, you should read about the history of cookies. We’re here today with Cinnamon and Peppermint from the Cookie books. Let’s get started!

Peppermint: Hey, Cinnamon! Are you ready for your interview, Ms. Spice?

Cinnamon: Hi there, Peppermint! Yes, I’m ready, Ms. Mint. By the way, you can just call me Cinnamon.

Peppermint: Here we go. Where were Lavish Cakes commonly eaten?

Cinnamon: Lavish cakes were commonly eaten in the Persian Empire.

Peppermint: The earliest cookie style cakes are thought to date back to what year?

Cinnamon: According to What’s Cooking America which is a food history website, the earliest cookie-style cakes are thought to date back to Persia which was modern Iran in the 7th century C.E. towards the end of it’s glory.

Peppermint: What does honey have to do with the history of cookies?

Cinnamon: While Europeans had honey due to ancient migration of bees, sugar came much later.

Peppermint: Where did sugar originate?  Where was the sugar bought to? Where did sugar get cultivated?

Cinnamon: Sugar originated in the lowlands of Bengal or somewhere in Southeast Asia, and was brought to Persia and cultivated it there, spreading to the eastern Mediterranean.

Peppermint: Bakers made what kind of cake for rich people? When did the Muslim invasion of Iberia take place?

Cinnamon: Bakers made fancy cakes and pastries for the rich people. With the Muslim invasion of Iberia in the 8th century, followed by the Crusades (1095 to 1291) and the developing spice trade, the cooking techniques and ingredients from Arabia spread to Northern Europe.

Peppermint: Cookbooks of the what? Where did it begin? What century did it take place?

Cinnamon: Cookbooks of the Renaissance, which began in Italy in the 14th century and spread to the rest of Europe, are filled with cookie recipes. By the end of the 14th century, anyone could buy little filled wafers on the streets of Paris.

Peppermint: Why weren’t cookies meant to please the sweet tooth? What were they used for?

Cinnamon: During the centuries before, while cakes of were being baked to the delight of all, what has evolved into our cookie wasn’t originally made to please the sweet tooth. According to cooking historians, the first historic record of cookies was used as test cakes.

Peppermint: How do you make test cakes?

Cinnamon: A small amount of cake batter was dropped onto the baking pans to test the temperature of the oven before the cake was baked (early ovens didn’t have thermostats like the ones we use today, and were fueled by burning wood).

Peppermint: What does cookie mean in each language?

Cinnamon: Each language has a different word for cookie. In the Netherlands, the little test cake was called koekje which means little cake in Dutch. Koek is cake in Dutch. The general idea evolved to small separate portions were baked to create dry, hard-textured, cookies we know today.

Peppermint: Why did they remove the moisture? Where does the British word for cookie and biscuit come from?

Cinnamon: With the moisture removed, they stayed fresh longer than cake. The British word for cookie and biscuit comes from the Latin word bis coctum which means double baked (also the origin of the Italian biscotti).

Peppermint: In what year did the term cookie appear in print for the first time? What kind of immigrants brought the cookie where in what year? What word did the Dutch use for the word cookie? Why did the English refer to cookies as small cakes?

Cinnamon:  According to The Oxford Companion For Food, the term cookie first appeared in print around 1703. According to the book, English and Dutch immigrants brought the cookie to America in the 1600s. The Dutch used the word koekje, while the English primarily referred to cookies as small cakes, seed biscuits, or teacakes or by specific names, jumble or a macaroon.

Peppermint: Around the early what, kookje changed to what names?

Cinnamon: Around the early 1700s, kookje had changed to cookie or cookey, and was well-fixed firmly in New York City, then the nation’s capital—a  factor that resulted in widespread use of the word. During the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, most cookies were baked at home as special treats, both because of the amount of work and the high cost of sugar.

Peppermint: Recipes for what kinds of cookies? The cookie recipes are similar to what?

Cinnamon: Recipes for jumbles, macaroons, and gingerbread are found in early cookbooks. The simple butter cookie recipes are similar to English tea cakes and Scottish shortbread (the word tea cake is used to describe that type of cookie in the Southern United States as well).

Peppermint: During what century? Inexpensive what? The introduction to what?

Cinnamon: During the 19th century, inexpensive sugar and flour, and the introduction of relating to chemistry raising agents such as baking soda, led to the development of other types of cookie recipes.

Peppermint: Why did it explode in what year? The introduction of modern what with early what? Cookbooks produced recipes for what?

Cinnamon: Another explosion of cookie recipes took place in the early 1900s, not surprisingly to be parallel to the introduction of modern ovens with early thermostats. Cookbooks produce recipes for cinnamon-flavored snickerdoodles, raisin-filled hermits, sand tarts, and many varieties of butter cookies including Southern-style tea cakes.

Peppermint: The famous what? Why was it an accident?

Cinnamon: The famous chocolate chip cookie wasn’t to appear until 1930, an accident like a lot of good food is. Read more about the full story of the chocolate chip cookie here.

Peppermint: Wow, you sure know a lot about the history of cookies! I’ll go read the full story about the chocolate chip cookie later. I noticed that you said your name in one of the answers.

Cinnamon: Yes, I sure do. My parents wanted me to learn about cookies. I noticed too.

Peppermint: Are you ready to wrap up the interview?

Cinnamon: Yes, I’m ready.

Peppermint: It was nice talking to you about cookies.

Cinnamon: It was nice meeting you.

Sources:

https://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/cookies/cookies2/cookie-history.asp

The other sources are linked in the interview.

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Snickerdoodles

Books I Recommend: The Turnip by Jan Brett

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Hey, everyone! This is my 47th book recommendation. I hope you enjoy!

1. The Turnip by Jan Brett

2. The Wheel by Richard W. Bulliet

3. Mercy by Nancy Furstinger

4. Footwork by Roxanne Orgill

5. De Balboa and the Discovery of the South Sea by Hal Marcovitz

6. Super Simple Paper Airplanes by Nick Robinson

7. Championship Paper Planes by Paul Jackson

8. Virginia Lee Burton by Barbara Elleman

9. The Lemonade Club by Patricia Polacco

10. Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco

11.  Butterfly House by Eve Bunting

12. Bafto of the Blue Dawn by Mary Pope Osborne

13. Mississippi River by John F. Prevost

14. What’s In A Word? by Robert Gorrell

15. The Pages Between Us by Lindsey Leavitt and Robin Mellom

16. You Make My Heart Swing Sideways by Nanci Turner Steveson

17. Camp Out! by Lynn Brunelle

18. 500 Butterflies From Around the World by Ken Preston Mafham

19. Songbirds Journey by Miyoko Chu

20. Kathryn the Gym Fairy by Daisy Meadows

21. Extra Credit by Andrew Clements

22. The Genie Scheme by Kimberly K. Jones

23. Inky the Indigo Fairy by Daisy Meadows

24. Dragonflies by Cynthia Berger

25. The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages

26. Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman

27. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

28. Unlikely Friendships by Jennifer S. Holland

29. The Case of Pluto by Alan Boyle

30. Bird Sense by Tim Birkhead

31. The Quantum Zoo by Marcus Chown

32. Zamba by Ralph Helfer

33. The 100 Most Influential Inventors Of All Time by Robert Curley

34. Of Orcas and Men by David Neiwert

35. Great Motion Mission by Cora Lee

36. Trekking on a Trail by Linda White

37. Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright

38. Beryl by Jane Simmons

39. The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly

40. Chemistry Essentials For Dummies by John T. Moore

41. Western Union by Zane Grey

42. Physics II For Dummies by Steven Holzner

43. Cooking in a Can by Katherine L. White

44. The Birchbark House by Louise Enrich

45. Regarding the Bathrooms by Kate Klise

46. Dragons of Silk by Laurence Yep

47. Paddington Marches On by Michael Bond

48. Serena the Salsa Fairy by Daisy Meadows

49. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

History of Candy

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Hey, everyone! If some of you like candy, I think you might like know the history of candy. I hope you enjoy my blog post about candy. You’ll see a variety of candy blog posts in the future. Let’s begin!

Some people had normally believed that the thought of a candied treat was originally formed by cave people. They liked honey from the honey bees’ beehives. Before the Egyptians, Chinese, Indians, Greeks, Romans, and the people of Middle East had sugar; they combined honey with fruits and nuts to make candy.

A lot of people believed the first pieces of candy were eaten as a type of medical treatment for digestive problems. Civilization started to expand. When the sugar processing was discovered, it became a high traded item. In the Middle Ages, sugar had become highly priced. That made the sugar very expensive.

At the same time, sugar was labeled as a drug that was considered the cure for a lot of ailments and was sold by people who sold and prepared medicines. During the 17th century as sugar became a little more available, people in England and America they ate cooked sugar candy mixed with fruits and nuts.

Carmel and lollipops were known since the early 18th century. By the 1800s, more than 380 factories were built in the United States to manufacture candy. Most of the factories were producing separate, hard, and loose candies. In 1765, the first chocolate factory got established in the United States of America.

By the early nineteenth century after the sugar beet discovery and the encouragement of the mechanical age, candy making developed quickly into an industry and a various sort of flavors. Since the candy was no longer homemade and started to be large quantities, they were available to all people for the first time ever. The very first candy made were hard boiled sweets, marshmallows, and Turkish delight.

Also at the same time, hard candies like peppermints and lemon drops became extremely popular in America. England was the first country to manufacture in large quantities and at the 1851 London Prince Albert Exhibition, a large variation of boiled sweets, bonbons, chocolate creams, caramels, and many other candies were represented to European and American confectioners.

Ancient Olmec civilizations made the first chocolate drink. The Spaniards introduced chocolate in the 16th century to European people. Coca powder was made in 1828 but chocolate became not handmade and enormously available in  midst of the 19th century when it was introduced to the candy making factories as both cocoa and sugar rose to brand new heights.

In the beginning, the chocolate was produced out of a bittersweet chocolate. The first candy bar for the mass market was created by Joseph Fry in 1847. In 1854, the first packaged of Whitman’s chocolates was introduced. Richard Cadbury introduced the first Valentine’s Day box of candy in 1868.

David Peter and Henry Nestle from Switzerland made the first milk chocolate in 1876 which made the American candy bar such a phenomenon  of the late 19th century. Today, many kinds of ingredients are added to the chocolate bar. The famous candy corn was invented in 1880 by George Renninger. George Smith invented the first Lolly Pop in 1908.

Gumdrops

Here’s the sources I used:

https://www.candyhistory.net/candy-origin/history-of-candy/

Emotions With Animals: Wise Tortoise & Shy Turtles

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Hey, everyone! Welcome back to this week’s bonus edition of Emotions With Animals. The bonus is in honor of water. This week’s edition includes tortoises and freshwater turtles. Let’s begin!

Wise tortoises live longer than average humans. So it makes them seem wise.

Wise people have many experiences. They also meditate.

How To Be Wise:

Know that you are wise from the heart.

Help people. (This might make you feel and be wise.)

Shy turtles are scared of humans. So if you see one, you might be in luck. Turtles can be so shy that if you make any noise they’ll just go back underwater.

Shy people stutter, blush, shake, breathless, or speechless. Shy people might rarely talk. When they do talk, they might be so nervous that they stutter.

How To Avoid Being Shy:

Overcoming your shyness will take practice.

Take slow, steady steps forward. Going slow is okay but be sure to go forward. Stepping back from any situations that trigger you to feel shy can reinforce shyness and keep it at a level that’s hard to get past. Build confidence by taking one small forward step at a time.

It’s okay to feel awkward. It happens to everyone.

Know you can do it.

Be true to yourself.

Pay attention to the thoughts you are having when you’re experiencing shyness.

Remind yourself that no one can see the butterflies in your stomach.

Take deep breaths.

Have sips of water. (This is healthy).

I hope you enjoyed this week’s bonus edition of Emotions with Animals. Tune in next week for the next edition of Emotions With Animals.

A tortoise walking.