INDIANA KIDS
Spring Issue 2013
Vol. 1, Issue 3
Indiana Kids is a quarterly online magazine for kids, about kids and by kids (with a little help from their parents and grandparents.) This online magazine is a family project of the Miller and Anderson families, founded to teach our own family’s Indiana kids how to work together, how to interview people (which involves a lot of listening), how to interpret and write about what they’ve learned, and to introduce them to many other wonderful and interesting Indiana Kids. We are also promoting the literary arts in Indiana by soliciting creative writing and artwork from kids around the state. Cover photo: Anna Hopkins, Coconut and Poppy taken by Andrea Hopkins Editor Reilly Kate Anderson, age 14 Staff Writers Sydney Anderson, age 10 Kennedy Miller, age 9 Ty Miller, age 8 Jax Miller, age 4 Contributing Writers in this issue Ayden Johnson, 11 Anna Hopkins, 14 Contributing Artists in this issue Keylee Fernung, age 9 Shawn Young, age 10 Contributing Poets in this issue Keylee Fernung, age 9 Ella Larson, Age 9 Esmerelda Grunda, Age 8 Jianna Harrison, Age 8 Chief Toy and Game Tester Ty Miller, age 8 Chief Photographers Ashley Miller, Mom Rob Anderson, Dad Publisher Susan Hoskins Miller, Grandma
MEET AN INDIANA KID
Faith Tye, age 10, interviewed by Kennedy Miller
If you could do anything in the world you wanted with nothing to limit you from doing it, what would you do? Sticking to walls because it is COOL! What is your favorite thing that you do with your family? Talk to them because we always laugh If you could decorate your room any way you want, what would it look like? Pink, One Direction, and of course girly patterns. What is your favorite color? Periwinkle Favorite book? Love, Aubrey, Favorite TV show? Toddlers and Tiaras, Favorite Movie? Pitch perfect because I LOVE music. I’ve always been involved in singing and dancing. Favorite Food? Steak What is your favorite subject in school? Writing because I am so good at it! I LOVE expressing my feelings in my writing. What is your favorite place and why? Justice, because it is so girly like me! What is your favorite holiday and why? My favorite holiday is Valentine’s Day because I love, love!
Start Your Own Blog
Our cousin, Ayden Johnson, started his own blog. He tells us how he did it, and you can see it for yourself by clicking on this link : www.extravaganzahttp.blogspot.com My Blog by Ayden Johnson I started my blog because a friend in my class made one and it inspired me. I picked the name because there are things in my life that are both fun and funny. I added http to the end because extravaganza was already taken. I was using my Kindle Fire to make the blog. I made the background out of a photo I created on edmodo.com. If you want to start a blog, use blogger. It's run through Google and you need an email account. If you don't have one, you could ask one of your parents to use their account. Also, be sure not to put too much personal information about yourself on your blog. Bad people are online sometimes and privacy is important.
School is Cool Next time your teacher assigns you to write an essay, these tips might help. We found them on Pinterest from the blog “My Life as a Third Grade Teacher”
http://msnoren.blogspot.com/2011/10/teachers-day-out.html
A Watched Pot Never Boils By Anna Hopkins, Age 14 “A watched pot never boils”, I have heard that phrase over and over each spring for as long as I can remember. Of course I am not talking about water but lambs. You can’t make a ewe give birth by staring at her. I have learned this lesson. My name is Anna Hopkins and I live on a small farm in Westfield, Indiana, where my family and I raise Shetland Sheep along with an assortment of other animals including 2 dogs, chickens, miniature horse, pony, 6 cats and a llama named George. My sister Emma and I show our Shetlands all throughout the Midwest at various times of year. But one of my favorite parts of my sheep is watching the lambs grow and mature right in my backyard. Each spring and fall we anxiously await the arrival of a new flock of lambs, wondering what color and pattern combinations will we get that year. How do we name all of these new additions? In the Shetland world, most breeders use a theme to generate names. Some of the themes our farm has done in the past include saints, Indiana counties, Shakespeare characters, Greek gods, and even Indian tribes. This year we chose to do exotic fruits, nuts and seeds. So far this spring we have had 8 lambs, each with a unique name such as Brazil, Poppy, Shae and Acorn.
Photo at left, Anna being kissed by Poppy. Right photo shows Brazil shortly after birth. Determining the theme to be used for next year’s lambs is always a big deal at the Hopkins’ household. Each member of the family takes a turn picking the theme that they want to use. After having to squeeze long names such as Kosciusko, Chrysanthemum, and Neemeepoo into tiny boxes on
registration papers, you can understand why my dad chose 3 letter names for the theme during his year. If you didn’t already know, those names came from the Indiana counties, flowers and Indian tribes’ themed years. For my turn last year, my friend suggested Crayola Crayon colors. After researching popular colors, and going through a box of 360 Crayola Crayons, I knew we would have a colorful crop of lamb names for 2012. Looking through the colors, I realized I could sort them into ram and ewe names. From there, I put each group into a separate bag and set them aside in anticipation of the 2012 lambing season. On the morning of the first delivery, I excitedly reached my hand into the ram bag, pulling out a silvery gray crayon. This was how our first lamb of the 2012 season, Timberwolf, was named. What is our theme for next year? That one is still up for debate! Follow the journey of naming our 2014 lambs on our website, www.littleeaglecreekvalleyfarm.webs.com!
By: Kennedy Miller We tested a Pinterest project and it was AWESOME! Here is what you need to do this AWESOME project yourself! Materials: 2 spoons 2 paper towels Yellow and blue food coloring 3 clear cups
Instructions: First, fill 2 cups 他 of the way full with water.
Then, put yellow food coloring in one of the cups with water and mix it with a spoon. Put blue food coloring in the other cup with water and mix with the 2nd spoon.
Next, fold a paper towel and put one end in the empty cup and the other end into the yellow cup. Take the other paper towel and put one end in the empty cup and the other in the blue cup.
Lastly, watch as each paper towel soaks in the colored water. (This takes some time so don’t expect immediate results. We let it sit overnight.) The empty cup will have green water in it!
The paper towels brought the water to the empty cup and of course blue & yellow equal green! Have fun making this project like I did. Comment if you did it and if you like it!
Reference: http://allforkids.tv/episode-guide/season-4/episode-37/absorbing-science/
Kids Getting Exercise Whether you have to stay indoors because of the weather, or can get outdoors, it’s important to get some exercise every day. Sydney and Ty (in the photo on the left) and Kennedy (on the right) go bowling together to get some exercise.
SUSAN HENDRICKSON By: Kennedy Miller
Susan Hendrickson is a very famous person. Do you know why? She found the largest and most complete skeleton of a T-Rex ever found!
The dinosaur is named Sue and was found in August of 1990, near Faith, South Dakota. Sue is an awesome dinosaur. If you are interested in learning about dinosaurs, then you will love learning about the dinosaur Sue. You can see Sue at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, IL. Sue reveals a lot about history so what are you waiting for? Go learn more about dinosaur time!
Photo at left of Susan Hendrickson with T-Rex still in the rock from the dinosaurs.org website. Photo above of Sue the T-Rex from the Field Museum website.
Sue's Vital Statistics Age: 67 million years—and rather well preserved for her age, wouldn’t you say? Discovered: August 12, 1990, on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation near Faith, South Dakota, by fossil hunter Sue Hendrickson. Length: 41 to 45 feet (12.5 to 13.7 meters) Height at hips: 13 feet (4.0 meters) Estimated live weight: 7 tons (6.4 metric tons) Weight of skull, as found: Nearly 1 ton Length of skull: 5.2 feet Size of brain cavity: Just big enough to hold a quart of milk Number of teeth: 60 Length of teeth: 7 1/2 to 12 inches Sex: Undetermined Price: Acquired by The Field Museum (with assistance from McDonald’s® Corporation and Walt Disney World Resort®) for $8.36 million. To scientists and dinosaur fans: Priceless More Sue facts: It took six fossil hunters 17 days to get Sue out of the ground; it took ten preparators two years to clean and repair her bones. A T. rex skeleton is made up of more than 250 bones. Sue was found with most of those bones. She’s missing only a foot, one arm, and a few ribs and vertebrae. Only two complete T. rex forelimbs have ever been found—and Sue’s is one of them! Sue’s legs are enormous, but her arms are the size of a human’s—so short they couldn’t even reach her mouth. No one knows how T. rex used those tiny forelimbs. Sue’s razor-sharp teeth were continually shed and regrown during her lifetime.
From the Field Museum’s website at http://fieldmuseum.org/about/sue-facts-fun
http://mamascouts.blogspot.com/2012/12/25-mini-adventures-in-library.html
Our family loves libraries, and our Grandma even works in one. There are many things you can do in the library besides check out books. Here are some adventurous ideas from mamascouts blog. Please share the interesting, fun or just odd things your family does at the library in the comments! Make sure you have one of your parents with you for some of these ideas.
1. Look at microfilm from your birthday, or a hundred years ago, or when grandma was born. 2. Look for the biggest book in the library. Take your picture with it. 3. Browse the travel section, find a place you want to visit, and decide what your trip would be like. 4. Go to the cookbook area, choose a recipe, go the store (with your parent), get the ingredients and cook it that day. 5. Everyone find a poem, read it out loud and then copy it into your journal. 6. Choose a random CD, listen to it all the way through. 7. Kind Bomb: Write good wishes and thoughts on paper and hide them in books in the children's department. 8. Scan the books of quotes. Find a good one and write it outside on the sidewalk with chalk. 9. Bring paper and colored pencils. Draw from the easy I-Can-Draw-Books for an hour. 10. Take a present to the librarians.
11. Leave a thoughtful review on a post-it note in a book you really loved. 12. Find out what services your library offers. Ellison machine? Study prints? Study rooms? 13. Occupy! Have a meeting, writer’s group, books club, homeschool co-op, adventure planning committee at the library. (Better have your parents ask a librarian for permission for this one.) 14. Make photocopies of your hand, funny book titles, weird images.... 15. Make a list of suggested books and media for your library to buy. Make the library YOUR library. 16. Arrange a library tour. (with permission) 17. Browse books on the flora and fauna of your area. Learn to identify something new. 18. Check out the corresponding children’s or adult section to your favorite area (reptiles, art, mystery...) 19. Ask about the special collections. 20. Read a biography from the children or adult sections on someone you know very little about. 21. Find a baby name book, make a list of funny name combinations, choose a new name for the day. 22. Hunt for authors with your same last name. 23. Look in the Reference section. What is the weirdest reference book you can find? 24. Look at the Guinness Books of World Records from each year if your library has them, and find the craziest world records. 25. Make sure each kid has their own library card and bag.
Kids in the Kitchen These fun ideas for springtime lunches and snacks were found on Pinterest. Email us a picture of your own visual food creation to indianakidsmag@gmail.com.
Where did we leave off? Parents can hardly go wrong reading stories to their children at bedtime - unless they read them terrifying tales that give them nightmares. Someone who knows a lot about kids’ books - Elizabeth Bird, children’s librarian at the New York Public Library - recommends chapter books that both parents and kids will love, making that shared time together just before tuck-in even more memorable.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum - A marvelous mix of mildly scary with enough excitement to
keep the kids awake but not riled up. There's a reason this early 20th century title is still considered a classic today. Find yourself a beautifully illustrated edition (I've a special affection for the Michael Hague version) and snuggle down for a great read.
Wombat and Fox by Terry Denton - This charming New Zealand import follows two very different friends as they experience different problems and solutions. Denton has a real way with personality. After reading a few of these stories, you'll feel like you've known Wombat and Fox all your life.
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Inga Moore - The Moore version of Grahame's classic has been abridged for kids so as it make it more palatable. A great way to introduce them to a classic story that still stands the test of time.
Toys Go Out by Emily Jenkins - Forget Toy Story. This is the real tale of what happens to your toys when
you're not along. A stuffed manta ray, buffalo, and plastic bouncy ball have small adventures that are just the right size for bedtime.
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin - This winner of a 2010 Newbery Honor tells the story of a girl who goes out to seek her family's fortune. Along the way she befriends a gentle dragon, uses folktales to help guide her, and eventually reaches The Wise Old Man of the Moon. Incredibly engaging, this is a beautiful paced and wonderfully illustrated tale.
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things by Lenore Look - Funny stories at bedtime don't
have to be distracting. Alvin Ho is the world's most delightful hypochondriac too. If he's not afraid of one thing then he's panicked about another. Great tales in a funny format.
The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill - Though most folks remember her better for The Pushcart War, Jean Merrill's story about a kid who finds a way to turn himself into a millionaire, thanks to toothpaste, is a great story (and perfect for the young entrepreneurs out there).
Mokie and Bik by Wendy Orr - Australian fare. Get your tongue thoroughly ironed before you try reading
aloud any of this delightfully twisted text. It's worth it once you get a hang of it, of course. For folks who want to stretch the brains of their young 'uns before beddy bye.
The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz - A branch new 2010 title and already a classic. Consider this the
world's first perfect children's fairy chapter book. When a little night fairy loses her wings to a bat, she must overcome her own stubbornness, make friends, and help others when they're in need. Newbery Award winner Schlitz's words are magical.
Younguncle Comes to Town by Vandana Singh - These stories from India tell the tale of a young man who isn't too dissimilar to Mary Poppins, sans umbrella and with a couple more monsoons.
BOOK REVIEW By: Ty Miller Title: The Mouse and the Motorcycle Author: Beverly Cleary Brief Summary: This book is about a mouse named Ralph who lives in an Inn in California. He was given a motorcycle by a boy named Keith who is visiting from Ohio. Ralph shows off a lot by doing tricks on his motorcycle. This book is really funny because there is no such thing as a mouse who can ride on a motorcycle!
Book Reviews Kennedy was the only student in her class this year who read all 20 of the Young Hoosier Book Award nominees in the Intermediate category. Super job, Kennedy!! She tells us a little about three of them for this issue of Indiana Kids.
Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord This book is about 11 year old Tess. Her school is going to shut down on a little island in Maine. What will they do? This is realistic fiction. I think people who like realistic fiction will love this book.
Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm This book is about Turtle, and her Mom is a housekeeper. The person her Mom works for does not like kids. Turtle had to go to her Aunt Minnie’s house. This is realistic fiction. I think if you love books that have great voice you will love this book.
Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea Mr. Terupt has never been a teacher before and this is his first year teaching. Everyone thinks that he is the best teacher. But one day everything changes. If you love Young Hoosier Books you will love this great book.
Three reading holidays
March 2 is the birthday of Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, and it has been celebrated for the past 14 years as Read Across America Day. Read Across America is sponsored by the National Education Association and an estimated 45 million kids will participate in the day’s events. Pull your favorite Dr. Seuss book off the shelf and read it again!
International Children’s Book Day is celebrated on April 2 each year because that date is the birthday of Hans Christian Andersen. Andersen was the writer of many fairy tales including “The Princess and the Pea,” “The Ugly Duckling,” “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” “The Snow Queen,” and many more that are just as famous. Read them all!
Amelia Bedelia celebrates her 50th birthday For 50 years, kids have loved reading about Amelia Bedelia and her misadventures as a maid for the Rogers family. We’ve laughed at how she takes things literally, such as making a date cake with dates cut out of the calendar, and a sponge cake with cut up sponges in the batter. Who can forget when she was told to dust the furniture and sprinkled dusting powder on it? Her actual birthday was January 29, but the publishers of her books say you can celebrate her birthday through all of 2013. We plan to celebrate by re-reading some of her books, but here is a link to an Amelia Bedelia party kit if you want to have a birthday party for her. http://harpercollinschildrens.com/feature/ameliabedeliaday/AmeliaBedeliaPartyKit.pdf
Drawing by Shawn Young, 10, Elwood, Indiana
Drawing above and Haiku poem below both by Keylee Fernung, 9, Elwood, Indiana
Haiku Outside has flowers Beautiful colors blooming Pink blue purple red
The Unicorn’s Point of View Why, why! Am I different? Why was I born? Are there others like me? Why? Oh, but look! There’s another one like me. Yippee!
By: Jianna Harrison, Age 8, 2nd Grade
Our Lives Don't act like you're perfect, perfect is being yourself. Don't worry about your skin color. You don't have to be skinny. You don't need to wear a lot of makeup, you are already pretty. Don't listen to people who say you are ugly, you can ignore them. Do your own way. By: Ella Larson, Age 9, 4th Grade, and Esmerelda Grunda, Age 8, 2nd Grade
Second Annual Writing Contest: 2013 Booth Tarkington Prize for Young Writers Do you love to write? Have you written a story, poem, song, or play you are really proud of? Then you need to enter Butler University's annual contest for Young Writers! We are now accepting submissions. Enter in one or more of the following categories: Fiction, Poetry, and Other forms. Submit your best writing for the chance to win a cash prize of $25. Up to 9 winners will be announced at the end of May: a high school, middle school and elementary winner from each category of fiction, poetry, and other forms. To enter: Submit your work to butlerbridgeprogram.submittable.com no later than April 1, 2013. You will be asked to upload your file into the submission manager. Acceptable document types include: PDF, DOC, DOCX, JPG, PNG, GIF, MP3, and MOV. Your submission should include a cover page with your name, grade, category, e-mail address, and phone number. Your name should appear only on the cover page. All work should be previously unpublished and please limit submissions to one piece per category. We look forward to reading your creative work! Happy Writing, Geoffrey Sharpless Mindy Dunn