A lesson in paper air planes

I can not take full credit for the air plane launcher. I saw a picture on pintrest and thought it would be so much fun to do with our Cub Scout Pack. But I am not good at keeping things simple and went all out, it is a normal thing around here. After making the launcher and realizing I am not good at making paper airplanes I ended up looking for patterns and decided this would be an amazing lesson for our classroom. So we looked up aerodynamics of paper airplanes. Who knew there was such a science to it all.  This turned into hours of fun. We did not color our airplanes because we were way to busy testing our planes to see if they would fly.

Let us start with the launcher
First you need a piece of scrap wood. (We used a small piece of pallet wood because I am obsessed with pallet projects.) 2 screws and a rubber band and tape. I choose to paint ours so I needed paint.

Just screw the screws in evenly in a straight line. 

We used screws because the nail did not want to go in the pallet.
If you do that you are going to want to tape it really well. 

I painted it blue since this was for Cubscouts. 

Then I painted a runway. 

After our Launcher was completed we took a giant cardboard and cut out openings. But we decided we want to redo it using wood so it really last. (I will post pictures after we make it.)

Standing the cardboard up was tricky but it was worth it in the end. I did not take pictures of our folding because I was folding. 

 This turned into an all day project. Our neighbors even joined in on the fun. 

Flat Stanley

We have official started class!! We started with flat Stanley and it has been great. 

Flat Stanley: His Original Adventure! I got the kids started by drawing out there people. 

We traced gingerbread cutters.  

                                               Then colored them.

I then began to read the book.

Each kid cut out their people.

I let them cut out their own projects even though people lost legs.

Daddy helped Gill-G with cutting.

Meet Mr. There.

Meet Mr. Girl.

Meet Miss. Gingerbread.

After we finish cutting and drawing we learned about measuring.

Daddy and Yasser carefully measured everyone.

We had to explain the different sides of the ruler a few times.

Gill- G had fun seeing how big Mr. Girl was.

Hulk man got bored with the group and left. He was discovering the joys of flipping a fork.

That seems way more fun than measuring. After we finished with everyone we passed them around and we are trying to see what adventures they encounter.

Pancake á la mode

We were having pancakes for dinner tonight and my husband made (not the batter he has a thing against batter after one bad experience) pancakes and made a caramel style apple compote for dinner!! The kids were excited and then I decided to make it really special and go á la mode. Who would not want it?

I mean take a good look. Ice cream slowly dripping down over the nice warm apples. 

On top of a nice fluffy pancake. 

So you need to make the pancakes. I have always used Better homes and garden recipe. I just change my flour. Everyone uses all purpose but pancakes and other dessert stuff should be cake flour. Cake flour is ground a bit more and has a lower protein count. 

Buttermilk Pancakes

1 3/4 cups cake flour

2 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg, slightly beaten 

1 1/2 cup buttermilk (I just use regular milk)

3 tablespoon cooking oil

Mix all together and make fluffy pancakes. 

Now for the apples 

You need : 

2 tablespoons

1/2 cup brown sugar

( mine sugar tends to be darker because I started making it my self but that is a whole other story.)

3 or 4 apples cored and thinly sliced but with the skin

Throw it all in the pan and cook it down. Now assemble and top with Ice cream and enjoy!!!

For a gluten free version use the Namaste Foods, Gluten Free Waffle & Pancake Mix, 21-Ounce Bags (Pack of 6) . It is very similar in texture to regular and just as yummy.  

Painting

I have been going crazy the last few days painting. Peg dolls everywhere!! I am not even joking. I sat down on my couch and spread paint out everywhere. All of this started over a Christmas idea. I want to have all homemade toys. I have these tiny little things too which made a few cute characters but the best part has to be I sold a set and my kids was so thrilled to see me painting. I was surprised my husband did not make an elf comment ( I am sure its coming at some point.)

The cat decided she was going to help. I was asked to sell two sets which inspired reviving my old etsy account. ( https://www.etsy.com/shop/skuczma) Check it out and pass the word along.