This blog post is about my dearly loved avocados.

Avocados

This post is about my avocado plant and how much its  grown.The avocado started off  as a puny little seed about 5cm tall on the 9th of June 2013 so check that post out if you want to learn how to grow an avocado for yourself.

http://thebloggingbrothers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/avocados.html

It kept growing and growing and growing and it is still growing today.I did another post on the 14th February 2014 to show how much it had grown .

Today is the 28th of March 2017 and it is taller than a ten-year-old boy that is the tallest in his class and is not your average.I have got two more avocado plants but they are not quite as tall yet (growth mindset) .I have had to put the avocado plant on the floor because it is so enormous. 

The first day of spring and new beginning for this blog.First Blog, the big bomb!

Click the link to watch the video.

https://youtu.be/H7J0zuyYkJM

Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely mothers out there.This blog today is about ' The Big Bomb'.I got this idea from a Youtube post showing you how to make a primer for a bullet using matchheads.(Mum didn't know I was making this because I didn't tell her) .Until she found out when she heard this sound like a gunshot in the garden.

Method

To start with I crushed up 5 big match-heads and put the sticks in a bag. I used these later for kindling. Next, I scraped the side off the matchbox until that was a fine powder.After that, I gently mixed the two ingredients together and pushed the mix into a tinfoil square 7cm long.Then, I carefully folded up the tinfoil and moved outside with it.Finally, I put on my safety glasses and  put it on the top of a dry brick. I hit The Big Bomb as hard as I could and  it exploded into lots of pieces with a loud bang that made my ears ring for five minutes afterwards! 
You should check with an adult first unlike me and ask them if it is ok to try this fun experiment.

Top tip 

Do not stand too close to this bomb as it will obliterate anything in its path.

Scratch

 http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/24577463/

This is my project on scratch .scratch is a computer coding website which allows you to make games and animations. Scratch is an easy-to-use website that uses simple codes but comes out with really good results. When I want to make a project I go onto you tube and I search cool projects to do on scratch and I comes up with some great results but sometimes if I want to do something simple I have a book with some simple codes in to mess around with. I am also doing scratch at school and I completed the Monkey Mayhem game at school in under 30 minutes go check Scratch out. It is easy to use and fun .

A solar cooker

Cookies in the Solar Cooker!

 

 

The main idea is that a foil lid reflects sunlight focusing it into a black box.

I used a metal tin for my black box because I thought metal would heat up better than cardboard.

I put the tin in a cardboard box and filled the space between them with insulators. I use polystyrene chips. Make sure to seal up all the holes so no heat escapes. I used cling film to make a clear lid but as it heated up it collected condensation.

 

 

I left the box in the sun to heat up so that when I added the cookie dough they started to cook straight away. I could hear the dough sizzling as soon as I put it in.

 

When the sun moved around we had to keep moving the box to trap the sunlight.

It took at least 3 hours to cook the dough.

They tasted OK but the texture was weird.

We cooked the rest in the oven.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chocolatechipcookies_72335

How to make a teabag fireball

I am in the process of completing a Kitchen Chemistry course online run by the University of East Anglia. This week I have been messing around with molecules and taking off with tea bags! 

Weekend Box Club

I had a fabulous surprise today when I found a weekend box in the postbox. First of all I had to open it. That was a bit tricky. I tried not to rip it but I didn't quite manage. I like the way the box folds up and all the colouring pages inside. 

Inside the box there were a number of coloured packages and instructions for lots of activities.

First of all I made the green pancakes. We had to buy a huge bag of spinach but all the spices were in the box. We also used one of our lovely blue chicken eggs. We actually added two but the recipe only said one. 

We had to fry the mixture.The pancakes were easy to make and were OK. I think adults would prefer them because there were a few too many spices for me. We had them with roasted vegetables.

Next I followed the instructions on the sound Explorers sheet. We used balloons to make funny robot sounds in our mouths. We followed the link on the sheet to a video that was  fun to watch. I thought this was a bit too educational though and quite hard. 

The creative activity in the box was making a bird. There was even a glue stick in the box. I followed the instructions all by myself and added a few other bits from my making box.

I liked receiving the box. It was exciting getting something for me in the post. The box is aimed at 3-8 year olds which I think is perfect. 

Oscar

Extra bit.....for parents.....

Inside your Weekend Box you’ll find four activities, one from each of the following categories:

Something to Cook

Something to Make

Something to Explore and

Something Green

Each activity is designed to build sensory exploration skills within little ones aged 3-8 as well as help teach them about different life skills in a fun and engaging way.

At the oldest end of this age range Oscar managed to do the activities following the instructions by himself which gave a real sense of achievement. There was a good variety of activities in the box to keep his interest. 

Andy decided to set up Weekend Box after getting frustrated when he was buying gifts for his niece and nephew who are 5: he wanted to buy something educational yet fun, something that stimulated creativity and not something plasticky made in a factory in China; he couldn't find anything so his quit his job and started developing!

I have been given a unique code for my blog readers. 

Use this code to get a free weekend box including delivery.

Your unique promo code is APRYL39 and can be redeemed at www.weekendboxclub.com

Emil and the Detectives

This week we went to see Emil and the Detectives at the National Theatre in London. Emil and his friends were great actors even though they were only children. . I was also amazed at their confidence to stand up to a crowd of over 1000 people.

 

The basic plot was about Emil going to visit his Grandma in Berlin. He starts on the train with two nice normal ladies, a sheep,  and one very suspicious man . The man turned out to be  called... Mr Snow. His character was obnoxious  and his voice very patronising. On the train he tells Emil to try and get some sleep but being an criminal he steals 140 Marks from Emil's pocket.  Emil was taking his mother's savings to Grandma as a gift. The rest of the story was about Emil and his friends going on an adventure to  get the money back. The play was set in Berlin in 1929 when kids were seen as a nuisance.

My favourite parts were when Emil went down into the sewers. Ladders came up from the floor and down from the ceiling which gave the impression that he was climbing down. Other scenery that I really liked was the lighting in the sewer tunnel. It looked like the tunnel of doom went on forever. 

There was a lot of tension in the play. Scary stories about Berlin were told at the start to warn Emil about the dangers of the city and his nightmares soon came true when flick knives appeared. The music helped to create suspense.  There were funny parts too, for example when the cast ran through the audience. I was also surprised when at one point money fell from the ceiling.

One of my  favourite characters was actually a girl called Pony. Her character was  really feisty and she  stood up for herself. I was a bit surprised at some of her strong language though. 

During the interval we asked the members of the audience who didn't have children with them if they were enjoying the show. They replied that it was a great show for all ages and that they liked the music.  It was a bit like a pantomime as there were some jokes that were for adults that I didn't really get.

I had a brilliant evening and would thoroughly recommend this show to people of all ages.