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.

                                                                                                      

Natural dyes and paints

Yesterday I went to Firstsite, Colchester and worked with natural paints. First I needed inspiration so I headed to the roman mosaic to look at the patterns. I created a design of my own that represented water and lightning. 

Then I transferred the pattern onto special foam using a cotton wool bud with no cotton wool on. I choose a blue dye which looked like the night sky.

 

 I printed it onto different colours of paper.

The artist, Nabil Ali, told me that the dyes were created using natural materials. He used stinging nettles, madder, and egg shells.

When I got home I made my own dye. I picked some beetroot from the garden then cleaned and chopped it into little pieces. Next I cooked it and then waited for it to cool. 

It was quite runny and the image didn't really work well.  I tried it on different paper and that worked better. I was surprised that it was red and not purple as I expected.

Next time I might try a sharp pencil for the lines and normal lino painting ink as it seems stickier. 

Another great day at Firstsite.http://www.firstsite.uk.net/

 http://www.nabilali.co.uk/home.html

Avocados!

My avocados are growing well aren't they? The tallest one from tip to pip is 51cm. The tree can grow up to 20 m. That's 40 times more. That won't fit in my house!


They are known as The Alligator Pear because their skin is rough like an alligators and it is shaped like a pear.

Fact
Mexico produces most of the worlds avocados.

Weird fact
In Ethiopia avocados are made into juice by mixing with sugar and milk and then served with Vimto and a slice of lemon. Yuk!

The Willow Pattern Story

I've discovered stop motion animation this week. 

I was surprised that after hours and hours of hard labour the whole video only lasted 55 seconds.  I took 271 pictures. 

I used free 'Stop Motion'  on my ipad. It was easy to us. You could easily edit and upload the scenes. 

The hardest part was getting the people to stand up. It was also really difficult to add music. I also found it hard to move the birds. I would use strings next time.

I can't wait to see the new Lego movie. i wonder how many shots that took.

Review of Aquila Magazine

 

Aquila Magazine Review by Lex

The blogging brothers were sent a few Aquila magazines last month to review. I've finally got around to looking at them after reading all my Christmas books. ( By the way my favourite was Hunger Games) The magazine is aimed at bright 8-12 year olds. It is 'designed to provide children with challenges and of course, fun'. Aquila Magazine

I'd seen an advert for Aquila  inside other magazines but was not keen on subscribing as the drawn front covers looked like the magazine was for children younger than me. I received one with a photo on the cover and was more drawn to that one.

Each issue has a particular focus. I particularly enjoyed the one on Planets because this was my topic at school. There were space facts and lots of science activities but also maths puzzles, stories, making activities and games.

The magazine is aimed at smart 8-12 year ols. I don't think many 8 year olds could read this. Also a 12 year old wouldn't be seen dead reading a magazine with the drawn front covers. The cover and the contents do not match at all.

For me there was far too much information that was not really that interesting. If the same information was in smaller chunks and presented differently I may have read it and enjoyed it.

I really liked the joke section and I'd not seen these before.

Book titles:
Danger by Luke Out
Sweets by Candy Cane
In the garden by Rose Plant

The back page has a article called' Who told you that? ' and the idea is that it tells the truth about sayings. For example. ' Dogs only wag their tails when they are happy' We all think this is true but it is not the case. The article explains that dogs are trying to communicate with you. I really enjoyed these.

This magazine would make a great alternative to Google to find out homework facts on a particular topic.

I think this magazine would work in schools. In my classroom we read after lunch and I think being allowed to read a magazine (educational) would make a change. Even reluctant readers might be interested. 

To sum up... give it a go, it might be for you.

Queso Blanco!

by Oscar 

Today I made some cheese.

Ingredients 

4 pints of full fat milk

3/4 teaspoon citric acid 

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 muslin

1 thermometer

colander

big pot

spoons

First of all I made the citric acid solution with 25ml of boiled water. Then I heated all of the milk and stirred it so it didn't burn. I clipped the thermometer onto the pan and waited until it got to 185 F. Then I added the citric acid solution and stirred it until the curds and whey separated. The acid makes the protein tangle up to make the curds and the whey was the watery stuff left behind. I  I poured the mixture into a muslin cloth over a colander. I squeezed the bag of curds to get of the liquid out. I then hung it over the kitchen tap to make sure all the liquid dripped out. 

After an hour it was ready to eat. BUT we needed crackers! 

While we waited I made some savory crackers.

Ingredients 

100g butter

1 egg

100g self raising flour

grated cheese

I used mums electric mixer to mix the egg and butter. I love using this machine it's fun. Then I added the flour and mixed it. I grated then added some cheese and made little balls of mixture. I baked them for 15 minutes. Mum made me use half of the mixture for mine and she added chopped sun dried tomatoes to her mixture.Mum's was really wet though and we weren't sure it was going to work.

TASTING! 

Our queso blanco was really plain. It did not taste of anything at all. Next time I will add some herbs maybe rosemary.  

The biscuits were really cheesy and delicious. I ate three straight from the oven. Next time I would push the shapes flatter as they were more like lumps than biscuits.

A BOY AND HIS GLUE GUN!

I only burnt my fingers once, but it was worth it.

This is my model of the rocket that'll take the astronauts to mars.

I've been fascinated by the new mission to Mars - Mars One . The plan is to send people to Mars to set up a base camp. They will be constructing living pods and work areas. They will need to overcome many problems with the natural environment. For homework we were asked to create a model of the Mars Operation.





My mum has collected a giant bag of' 'rubbish'. I tipped it out and started sifting through it to find interesting shapes and sizes. I grabbed a fruit shoot lid and four wall plugs to create the booster rockets at the back.  I used two small lemonade bottles to create engines and a silicone sealant nozzle for the nose cone. A coat hanger created wings and a balanced base. If you look closely you might spot two plastic knives, buttons and pegs. 

Normal glue wasn't going to stick this junk together, I needed something with more kick! This is when my mum introduced me to the wonders of the glue gun! No more child friendly glue sticks! This weapon of 'construction' is hot, dangerous and a tad scary. You squeeze the trigger of doom and a molten stream of glue begins to pour out. You have to work quickly and safely as it solidifies at the speed of light! Unfortunately strings of sticky glue form at this point in the process and have the habit of burning fingers.

To finish off the rocket I had to spray the 'booster rockets' red and the rest silver. I used a cardboard box to protect the surroundings and sprayed it outside to protect my health!



I was on a roll so decided to create the new Mars One colony.

I created a pressurized dome out of cling film and chicken wire. This will withstand the increased pressure on Mars and also protect the astronauts from space debris.

This will also protect the astronauts from the temperature extremes. 

Inside I have created living spaces that are pumped with oxygen made from splitting water atoms. The water comes from Martian ice caps. Water will also be used to grow plants using hydroponics. I created the tress by cutting sponges into tree shapes and dipping them in paint.Then I used the left over sponge pieces to create moon rocks.

Electricity will be created using solar power and methane gas from human sewage. (This will also be put onto the plants as fertilizer). I used drinking straws to create the solar panels and pipes.

The carbon dioxide will be removed from the air by a CO2 scrubber that uses chemicals. I made all the pods and machinery using cake tubs and jelly pots sprayed silver.

I have loved using the glue gun and i have started to plan another model.

The Life of a Penguin 3D

                                                                             Nan

Today 14^th August has been a day I always remember.    I was invited by my grandchildren, The Blogging Brothers, to join them at the Science Museum for a surprise.   Although I have been to the Natural History Museum many times I had never been to the Science Museum so this was indeed a treat in store for me. 

For me, the Space section was the best.   What tremendous advances have been made since Apollo 10 orbited the earth practising for a landing on the moon which was to take place two years later.   This was a really important exercise before the real thing.   In May 1969 I can remember Apollo 10 orbiting the moon and then  waiting for the capsule to land back on earth after  going through everything that would be required if a landing on the moon was to be successful .   What excitement there was in the household, everybody waiting around with baited breath, anxious  to hear or see on television that the astronauts  had landed safely back home.  Those few minutes of silence before they entered  the earth’s atmosphere seemed to be hours.   Would the astronauts  be safe after their long silence coming back to earth? Of course they were and  cheers of joy and relief  were heard all round the world this would indeed be a tremendous breakthrough for  space  exploration. This mission was a dress rehearsal for Apollo 11 which would actually land on the moon two years later.   To see the capsule used for this expedition was truly amazing.

However, the best was still to come.   Unbeknown to me we had been invited to see a special showing of David Attenborough’s ‘The Life of a Penguin‘ in 3D.   We had seats very near to the front and lo and behold who should appear but Sir David Attenborough himself, how lucky was I.    What an amazing and fortunate man, a man who was all too ready to point out that most of the hard and dangerous work for any of his documentaries was done by the film crew.  This film was made in South Georgia where extreme weather conditions are experienced and where the temperature can change rapidly in minutes to many degrees below zero, not a place to be camping out during filming!

What an amazing day and thank you Oscar and Lex for allowing me to share with you this wonderful experience.

Lex

Thank you Nan for that great guest post,we would like you to do more posts in the future. I would just like to add that my favorite parts were the ball machine in Launchpad and seeing Sir David Attenborough.

Stomp!

Hi everyone, it's Oscar again! On Saturday we went to London. We went by train.

First of all we went to The British Museum. My favourite exhibit was the gun tree from Africa. All the villagers gave up their guns in exchange for a tractor. The artists then used the guns to make a tree. There were also gun creatures and a gun chair.I also liked the different weaving styles. I tried to weave a house for Flipper out of palm leaves and at the moment I am making a wool table runner on a weaving loom.
We also had a treasure hunt to find the crystal skull. We heard about the skull at Altun Ha in Belize and we were fascinated by the story. Unfortunately scientists have proven that it is a fake. I was a bit annoyed. It did look really cool though.

Then we went to Wagamamas for lunch. I love this Japanese inspired restaurant although the last time we went there I was sick on the bench! I had chicken and noodles. They were delicious but the noodles were a bit stuck together. We had to eat with chopsticks. I also had apple juice. I was a bit nervous when it arrived as it was green and very frothy. It was very refreshing though.

After lunch we headed to The Ambassadors Theatre we were going to watch Stomp. It was a really small theatre and no one was in front of me. Perfect! We had chocolate ice-creams at the start as we found out there was no interval. The show was fantastic. There were 8 people on the stage. I was surprised at the start when a man was on the stage sweeping with a broom. I thought he was a cleaner. Then lots more people with brooms came on and I realised that was actually the start of the show! The musicians created rhythms using weird objects such as matchboxes, pipes, dustbins and newspaper. Some bits were really funny such as the bit where the man made a skirt out of newspaper and he also stuck his tongue out of a hole in the newspaper in the right place in a picture of a lady.

Follow link to official video gallery. 
 http://www.stomplondon.com/gallery/video-gallery/#yt-z_KkC3bNAbM

The music made me feel happy and I wanted to dance. It was really noisy and crazy. We got to join a bit when the man asked us to clap in rhythm. I gave them a standing ovation.
After the show we went to the stage door and actually met the musicians. We told them we loved it and they gave us a thumbs up!

I give this 10/10 and would recommend it.

We had another great day. I don't really want to go back to school!

The Energy Show at The Science Museum London

As we took our seats for The Energy Show we were a bit nervous as we saw strings of CAUTION tape directly in front of us. The set looked like a old broom cupboard sort of science lab. Lots of sheets were draped over things to give it an eerie effect in the dark. Suddenly a crazy looking person appeared out of breath at the top of the stairs. Meet Phil. Phil is a student , a bit of a pyromaniac, rather crazy and a big fan of Star Wars. She is joined by Annabella. Annabella loves lists, she 's boring and rather bossy. The two have to complete a presentation about the different types of energy to pass their exam.

Their presentation was chaotic and heaps of laughs. With the help of Bernard a mute lab assistant and I-nstein an animated character they blow up methane bubbles , turn flowers brittle with liquid nitrogen and perform Van Der Graf experiments. 

My favourite experiment ( Oscar) was blowing up balloons. I loved the noise it was really exciting.it really hurt my mum's ears though.

My favourite experiment (Lex) was the exploding liquid nitrogen. The explosion was so big they had to hold it down with a tarp. I'd like to see it in the open without a cover. I also liked the references to Star Wars. Phil touched a old fluorescent light tube to a plasma ball to create a light sabre.

The finale was blasting hydrogen filled rockets into the audience. This was a fantastic show for kids. The science was a bit hard for 7 year olds but a good introduction to energy.

After the show we raced to make 3D glasses. We used blue and red acetate to make the lenses and then the 3D pictures came to life. 

Next we visited our favourite science museum exhibit - the ball machine. We like turning the wheels and using the pulleys. However it needs a bit of maintenance because the spiral seems to have worn away and the balls are escaping.

In the same gallery we enjoyed making electrical circuits, silhouettes and playing on the spinning machine until we were dizzy. 

We just had time to gorge on luxurious icecreams before heading to the 'atmosphere'gallery. We loved playing all the computer games. They were educational but fun as well. We learned about greenhouse gases and how to protect the environment. 

We had a great day and as we were heading out we heard the sound of a tuba. We looked closer and a man with a flaming tuba was playing along to a radio. It was crazy. 

We were a bit tired when we got home. 

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/