Kite-Making

Today our family made kites.

We used plastic grocery bags, the kind you get when you purchase something at the store. We also used wooden dowels, tape, embroidery thread, and an empty thread spool to make the kites.

First, we drew a half pentagon on the bag, which was folded in half. When we cut it out, the shape of the kite was a pentagon.

After cutting the bags, we measured the dowels to fit our kites. The dowels were placed vertically down the center and horizontally across the widest point of the pentagons. Butterfly had to shorten her dowel, Mom had to shorten her bag, and I didn't need to do anything to make the bag and the dowel the same size.

Then we fastened the dowels to the kite, making sure that everything was taut. When that was done, we tied the thread to the dowels and also at the other end of the kite.

Before we tied the string to the kites, we figured out where it needed to be tied so that the kites would fly properly. If the string is tied wrong, the kite will do a nose dive.

After making the kites, Mom and I decorated ours with stickers because we had used the plain side of our grocery bags. Butterfly had used the printed side, so she didn't need to decorate hers.

We used grocery bags instead of other materials because plastic takes a lot longer to decompose, so we are helping the earth by reusing something that would usually be trash. We even used the scraps left over from the bag to make the tail of the kites.

Furniture Polish Math

OK. So we are rearranging our room today, and Mom wanted to polish the furniture instead of just dusting it. But she hasn't used store bought polish since I was sick. She reminded me that the store bought stuff has chemicals in it that are bad for us and the environment. They are often petroleum based and the chemicals used to propel them out of the container are not good for us to breathe. Plus, she says this stuff is way cheaper and it only took a few minutes to make.

So, she looked up a recipe on the web and had me figure out how to make 1/4 of the recipe. Here is the recipe for furniture polish that we used:

• 4T Lemon Juice
• 3T Water
• 2t Cooking Oil

This is how much we made.

• 1T Lemon Juice
• 2 1/4 t Water
• 1/2 t Cooking Oil

It was interesting to see the oil, water, and lemon juice before we shook it. The oil was on top in a glob, then the lemon juice and water mixed together. I guess the oil is less dense.

My Garden, Insects ... and Math

"There are about as many insects in one square mile as there are people in the entire planet."
I found this quote in the National Geographic Kids magazine, February 2009 issue.

So, mom came up with the question of how many insects are in my garden.

My garden is 150 square feet.
1 square mile = 27,878,400 square feet
There are approximately 6.77 billion people in the world.

6,770,000,000/27,878,400 = x/150
242.84 = x/150
(150)(242.84) = (x/150)(150)
36,426 = x

There are approximately 36,426 insects in my garden!
WOW! That's a lot of bugs!