Reusing, Reindeer, and Roadrunners - Blogging from A to Z Challenge

This year for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, I'm focusing on going through my homeschooling files that I've created from the time that Sophia and Olivia were in preschool.

Some of the files are still relevant while others I will be decluttering and recycling in the process. Each day during April, I will pick one of the files to focus on - either doing a hands-on activity or sharing some information from one of the files.

For the 18th day - Letter R - I am focusing on Reusing, Reindeer, and Roadrunners.

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Reusing

- Reuse birthday and Christmas cards by making bookmarks that can be given away at a local school library. Cut the images out with pinking shears. Punch a hole at the top and then put ribbon or embroidery floss through the hole. You can also glue the card onto deckle-edge paper. Students can pick a bookmark each time they check out a book.

- Greeting cards also can be used to make postcards.

Postcards that I made from old Christmas cards and scrapbook paper.

The back of the postcard (the side you write on)

is from a cereal box.

- Wool sweaters that have shrunk can be made into little toys. When the girls were younger, I made these wool bears with fabric patches that were hand-embroidered onto the wool.

Tiny bears I made from felted wool sweaters and fabric.

The bears fit in the palm of your hand.

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Reindeer

One of the files I had was about reindeer herders in northern Russia. The herders are called Nenets (Nen-ETZ); and they depend on their reindeer for almost everything - including clothing, transportation (they travel on sleds pulled by reindeer teams), and food.

Source

The Nenets are nomadic and live in easy-to-move tents. When they move from summer to winter grazing grounds, the journey can take several weeks.

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Roadrunners

- They are only nine inches tall and less than two feet long.

- They can run as fast as 20 miles per hour. They are able to glide, but prefer running.

Roadrunner that I saw in Texas.

(Taken on May 1, 2010.)

- They have about 16 different sounds.

- Their diet consists of insects, snails, mice, bats, other birds, scorpions, tarantulas, and black widow spiders.

- The bird's temperature can drop as much as seven degrees at night when temperatures can drop 50 degrees or more.

- During the early morning hours, the bird spends long periods sunning itself. It will lift up its feathers to expose a dark patch of skin on its back that acts as a solar panel.

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In the process of going through the files that began with "R," I recycled a half of a bag of papers. Throughout the challenge, I've recycled 15 1/2 bags of papers.