Category Archives: Reader Activities

Get Crafty With a Haitian Beaded Flag Pin

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Every week we feature a fun and/or educational activity you can try at home or in the classroom. Last week, Heifer CEO Pierre Ferrari attended the Clinton Global Initiative and reaffirmed our commitment to strengthen social capital, support community building and develop rural enterprises in Haiti. This week, our activity centers on an activity that not only displays the country’s personality, it is a livelihood for many Haitians.

Haitian flags

Photo credit: Bay State Banner

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, but that doesn’t mean it is without personal expression through arts and crafts. The country has been influenced by African, French vodou, Catholic, tribal cultures, and it shows. Not only are the arts and crafts unique and colorful, they provide a livelihood for many Haitians who rely on money made from selling them to live.

Here is a perfect activity to get you started on the road to creating Haitian crafts:

http://www.makingfriends.com/safepin/haiti_flag_pin.htm

Photo credit: www.makingfriends.com

Haitian Beaded Flag Pin

  • 6 size 4 safety pins
  • 1 safety pin without coil, 2 1/4″
  • Red, white and blue pony beads
  • Letter beads to spell out Haiti (or any other 5-letter word)

Put six beads on each size 4 pin following the pattern in the picture (4 pins with 3 red and 3 blue beads; 2 pins with 2 red, 2 white and 2 blue beads). Close the pins. Thread the base of the beaded pins onto the pin with no coil, in the same order shown on the pattern. In between each pin you thread, place the lettered pin starting with “H” and ending with “I” to spell Haiti. Close the pin.

Google Haitian bead art under images to see all the intricate and beautiful designs possible. You can also find patterns online if you are interested in creating more adventurous designs.

For more information on this and other craft activities, go to www.makingfriends.com. For a simpler activity for those who like to color, we found this page in our search with some fun coloring pages.

To read about Heifer’s work in Haiti, see these recent blog posts by Jason Woods, Regional Program Assistant for Heifer, who traveled to Haiti this past summer to visit several projects. Or, you can learn how to help Heifer in our work with Haiti.

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World Habitat Day: Changing Cities, Building Cities

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Happy World Habitat Day! This year’s theme is Changing Cities, Building Cities.

From United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message on this day:

Half the world’s people now live in towns and cities. In little more than a generation, two-thirds of the global population will be urban. As the proportion of humanity living in the urban environment grows, so too does the need to strengthen the urban focus of our efforts to reduce global poverty and promote sustainable development.

This past Saturday we shared a city-building activity in honor of this theme and asked our readers to submit photos of their completed cities. Below is a photo received by Heifer Blog reader Candi. She and her kids made a fantastic little town, complete with windmills!

Thanks for sending this in, Candi, and double-thanks for supporting us through WorldBuilders!Build a City for World Habitat Day

Did you build a city? There’s still time to have your photo added. Email us at blog@heifer.org.

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Build Your Own City for World Habitat Day

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Every Saturday we feature a fun and/or educational activity you can try at home or in the classroom. Since this Monday is World Habitat Day: Changing Cities, Building Opportunities, I thought I’d share this city-building activity.

The idea of World Habitat Day, according to the United Nations website UN-Habitat, is to think about our towns and cities, everyone’s right to adequate shelter, and to remind us, the world, of our responsibility for the future of the human habitats. With the theme Changing Cities, Building Opportunities, UN-Habitat is emphasizing the need to plan cities better. Unplanned growth of cities can lead to chaotic development and urban sprawl. When planned well, cities offer opportunity.

So, when you plan your city, keep this in mind. Are there enough places for people to work? Enough houses for people to live? Enough stores? Roads to get from home to work? Are there any parks for people to play or relax? Transportation? Think about your plan, and write down your ideas. What would you add or take away to make it better?

Once your plan is complete, you are ready to build. You’ll need the following materials:

  • Crayons or markers

    City made of boxes

    Photo credit: www.crayola.com

  • Glue
  • Scissors
  • Construction Paper
  • Cardboard
  • Small cardboard boxes

Gather several small cardboard boxes. Cut construction paper the right sizes to cover the sides of each box. Draw windows, doors, and other features for each house or building. Glue the construction paper to the boxes. Arrange the boxes on top of the larger piece of  cardboard and design your street scenes. Draw in streets, sidewalks, intersections, parking lots, parks, etc., to complete your city. You can even use clay to insert people into your city.

Take a photo of your completed city and send it to us at blog@heifer.org and we’ll share it here.

You can find this activity and more at www.crayola.com.

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Make Your Own Peace Pole

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Every Saturday we feature a fun and/or educational activity you can try at home or in the classroom. This past Friday was the International Day of Peace, so today’s activity is how to make your own Peace Pole.

What is a Peace Pole?

Peace Pole

Photo by found_drama

A Peace Pole is a post, usually made of wood, displaying the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth,” in four languages. If you’ve ever visited our Learning Centers Heifer Ranch in Perryville, Arkansas, or Overlook Farm in Rutland, Massachusetts, you’ve likely seen a Peace Pole. You can purchase a professionally made Peace Pole, or, by following the directions below, you can make your own.

Materials for Making a Peace Pole

  • One 4×4 or 6×6 post
  • Paint (exterior-type)
  • Paintbrush (for lettering)
  • Text translation templates (optional)
  • Deck treatment or other wood preservative
  • Posthole digger
  • Gravel
  • Cement mix
  • Fence post level

Making a Peace Pole

Choose which four languages you wish to display on your homemade Peace Pole. Find translations in many languages here. You can either do the lettering freehand, or you can use your computer to make a template of the phrase. If you make a template, outline the block letters with a pencil directly on the wood and paint the letters in.

If you are feeling particularly creative, decorate your Peace Pole with your own designs.

After the letters have dried, preserve the Peace Pole with something like deck treatment to prevent damage from the elements.

You can leave the top square, cut a pyramid shape in the top, or add something like a wooden ball on top.

Planting a Peace Pole

Find where you would like to plant your Peace Pole (you can always plant it in a pot if digging in the yard is not an option). Using a posthole digger, dig a hole two feet deep. Put gravel in the bottom of the hole and pack the dirt back in around it, using a fence post level to make sure the Peace Pole is straight. For a more permanent planting, pour cement in around it to set the pole, and cover the cement with some of the removed dirt.

To learn more about making your own or purchasing a Peace Pole, go to peace-pole.com.

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You Can Help Clean up the World

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Every Saturday we feature a fun and/or educational activity you can try at home or in the classroom. This weekend is Clean up the World Weekend, and have we got the perfect activity for you.

Clean up in Govierno Municipal de Play, Cuba

Clean up in Govierno Municipal de Play, Cuba Photo courtesy of Clean Up the World

Clean Up the World, a community-based environmental campaign held in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP), is one of the largest community-based environmental campaigns in the world.  It inspires people from around the globe to clean up, fix up and conserve their environment. And, it can begin with one or two people or a family like yours.

The Beckers are a great example of a family that is making a huge difference by starting a small project. They adopted a section of a shoreline of an area lake, and began cleaning up. Soon they invited friends, neighbors, and colleagues to join in an annual effort to clean up the entire lake. Truly a success story.

You can plan your own activity and make a difference in the world. The first step is to decide which issue you want to focus on and what your goal will be. Issues could include (among others):

  • Water
  • Education
  • Tree Planting
  • Climate Change
  • Waste

cleanuptheworld.org

For ideas, look at activities that have been done in the past. It can be as small as picking up the trash on your street or starting a compost movement in your own family, to as big as you can imagine. Once you plan your activity, you can put it on the Global Environmental Map along with others around the world. And, of course, please share it with us in the comments section below.

To learn more about the weekend and cleaning up the world, go to www.cleanuptheworld.org.

For lesson plans and ideas for fun activities related to this and other topics, go to the Learning Resources at the bottom of our Read to Feed Resources page.

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Learn About Chinese Jue Ju On International Literacy Day

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Every Saturday we feature a fun and/or educational activity you can try at home or in the classroom. Today is International Literacy Day, so this lesson on Jue Ju Poetry seems like a great fit.

China has a written history at least 2,500 years old. During this time, the Chinese developed many forms of art and philosophy, including poetry. Jue Ju poetry has four lines; each line has the same number of syllables – usually five, but sometimes seven.

Examples of Jue Ju Poetry

Thoughts on a Still Night, by Li Bai, a famous Chinese poet

Building a Fire in Sichuan Province, China

Photo by Russ Powell, Courtesy of Heifer International

Before my bed, the moon is shining bright,
I think that it is frost upon the ground.
I raise my head and look at the bright moon,
I lower my head and think of home.

Jue Ju poems by teachers and students

The winter wind blows loudly
Zadou listens through the wall
The house is strong and sturdy
He is warm and safe through all

Biogas is neat
Gives off lots of heat
Thanks to pig and cow
We have heat right now

The trees protect the clean air
The trees protect the rich soil
The trees protect the water
How can we protect the trees?

How to Write Jue Ju Poems

Try to write your own Jue Ju poems about people and nature. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Rivers and people
• People’s dependence on water
• The creation of mountains
• People’s reliance on energy
• How people get energy

Share your poems with a wider audience. Send them to us in the comments or share with your parents and friends.

To learn more about  Jue Ju poetry and a more detailed lesson, download our Jue Ju Lesson Plan. For other lesson plans and ideas for activities, go to the Learning Resources at the bottom of our Read to Feed Resources page.

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Do a Good Deed on World Humanitarian Day

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Once a week we will be featuring a fun and/or educational activity you can try at home or in the classroom. Tomorrow, August 19, is World Humanitarian Day, a global celebration of people helping people. Today’s activity involves several ideas to help people tomorrow and beyond.

Shop for a neighbor. You can offer to make a trip to the store for a neighbor who may find it hard to get around. Or a parent who is tied up watching the kids.

Make a sandwich for a homeless person. Or, you can donate food to your local food pantry.

Stand up for someone being picked on. This can be hard to do at times, but it can make a huge difference for the person who is a usual target for bullying or teasing.

Visit an elderly person. Just a short time can light up the day of someone who doesn’t always have company.

Give away something you no longer use. We all value our stuff, but if we no longer use it, what good is it? Give it to someone else who will enjoy using it.

Read to a younger child. Do you have a neighbor with little kids? Ask the parents if you can read to them. It will give a very welcome break to a parent, and will enrich the little kids as well.

Clean up a local park, or your neighborhood, or simply your street. A less-polluted area makes life more enjoyable for everyone, not to mention the help you are giving Mother Nature.

You can see from these activities that being a humanitarian can be relatively simple. A little good can go a long way, and it is possible for you to be a part of it. So pick one of these activities, or make up one on your own, and try it out tomorrow. We’d love it if you shared the activity you choose by writing about it in our comments section.

Go to www.whd-iwashere.org, devoted to World Humanitarian Day 2012, for more ideas or to “add your voice” to the social campaign.

For educational activities relating to Heifer International and our work, go to www.heifer.org.

 

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Learn How Water Filtering Works with This Hands-On Activity

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Once a week we will be featuring a fun and/or educational activity you can try at home or in the classroom. August is National Water Quality Month, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to post this water-filtering activity.

One way to conserve water is to clean it and reuse it. This is a good activity to help teach kids about the importance of water conservation. This water filter will show one of the processes that water purification plants use.

An important note before we start: Don’t drink the water filtered in this activity. All non-treated water should be boiled before consumption.

Materials:

  • Plastic soda bottle
  • Scissors or utility knife
  • Cheese cloth
  • Rubber bands
  • Sand
  • Gravel (aquarium gravel will work)

Cut the soda bottle in half; remove the lid. Put three layers of cheese cloth over the narrow mouth of the bottle and use rubber bands to hold them in place. Put the top half upside down into the bottom half to catch the water Put a layer of sand in the top half of the bottle followed by a layer of gravel. Get some dirty water. If you do not have dirty water you can make some water dirty by using cookingoil, dirt, bits of food, etc. Pour dirty water into the top half of the bottle. It should run through the sand and gravel, out the cheese cloth and come out clearer in the bottom half of the bottle.

To read more about this activity, go to  How to Make a Water Filter as a Science Experiment. See how Heifer participants deal with the issue of safe and clean water where their access is limited on the Heifer blog. You can find more fun and educational activities related to our work at www.heifer.org.


 

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Be an Olympian in Your Own Home

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Once a week we will be featuring a fun and/or educational activity you can try at home or in the classroom. This week we’re going to share fun kid-sized Olympic sports you can create and play at home or in class.

Hammer Throw
Materials: Small paper bag, newspaper, 12″ string
Stuff newspaper into a small paper bag and tie off with the string. Hold the end of the string and spin he bag around 3 times; Let go. Record how far the hammer travels; longest distance wins.

Javelin Throw
Materials: 4 soda straws, waste paper basket, tape
Tape the straws together end to end. Mark a line behind which all players must stand. Place a wastepaper basket five feet from the starting line. Players throw the straws into the wastebasket. Each player gets five turns. Whoever gets the most straws in the basket wins.

Standing Broad Stretch
Materials: Tape
Mark a line with tape that players must stand with toes behind to start. Players take one giant step; longest step wins.

Shot Put for Distance
Materials: Aluminum foil
Make a ball out of aluminum foil. Hold the ball in the palm of one hand; place that hand next to your ear and then push the shot into the air extending your arms. Do not move your feet. Record distances; the longest distance wins.

Discus Throw
Materials: Frisbee or tape and two heavy paper plates
Use a Frisbee or tape two heavy paper plates together. Hold the “discus” like a flying disk. Throw away from the waist. Record distances; longest distance wins.

And of course, when you are done, don’t forget to recycle the materials you used.

For more Olympic activities, go to kidactivities.net. To learn more about Heifer International and its work around the world, check out the In Context series on the Heifer blog.

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How to Make Mud Bricks Used in Adobe Huts

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Once a week we will be featuring a fun and/or educational activity you can try at home or in the classroom. This week, we learn how to make mud bricks like people use to make houses in some parts of the world.

In southwestern United States and Mexico (as well as other parts of the world), where there are not many trees, people often build houses out of mud bricks called adobe. Adobe houses are warm in the evening and cool in the daytime.

If a mud brick is warmed by the sun, how long will it continue to give off warmth once the sun goes down?

Round huts made of bricksMaterials for making mud bricks:

  • Soil
  • Water
  • Bowl
  • Large mixing spoon
  • Straw, dry grass or pine needles
  • 2 thermometers
  • One-pint milk carton
  • Clock
  • A sunny window
  • Pencil and paper

How to make mud bricks:

  1. Gather some straw. If you do not have straw you can use dry grass, or dry pine needles.
  2. Put the straw, soil from your yard, and water into a bowl and mix it well.
  3. Open the top of the empty one-pint milk carton. Pour the mud mixture from the bowl into the milk carton.
  4. Make a hole in the mud by pushing a pencil halfway down in the middle of the opening. Loosen the mud around the pencil by moving the pencil in a small circle, and then leave it in the carton.
  5. Place the milk carton in a sunny window and leave it there for several days to dry.
  6. When the brick is firm and dry, take the pencil out of it and peel off the carton.
  7. Leave your brick in a sunny window for one more hour. Then, put the brick on a table out of the sunlight.
  8. Put a thermometer into the hole of the brick. This will measure the temperature inside the brick.
  9. Lay another thermometer nearby on the table to measure the temperature of the air outside the brick.
  10. Wait a few minutes, and then read and write down the temperatures showing on the thermometer inside and outside of the brick. (How long will it take before the thermometer inside the brick is the same temperature as the one outside of it?)

Many people around the world use different materials to build their houses. What are some of the advantages to using adobe bricks to build a house? What could be added to the mud mix to make stronger bricks?

Adobe bricks are not used for building in places where there is a lot of rain, or where it is cold. What would happen if adobe bricks froze and thawed a lot? What happens to adobe bricks if they keep getting wet?

What are some other materials that can be used to build houses?

To download a PDF of this activity, go here. You can find more fun and educational activities at www.heifer.org, or help families improve their living conditions with a donation.

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