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Florence And Eric Take The Cake

Language: English

This story is about a brother and sister lamb who accidentally cause a major mix-up between a delicious cake and a beautiful hat. This spirited book sets the stage for LeVar to take a trip to the MovieLand Wax Museum where he learns how wax figures are made. Viewers also see how some talented bakers are able to make a cake look like a basketball, a cheeseburger, a sports car or just about anything.

Here are activities to do after watching this episode:

Checkers, Anyone?

You can “play” your cake and eat it too with this recipe.

You will need:

  • eight or nine-inch square cake
  • two colors or flavors of icing
  • candies such as gumdrops, gummy bears, peppermint and butterscotch hard candies (You need two flavors of candy, twelve pieces of each.)
  1. Ice a square cake with vanilla icing.
  2. Use a knife to mark off 8 rows of 8 squares.
  3. On alternating squares, ice over with another color or flavor of icing. Your cake will resemble a checkerboard.
  4. Once the icing has hardened, place 12 candies of one color on alternating squares on one side of the cake. Do the same with another flavor or color of candies for the opposite side, just as for a game of checkers.
  5. Family members can team up to play a game of checkers. The team who wins gets the first slices of cake!
  

Clay from Crepe Paper

You saw LeVar visit a wax museum to learn how wax figures are made. There are many other strange and wonderful materials that can be used to make molding compounds. Some of them are sawdust, soap flakes, tissues, and cotton balls. This recipe calls for crepe paper.

You will need:

  • 3 1/2 cups of white crepe paper
  • water
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • 3 drops vanilla or other extract (such as liquid potpourri) to counteract the unpleasant smell
  • paints and brushes

Adult family members should work with children as you:

  1. Cut the crepe paper into small pieces and soak in water.
  2. Squeeze out as much water as possible.
  3. Add the flour, salt, and extract.
  4. Knead until thoroughly mixed.
  5. Mold into desired shapes.
  6. Paint the shapes when dry.

Check out some of these books on your
next trip to the library:

  • Uncle Nacho’s Hat/El Sombrero del Tio Nacho, a bilingual Spanish/English book, adapted by Harriet Rohmer
  • The Garden Of Abdul Gasazi by Chris Van Allsburg
  • My First Cookbook by Angela Wilkes

READING RAINBOW has a resource library that includes teacher guide materials as well as reading programs for use in the public libraries. You can download these resources from GPN at:
www.gpnresources.com

If you would like more information about READING RAINBOW or if you would like to learn more about other educational products please visit the GPN web site.

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