Funtastic Friday – Mad Hatter’s Zooming Tea Party

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Funtastic Friday – Mad Hatter’s Zooming Tea Party

Zip Zip Zoomers, its Funtastic Friday and our Wonderland Adventure is drawing to a close, booooo, however we have a fun filled episode for you all today, huzzah…

First up is the caketastic Brandon D, who is showing us all how to make Butterfly Cakes, the Mad Hatter is hoppingly hiphip haaaapeeeey, however we would like to point out, that absolutely no brillig flutter butterbyes have been used in this recipe… click on the video and get cooking.

Can you find all of our flitty flutterby friends in this whizzer wordsearch?

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We adore, flutter butterbyes, and did you know that there are more that 17,500 different species of butterfly around the world and they are a species that is at least 50 million years old They are pollinators and an indicators of how healthy the environment around them is.

Butterflies start their lives as an egg. They hatch into a caterpillar, which grows very fast and sheds its skin multiple times. Then it builds a chrysalis, which means that the caterpillar forms a shell around itself. Finally, a beautiful full grown butterfly emerges from the chrysalis!

Butterflies taste using their feet, gosh! They also have very long thin tongues which they use to shhhlurp up nectar.

For more ace facts about these beautiful insects check out The Butterfly Conservation Group here . https://butterfly-conservation.org/butterflies/why-butterflies-matter

Now what about the Mice? We loved Arran’s story ‘The Little Mouse and the Tasty Acorn’ from this weeks Wacky Wednesday’s Zoom Time and now we have more, because Arran is here to show all you Zoomers how to make a beautiful clay mouse, just like the one in the story. If you don’t have clay, you can use playdoh, if you don’t have playdoh, you can make your own. We have an easy recipe for you below.

We Boffins have added this recipe, of how to make your own play-doh at home! Time to get really messy, although do rememberall to tiddyly tidy when you are done.

If you don’t have clay or play doh, you can make your own from everyday ingredients found in your kitchen.

Makes 1 coloured batch of dough and takes 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS

  • 8 tbsp plain flour
  • 2 tbsp table salt
  • 60ml warm water
  • food colouring
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil 

HOW TO

  1. Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. In a another bowl mix together water with a few drops of food colouring, next add the oil.
  2. Pour the coloured liquid mix into the flour mix and mix it all up with a metal spoon.
  3. Dust your work surfaces with a sprinkle flour and turn out the dough onto the flour. Roll up your sleaves and get kneading, unto you get a smooth, pliable dough. If you want to up the colour, work in a few extra drops of food colouring.
  4. Store in a plastic sandwich bag (squeeze out the air) in the fridge to keep it fresh. You can make a batch of colours, to play with.

The Mad Hatters Hatting Quizz

Name that Hat!

The Mad Hatter has a very famous hat indeed, but can you Zoomers match these pictures of hats to their names below? That’s right, its time for a round of NAME THAT HAT!

  1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6.

A. Panama Hat B. Fedora C. Deerstalker D. Straw Boater E. Snapback F. Bucket Hat

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The Dormouse was another guest at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, and he was very very sleepy, shhhh… Dormice are proper cool, I reckon. Here are some more dormouse facts so you Zoomers can get to know them.

Did you know that ‘dormir’ is French for ‘to sleep’?

Dormice are nocturnal, which means they sleep during the day and wake up at night.

The Ancient Romans used to eat dormice! They would be dipped in honey and poppy seeds and eaten for pudding. Oh deary me, I think I’d much rather just have a biscuit.

When they aren’t busy snoozing, dormice eat buds, hazlenuts, berries, and insects.

Dormice hibernate, which means that they sleep for many months during the winter to avoid the chill. Dormice can spend up to six months out of the year asleep!

A dormouse asleep
A dormouse awake!

Would you like to try making your own little dormouse nest? Animals use anything they can find to make a little round nest to sleep in.

KIT LIST

You can use twigs, grass, moss, or leaves. You could definitely also use things from inside the house as well, such as string, cotton wool, cut up some paper into strips, or use some dried pasta and glue.

1.Gather some materials outdoors or indoors for making the nest.

2. Tie several twigs into a circle, using blades of grass or string to secure them. This is your frame to build the rest of the nest around.

3. Keep adding bits to the nest circle, use your twigs and moss (or whatever you’re using) to make it nice and strong. Make sure after you add anything that its tied nice and tight with the string or grass.

4. Decorate the nest with moss or cotton wool, to make it cosy and comfortable. You can add and add to the nest until you’re happy with it. I’m sure any dormouse would be super-duper pleased to snooze in there!

If you enjoyed making your own play-doh, why not try out another few  home science experiments? Don’t worry, these are completely safe and won’t cause much mess! 

Cause a chemical reaction in your mouth! 

For this, you need an orange that’s cut into segments, and some baking soda. Dip a segment of orange into a teeny tiny bit of baking soda, and take a bite. It should start to bubble in your mouth, which will feel very tingly and funny indeed!

Taste experiment!

This experiment is for two people. One person closes their eyes and holds their nose, and the other feeds them different foods. Try different flavours, like salty, sweet, and sour. Notice how your sense of taste almost completely goes away when you remove your senses of sight and smell!  

What is a tornado’s favourite game?

Twister!

How do we know that the planet Saturn was married more than once?

Because she has loads of rings!

Why did the dinosaur refuse to wear perfume?

He didn’t want to be ex-stink!

Zippedy Zoom, that’s all from us Boffins and our guests this week. Get planning your own Zoom Tea Party and make some-ones day, invite them to join you for some Zooming Hatting fun.

Get in touch and share your stories and adventure with us and any requests for themed weeks in the Lab, we would love to hear from you. Happy Zippey Days, pip pip.

Prof Zippedilla Zoom

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