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January 2005
Happy January, ScribbleFriends!
Happy New Year! Did you know that New Years Day is the oldest of all the holidays we celebrate?
People have been celebrating the New Year for about 4,000 years! It's only been celebrated on January 1st for the last 2,000 years because... well... there were no calendars or Januarys or firsts before then.
Since it's a new year, it's like everything gets a new start. Many people get a new calendar and make New Years Resolutions.
A New Years Resolution is something that you plan to change or do better in the new year. This year, I decided to drink less soda and more chocolate milk, and to do a better job keeping my room clean.
Are you making any New Years Resolutions for 2005? Do you have a calendar?
Your pal,
ScribbleMonster
February 2005
Happy February, ScribbleFriends!
I've got a fun and easy project that you can do (with a grownup's help).
I'm going to teach you how to make your own pet wave. You're going to need a clear plastic bottle with a cap, baby oil, water and some food coloring.
First, fill the bottle half way with water and add a couple of drops of food coloring.
Mine's blue, like the ocean, but ScribbleBunny's is green, like slime. ScribbleKitty made her pet wave orange - no special reason, she just likes orange. Next, fill the top half of the bottle with baby oil. Glue the cap on the bottle really tight (so your pet doesn't get away) and... you've got a new pet! Just tip the bottle back and forth to get your wave going. Pretty cool, huh?
What color will you make your pet wave? Do you have any other pets?
Your pal,
ScribbleMonster
March 2005
Happy March, ScribbleFriends!
Paper airplanes:
Fun to play with, but tough to make? Not any more. Today, I remove the mystery of all that folding and teach you how to make the ultimate paper airplane - guaranteed to fly or your money back. Hey, wait! You didn't have to pay anything! Could this site get any better?
Just print out this handy how-to helper and get folding. I supply the folds, but you need to supply the artwork. You can decorate your plane after you've folded it, but I've found that you can get some cool designs by decorating your page first, then making it into a plane. I can't wait to see your plane fly! There's minimal risk of papercuts and poking an eye out, so fly safely.
Have you ever made an airplane out of a box? Have you ever flown in a real airplane?
Your pal,
ScribbleMonster
April 2005
Happy April, ScribbleFriends!
One of the luckiest days of my life was the day my TV broke. You read that right: The day my TV broke. My friends and I had to find something else to do and
we discovered all kinds of fun we were missing out on. We played outside, found some forgotten toys - we even made a television out of a box and took turns making our own shows.
It is way more fun making a show or watching a show made by your friends.
You can do the acting yourself or you can use puppets, dolls, action figures, stuffed animals - you can even make your own puppets or dolls. We sang songs, danced,
wrote stories, told jokes, made costumes and pictures... With all of that fun, who's got time to watch television? What kind of show would you make? Click HERE for an activity page to get you started.
TV Turnoff Week takes place April 25 - May 1st. The challenge: Turn your TV off and keep it off for the whole week. Do you think you can last a week without watching television?
Your pal,
ScribbleMonster
May 2005
Happy May, ScribbleFriends!
Pull over and slowly step out of the vehicle! Don't panic. My friends and I are just having fun playing traffic.
Hey, you can play traffic with your friends too! All you need is some chalk, bikes, trikes, wagons and your imagination.
First, we make our own ScribbleTown with chalk on the sidewalk and driveway.
We make stop signs, parking spaces, a gas station, and even a lemonade stand in our driveway. Making our town is as much fun as playing in it!
Someone gets to work at the gas station.
It's their job to fill the cars with gas and if anyone has car trouble, they get to drive the tow-truck (wagon) to help them out. And you'll need a police officer to make sure everyone stays safe. If someone "forgets" to stop at a stop sign or is driving too fast, the police officer needs to pull them over and give them a ticket.
We could play traffic all day long. Sometimes we do.
Do you have a bike? Have you ever met a police officer?
Your pal,
ScribbleMonster
June 2005
Happy June, ScribbleFriends!
School's out, summer's arriving and that means road trips!
Here's a fun game you can play in the car that we call, "Word Trip." Someone starts the game by saying a word. The next person says the first thing that word makes them think of. Then the person next to them does the same. A recent game went like this:
Dad: "Water"
Me: "Fall"
Sis: "Ouch"
Bunny: "Sidewalk"
ScribbleTurtle: "Chalk"
Grandma: "Chalkboard"
Kitty: "School"
Piggy: "Fish"
Dad: "Water"
So our word trip went from "water" to... "water." Alright, it doesn't usually work like that.
Usually the word you start with and the word you end with have nothing to do with one another. It's fun to see where your Word Trip takes you.
Do you have any road trips planned for this summer? What games do you like to play in the car?
Your pal,
ScribbleMonster
July 2005
Happy July, ScribbleFriends!
My sister and I have been doing a lot of pretending this week.
Yesterday, we dressed up in our best clothes and pretended that we worked in an office. We wrote and drew on papers, did a lot of stapling and used up all the tape. Secretly, we were also superheroes. So when there was trouble, we would have to take a "coffee break" and change into our costumes. Dad's old shirts make really great capes. Once Captain Scribble and WonderSis saved the day, we would take off our capes, sneak back into the office and get back to work.
Dad keeps all of our old Halloween costumes in a big trunk. It's full of hats, masks, wigs and crazy outfits. The trunk is a great place to get ideas for playing dress-up games and pretending.
Do you ever play dress-up? What's your favorite thing to pretend?
Your pal,
ScribbleMonster
August 2005
Happy August, ScribbleFriends!
I've got a story I'd like to share with you.
Last week, we had a surprise party for my sister's birthday. She knew that she was going to have a party, but the surprise was that we had it a week before her birthday. You should have seen her face! That was a gift itself. For monsters, nothing beats a good scare.
One of the presents my sister received was a gift card for the toy store. Imagine my surprise when she came home with a gift - for me!
She said that she already had enough presents and saw something that she knew I would like. I think that I might have the best sister in the whole wide world.
Have you ever been to a surprise party? What do you like to share?
Your pal,
ScribbleMonster
September 2005
Happy September, ScribbleFriends!
My friends and I started school again this week. It was fun to see all of my classmates and to hear about their absolutely horrible vacations.
Well, everyone didn't really have an absolutely horrible vacation. They just pretended that they did. Our teacher, Ms. Tinge, asked us to make up something awful that could happen on a trip. Then we drew pictures of our imaginary absolutely horrible vacation and took turns sharing them with the rest of the class.
I told the class all about my trip to the circus. My cotton candy was really made of cotton. But that's not the bad part. When I ate it, it turned me into
a monkey!
ScribbleKitty's family had four flat tires on their way to the beach. And when they finally got there, it snowed! ScribbleBunny found that giant earthworms secretly slid into his suitcase and ate holes through all of his socks - and they were still in there! Yuck! When everyone's ideas were put together, we had the worst vacation ever! It was so much fun.
I can tell this is going to be a great school year. What happened on your imaginary absolutely horrible vacation?
Your pal,
ScribbleMonster
October 2005
Happy October, ScribbleFriends!
It's my telephone pole's birthday.
No fooling. Most telephone poles are marked with a number that tells how old they are. The pole out in my yard is stamped "10 52", for October, 1952. It's 53 years old! That's pretty old for a telephone pole. Most need to be replaced after 50 years, although there are still some around from the 1800s! My telephone pole also has a metal tag that says "Inspected - 1991" which means it's been 14 years since someone came by to make sure the pole was still okay. I think my buddy the telephone pole is due for another checkup.
There are so many telephone poles that I think it's easy to forget about them.
There are more than 18 million telephone poles in the United States alone. Most are made from chestnut, pine or cedar trees and if you stop to look at them, they all have their own unique qualities - kind of like us.
Do you have a telephone pole near your house? Does it have a birthday stamp? When was the last time it had a checkup?
Your pal,
ScribbleMonster
November 2005
Happy November, ScribbleFriends!
Thanksgiving Day is one of my favorite holidays.
It's a simple day, not too flashy like most of the other holidays, and everything about the day makes a lot of sense. Thanksgiving is a special day for us to give thanks for all we have. That's why it's called Thanksgiving. Get it? Thanksgiving is always celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November. I don't know why, but I think it has something to do with Thanksgiving and Thursday both starting with "TH."
There are four key Fs to Thanksgiving Day: Family, Friends, Food and Football.
It works out well that baseball season is over, because baseball starts with B. Turkey is the main course of the big meal. I believe that also has something to do with turkey starting with a T, like Thanksgiving.
Boy turkeys are called a tom (which is good and easy to remember since Tom is a boy name) and girl turkeys are called a hen (which is nice and easy to remember since
"Henrietta" is a girl name). Only boy turkeys make gobble, gobble sounds (just like the boys at my house when we eat dinner - again, making it easy to remember).
Does your family have turkey on Thanksgiving? Do you make gobble sounds?
Your pal,
ScribbleMonster
December 2005
Happy December, ScribbleFriends!
I want to teach you a new game my friends and I have been playing.
It's called "Once You Spy it, Sit and Be Quiet." One of us takes a small toy (we all see what it is) and puts it somewhere in plain view while the rest of us are out of the room. It helps to play the game in a big room with a lot of stuff in it. After the toy is "hidden", the rest of us come back to the room and look for it. Once you find the toy, you don't say anything. As a matter of fact, you have to be sneaky so you don't give anyone else a clue where the toy is. All you do is quietly sit down. Once everyone is sitting, you know that everyone has found it. The first person who spied the toy and sat down retrieves it and now it's their turn to hide the toy.
I'm usually pretty good at spotting the toy.
I'm pretty good at "The Quiet Game," too. That's the game where you try not to make a sound. If you do, you're out. My dad loves when we play The Quiet Game. He's usually the one who wants to play it. For some reason, my dad doesn't like me being quiet when I play spy and sneak up on him, though. Parents are weird.
Are you good at being quiet? Do you like to play spy?
Your pal,
ScribbleMonster
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