Origami n' Stuff 4 Kids

McCully-Moiliili Library Mele Hua Author Event

Stop by and say hello at the McCully-Moiliili Library Mele Hua Author Event!

Saturday, May 21, 10am-2pm.

I'll be signing books, too!

A portion of the proceeds will benefit Friends of the Library.

APRIL: Easter Crafts and Origami

Cards
Easter E-Greetings

Boxes/Favors

Easter Bunny Box	Easter Chick Box
Print, Fold and Decorate an Easter Basket	Some Bunny Loves You Box

Origami

Origami Bunny Face	Origami Bunnies
Origami Easter Chick

Free Animated GIFs

Perusing through my old files, I found some crude, early GIFs...It's like opening a time capsule! Feel free to use them.

OCTOBER 31: Halloween Crafts, Origami and Fun Facts

What is it about this spooky holiday that inspires us to dress up as witches, ghouls and zombies? Americans love Halloween so much, we spend 2 billion dollars a year on costumes, candy and decorations, making it the second highest grossing holiday (after Christmas, of course).

And what about those crazy giant pumpkins, like the 1,500 pound monster grown by Jake van Kooten of British Columbia, who won $9,000 at California's Elk Grove Giant Pumpkin Harvest and Festival? Did he really ship his pumpkin all the way from Canada to California?

If Mr. Kooten's prize money doesn't cover shipping his gourd back to British Columbia, then perhaps he can paddle his pumpkin home, like the good folks at the world's largest pumpkin boat race at the Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival in Germany. Every year enthusiasts don their pumpkin hats and paddle across the moat of a 17th Century castle in 200lb hollowed-out gourds. Between races, visitors can check out the 450 varieties of pumpkins, admire the pumpkin sculptures, and partake in pumpkin pies, stews and curries. Yum. A boat you can eat.

History of Halloween

Unnaturally large squashes aside, Halloween dates back some 2,000 years and in its current form is a mishmash of ancient Celtic practices, Catholic and Roman religious rituals, and of course, modern commercialism. Long before Walmart, October 31 marked the Celtic holiday of Samhain, a harvest festival observing the end of summer, when ancient Celts disguised themselves in costumes and masks and lit bonfires to ward off evil spirits. The harvest holiday was especially important because it marked the seasonal transition between the warm "lighter half" of the year, or the growing season, and the cold, dreary "darker half". This transition from a time of bounty to impending austerity extended into the spiritual world; it was believed that the boundaries between the living and the "otherworld" became especially thin, allowing the dead to pass over into this world.

Samhain and its pagan rituals, and some elements of the Roman festival of Feralia, which honored the dead, became integrated into All Saint's Day and all Soul's Day. In medieval Ireland and Britain, the poor would go from door to door asking for food in return for prayers for the dead, giving rise to "guising", a tradition in which Scottish and Irish children disguised themselves in costumes and went door to door requesting food and coins.

Save on Halloween decorations with these fun, printable Halloween origami and crafts.

Vampire Bat Origami	Bat Origami
Black Cat Origami	Haunted House Origami
Halloween Monster Origami
Monster Mask	Owl Mask
Owl Origami	Owl Paper Bag Puppet
Pinwheel Spider	Pumpkin Mask
Pumpkin Box	Skeleton
Skull Mask	Vampire (Dracula) Origami

SWARMING DADDY LONGLEGS! The explanation behind the creepy phenomenon

So, fellow nerds, what's with this video circulating on Facebook and Youtube?

First of all, these are not spiders. They are harvestmen or daddy-longlegs. For those of you who remember the ol' mnemonic device for taxonomy, King Philip Can Order Fresh Green Salad (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species), these critters, like spiders, scorpions and ticks, are in the class Arachnida. However, harvestmen belong to their own order, Opiliones.

So what's the difference?

Harvestmen have a single cephalothorax and a single pair of eyes. True spiders have a narrow "waist" that creates two segments, the cephalothorax and abdomen.
Harvestmen have a single pair of eyes. True spiders most commonly have eight eyes, however they can have no eyes, or as many as 12 eyes.
Harvestmen are nonvenomous.
Harvestmen have no spinnerets, so they do not spin webs.
Harvestmen are older than spiders--the oldest fossil, from Scotland, is at least 400 million years old. True spiders are about 300 million years old.
Harvestmen are omnivores--they eat dead stuff, bird droppings, fungus and small arthropods and slugs.

Finally, the question every one is asking. WHY DO THEY DO THIS? They mass for defensive purposes, and to keep themselves warm. Harvestmen possess a pair of stinky glands called ozopores; when they mass, the combined smell can be quite disturbing. Swarming also makes them appear larger. When disturbed, the entire throng will sometimes bob and sway--a truly unsettling effect.

Learn more about harvestmen/daddy long legs:

http://spiders.ucr.edu/daddylonglegs.html

http://www.newsweek.com/video-science-explains-why-thousands-daddy-longlegs-swarmed-house-312362

http://mentalfloss.com/article/59455/15-fascinating-facts-about-daddy-longlegs