Posts Tagged With: children

Make Your Own Ellie and Edmond Valentine Cards

We love Valentine’s Day, so we’ve made some great animal valentine cards for you to color and share with your sweetie, mom, dad, brother, sister, cat or dog!

February 2012 Craft:  Valentine Cards

Materials:

  • Our Valentine Printables
  • Card Stock or thick paper
  • Printer
  • Scissors
  • Crayons, Markers or Colored Pencils
  • Optional: construction paper, glitter, glue or stickers

Directions:

          Print and color the Valentine Cards. You can print a bunch of one pattern or all of them! If you don’t have time to color- go ahead and print your very own Ellie and Edmond Valentine picture, cut it out and attach it to construction paper!

This craft is for you to make as fancy as you want! Attach the pictures to construction paper after you color them, put glitter on them or attach a piece of candy to them with tape!

We would love to see your final creations! Post them here or on our Facebook page! Woohoo!

Categories: Animals, Children, crafts, education, Environment, nature, Valentines, wildlife | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

WATERY WEDNESDAY # 24

WATERY WEDNESDAY# 24

It’s another Watery Wednesday and we’re heading to Europe to take a dip in some freshwater lakes and rivers to find a small fish! Do you have your waders on? Let’s do this!

MEET THE EUROPEAN BULLHEAD!

   Range/Habitat: Western Europe/ freshwater rivers, lakes

  Diet: Carnivore: eggs, larvae, invertebrates

  Length: up to 7”

  Conservation Status: Common

 

 

 

Fun Facts:

  • European Bullheads live on the bottoms of lakes and rivers.
  • They have marbled patterns that help them camouflage with rocks and stones.
  • European bullheads are solitary and highly territorial.
  • European bullheads are crepuscular (active at dusk and dawn).
  • They are territorial.
  • European bullhead males guard the eggs until they hatch!

 

These little fish are kind of cute! How great is it that the males protect the eggs until they hatch! We love that!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories: Animals, Children, education, Environment, fish, nature, science, Watery Wednesday, wildlife | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

REPTILIAN TUESDAY # 24

REPTILIAN TUESDAY # 24

We’re heading to the Caribbean to find today’s reptile! Be on the lookout for this member of the boa constrictor family! Slap on some sunscreen and put on your shades, because it’s Reptilian Tuesday!

MEET THE CUBAN WOOD SNAKE!

Range/Habitat: Cuba/rainforest-suburbs

Diet: Carnivore: frogs, lizards, rodents

Length: 32-39”

Conservation Status: common

 

 

Fun Facts

  • Cuban Wood Snakes are also known as the Cuban Black-tailed Dwarf Boa.
  • Their colorations vary from gray to brown to orange.
  • Cuban wood snakes are members of the boa family.
  • Like other boas, Cuban wood snakes kill their prey by squeezing it.
  • Cuban wood snakes ball up to protect themselves from predators. They then release a stinky slime near the base of their tail!

 

Phew!! What is that stinky odor? That’s our friend the Cuban Wood Snake! Animals sure have some amazing ways to protect themselves from predators. Our least favorite is being stinky ;)! If you were an animal, what adaptation would you want to protect yourself from predators? Ellie say she already has hers, it’s being huge! Edmond would like to change his color like a chameleon!

 

Categories: Animals, Children, education, Environment, nature, reptiles, science, wildlife | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

2 o’clock trivia!

Hey everyone! We’re starting a new feature today! We’ll be posting a trivia question everyday at 2 PM EST to our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ellie-and-Edmond/254090144618348 and our twitter account @ellieandedmond ! Check it out!

Ellie & Edmond

Categories: Animals, Children, education, Environment, nature, science, wildlife | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

MAMMAL MONDAY # 24

MAMMAL MONDAY# 24

Woohoo, it’s Mammal Monday again and we have a little animal with a BIG head! No, they don’t think that they’re the best rodent in the world, the really do have large heads. We’ve got our safari hats on because we’re heading to the grasslands of East Africa! Are you ready?

MEET THE BIG HEADED MOLE RAT!

Range/Habitat: East Africa/ grasslands

Diet: Herbivore: roots, plants

Length/Weight: 12”/ 13-36 oz

Conservation Status: Endangered

 

 

Fun Facts:

  • Big Headed Mole Rats have blunt round heads.
  • They have small eyes and ears.
  • Big headed mole rats burrow underground.
  • They dig burrows that can be up to 165 ft long and they often share it with at least one other mole rat.
  • Big headed mole rats have large orange yellow teeth.
  • They forage for food above ground.

 

These rodents are kind of funny looking with their large heads and little eyes and ears! They are excellent home builders! Did you know that other animals such as snakes rely on burrowing animals? No, not for food! When an animal such as the Big headed mole rat leaves their burrow for good, other animals will use that burrow for their home! Pretty neat!

 

 

 

 

Categories: Animals, Children, education, Environment, mammals, nature, science, wildlife | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Our adventure to “Wildlife Rescue”

We’re so glad you could join us for tonight’s episode! We’re heading to Fernbank Museum of Natural History to see their new exhibit “Wildlife Rescue”! That’s right everyone, we learn what it takes to rescue, care for and return animals to their wild habitats! Follow us as we lead you through this wondrous journey!

Entrance to Wildlife Rescue

As we first enter the exhibit there are all kinds of amazing things to see. Fun lights, a giant globe and touch screens to learn! Isn’t this place quiet the party?

Elephant lights on the floor! Woohoo!
Learn all about endangered animals on this touch screen
Edmond tries out the touch screen

There are several stations where you can learn about animals that are endangered and how people are helping increase their populations.

Lake Sturgeon get help from people!
You can learn to track Iberian Lynx!
Black footed ferrets numbers on their way up!

Wow, these people are doing some great things to help animals. Look here, they have a whole station about the California Condor.

We love California Condors!

In the 1980s there were only 25 of these birds left and with the help of breading programs there are now 400 Condors. That is great news, but they still need help. Captive breeders feed condor chicks with mom puppets and look here; you can try and feed a chick too!

You can use a condor mom puppet and feed the chick!
Feed the condor c

We’re moving on to a fun game called I.D. the orangutan!

Which orangutan is which?

Make sure you look closely before choosing!

What is this wonderful station we’ve found? It’s all about elephants! Ellie is so excited!

ELEPHANTS!!
Time to learn all about The Amazing Trunk!

Let’s all learn all about the amazing elephant trunk! Did you know that an elephant trunk has up to 150,000 muscles? Pretty neat! Baby elephants must learn to use their trunks to drink, eat and pick up objects! And did you know that an elephant can pick up a single blade of grass with their trunk? Wow, Ellie never tires of talking trunks! What’s this? YOU CAN BE AN ELEPHANT!! Woohoo!

You too can be an elephant! It totally rocks!
Here’s Ellie checking out the trunk game! You can pretend you have a trunk and pick objects up! FUN!

You can play a round of elephant trivia, too! Edmond won!

Who’s up for a little flight with whooping cranes? We are! That’s right they have a life sized aircraft right here! Operation Migration is a program that helps whooping cranes learn their migration path. They actually fly these open air planes with the cranes! How cool is that! Check us out in the plane! You can “fly” with the birds!

Here we are on the plane!
Dedicated volunteers teach these birds to fly!
They have a life sized replica of a plane!
Here we are in the pilot’s seat! We’re ready for take off!

We’ve covered the big animals, but did you know that plenty of small animals get injured and need human help too! We share our habitats with turtles, birds, snakes and mammals. These animals often come across human dangers such as roads.

Here we are at the turtle crossing!

People helping turtles!

Thank goodness there are people who help these animals when they are injured. Fernbank will have some local rehabilitation centers with their animal ambassadors! You’ll get to meet some live animals and here their stories!

This video about orangutan and elephant rehab facilities is fascinating!

Here we are watching people help orphan orangutans and elephants!

As we head out of the exhibit we get the chance to learn about biodiversity

Biodiversity is key!

Biodiversity is the number of different species in a habitat. Biodiversity is very important, because when you have many different types of species in a habitat it means it is healthy.

Biodiversity rocks!

Wow! That was one amazing exhibit and we didn’t even show it all to you! We wanted to save some surprises for you! We’re coming to thr end of tonight’s episode, but not without stopping by the last station where you can learn how to help us and the rest of our animal friends!

Learn how you can help!

In fact, the famous and intelligent chimp researcher Jane Goodall  gave us some great tips; you can volunteer in a habitat clean up, plant a tree or plant a butterfly garden.

They give you a great list of organiztions that you can get involved in!

We hoped you have enjoyed tonight’s episode of Ellie and Edmond to the Rescue!

We stopped to pose with this elephant at the end!

The story doesn’t end here; you can continue your adventure by going to see “Wildlife Rescue” at Fernbank Museum of Natural History yourself! It is a GREAT exhibit full of fascinating information, fun activities and animals!

For hours, tickets and more information check out the Fernbank website:

http://www.fernbankmuseum.org/calendar-of-events/wildlife-rescue-opening-weekend-celebration-feb-4/

Fernbank also has an IMAX movie called “Born to Be Wild” that is all about orphan elephants and orangutans! Make sure you check it out while you’re there!

Categories: Animals, Atlanta, Children, education, Environment, Local, nature, science | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

FEATHERY FRIDAY # 23

FEATHERY FRIDAY# 23

Whew! We are exhausted from celebrating Groundhog Day yesterday! But we have enough energy to head to South Africa to meet the cute little insect eating bird that we found for today’s Feathery Friday bird! Are you ready to go? Let’s do this!

MEET THE WHITE FRONTED BEE EATER!

Range/Habitat: Southern Africa/ grasslands

Diet: Insectivore: bees, insects

Length/Weight: 9”/ 1 ¼ oz

Conservation Status: Common

 

Fun Facts:

  • White Fronted Bee Eaters nest in cliffs or banks.
  • They live in groups known as clans that can have up to 16 birds.
  • Clans of White fronted bee eaters live among a colony of birds that can have up to 500 birds.
  • Each clan of White fronted bee eaters has several breeding pairs of adult birds and related “helper” birds.
  • Helper birds help with the rearing of the chicks.
  • Each clan of White fronted bee eaters is very territorial.

We love these beautiful little birds. How cool is that they live in families and help each other out! That’s why family’s are so great!

 

 

 

 

Categories: Animals, birds, Children, education, Environment, nature, science | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

SUPER SURPRISE THURSDAY # 23

SUPER SURPRISE

THURSDAY# 23

We have a special Super Surprise Thursday for you today because it’s holiday! That’s right folks, today it is an animal holiday! HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY! Every year on February 2nd legend has it that if a groundhog comes out of his burrow and sees his shadow then there will be six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t see his shadow then spring will come early! Neat! These rodents are pretty cool the rest of year too- so let’s meet them!

MEET THE GROUNDHOG!

Range/Habitat: Alaska-Canada-United States/ grassland-woodland

Diet: Herbivore: seeds, fruits, grasses, occasional insect

Length/Weight: 12-20”/ 6 ½-11lb

Conservation Status: Common

 

Fun Facts:

  • Groundhogs are also known as the Woodchuck.
  • Groundhogs are rodents and are the largest member of the ground squirrel or marmot family.
  • They are excellent at climbing and swimming.
  • Groundhogs burrow in the ground.
  • They gorge all summer on food to fatten up!
  • Groundhogs hibernate in the winter.
  • They are known to whistle when threatened.

We love groundhogs and not just for their ability to predict the weather! These cool rodents get to hibernate all winter! Who wouldn’t love a long winter’s nap? Groundhogs are also pretty cute if you ask us!

Here’s some more history on Groundhog Day:

http://www.groundhog.org/groundhog-day/history/

We found this fun coloring sheet:

http://0.tqn.com/d/homeschooling/1/0/b/o/groundhogcolor.png

Categories: Animals, Children, education, Environment, groundhog day, mammals, nature | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Trip to “SPACE” at the Center for Puppetry Arts!

WE HEAD TO SPAAAACE!

            This past Saturday we went to see “SPACE” an original show by Jon Ludwig at the Center for Puppetry Arts! It was an amazing ride and great fun! The premise: Rockin’ aliens come to earth and whisk the audience away in their spaceship to teach us all about outer space! And let us tell you these aliens can rock!

You meet the three rocking aliens and their pilot and mechanic of the spaceship; Eema and Ot! They are fun pair! The aliens and Eema and Ot take you on an adventure through our solar system with some great songs that help you learn! Sir Issac Newton, the scientist who discovered gravity makes an appearance in the show! He even uses an elephant as an example to explain gravity! See we elephants are everywhere!

We loved the man in the moon number that explained the phases of the moon! An Ellie and Edmond moon tidbit: Did you know that many animals rely on the phases of the moon? Horseshoe crabs come ashore to mate during the new and full moon in spring. Baby sea turtles use the moon to guide them to the ocean after they hatch on land!

We learned all about the sun, Mercury, Venus and then headed through the asteroid belt! That’s right folks; we went through an asteroid belt, where we saw some amazing singing asteroids! After that, the aliens stopped at Jupiter and Saturn! Keep an eye out for a special number from Saturn!

The aliens then head out in to our galaxy, the Milky Way (yum)! Then after learning all about galaxies and stars, the aliens took us back to earth, where they sang a song about how awesome our planet is and how we need to take care of it! We loved this song the best and Edmond was dancing the whole time! We definitely agreed that we need to take care of our planet! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at “SPACE” and we can guarantee that you will too!

Ellie gives it 4 out 4 trunks for the great science.

Edmond gives it 4 out of 4 horseshoes for the great music!

We recommend that your gallop and don’t walk to The Center for Puppetry Arts to catch all the outer space fun!

We have our own space helmets and we're ready!

The show runs Jan 26th-March 11, 2012 every Tuesday-Sunday. Here’s the website for more details: http://www.puppet.org/perform/space.shtml

Here are some photos from our trip!

Aliens lurk in the lobby of The Center for Puppetry Arts!Opening weekend!You can make your own alien puppet! FUN!Here we are with an alien!Here we are with the program!

Categories: Atlanta, Children, education, Local, Puppets, science, space | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

WATERY WEDNESDAY # 23

WATERY WEDNESDAY# 23

Animals come with so many fun patterns! Yesterday’s tortoise had stars on its shell, and today’s fish has spots! Yep, we found a fish with spots for this Watery Wednesday! Let’s get our snorkel gear on and dive in to the coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific oceans!

MEET THE PANTHER FISH!

Range/Habitat: Indo-Pacific Oceans/ coral reefs

Diet: Carnivore: small fish and crustaceans

Length/Weight: up to 28”/ up to 7 lbs

Conservation Status: Vulnerable

 

Fun Facts:

  • Panther fish are also known as humpback grouper or panther grouper.
  • Panther fish are cream with black spots.
  • They have small heads with a large hump on their backs.
  • Their spots help them camouflage into their surroundings.
  • Panther fish are ambush predators.
  • They are solitary and territorial.

 

These fish sure are fancy pants with their polka dots! And those dots aren’t just for show, they help them blend in, so predators won’t see them! Ellie wants to know if she gets a polka dot outfit if it will help her camouflage. Edmond says no way!

Categories: Animals, Children, education, Environment, fish, nature | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

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