Travels with Charlie: LOUISIANA Crawdad Cookie Craft #BookingUSA

Booking Across the USA is here!  Today, 14 May 2014, over 50 participating bloggers are  sharing activities and crafts related to each of the 50 states (we have the pleasure of posting about the great State of Louisiana)!

Booking Across the USA is inspired by the Travels with Charlie series by Miles Backer and illustrated by Chuck Nitzberg.  Blue Apple Books published the four book series which includes:  Across Midwest, Down South, Way Out West, and Travelin’ the Northeast.  The books are filled with history, trivia facts, bright landmark illustrations and a little picture of Charlie the dog somewhere on each state page (think: finding WALDO) to engage children of all ages.  The books are a fun way to explore and learn about each of our 50 states.

LOUISIANA – Down South

Since 2005, Louisiana is a state widely known due to Hurricane Katrina (the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history).  Katrina destroyed large sections of the Gulf Coast, including New Orleans and surrounding areas.  Today, nine years later, New Orleans is a city where the sounds of great jazz and large equipment co-exist:  rebuilding, resonating,  and surviving when few thought it possible.

A few interesting facts about Louisiana:

• The state bird of Louisiana is the pelican.
• Louisiana was named in honor of King Louis XIV
• Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. that does not have counties – instead they have parishes.
• Louisiana has the tallest capitol building in the United States.

FUN things to do with kids in Louisiana:

• Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo
• Audubon Memorial State Park
• Frog Capital of the World

• The Mudbug Madness Crawfish Boil  – “began in 1984 as a two-day street festival in downtown Shreveport is now one of Louisiana’s largest and most popular Cajun festivals, featuring renown Cajun, Zydeco, Blues and Jazz artists, mouth-watering Cajun cuisine, raucous contests, and fun for all ages. Now a four-day festival held each Memorial Day weekend, Mudbug Madness is nationally recognized as one of the Southeast Tourism Society’s Top 20 Events, drawing as many as 56,000 people in one day.”

LOUISIANA CRAWDAD COOKIES

Louisiana leads the nation in producing more than 90% of the domestic crawfish crop (yes, a crawdad is the same as a crawfish).  Even if you can’t attend an authentic crawfish boil, your kids can celebrate Louisiana at home with a crawdad cookie food craft.

Materials needed:  Vienna finger cookies (one per crawdad), 1 strawberry (per child/craft), knife (adult only), paper plates (1 per child), craft sticks (one per child to spread frosting), toothpicks (2 per child – holds the strawberries in place), prepared commercial red frosting, and candy eyes.

Invite the kids to create by placing all supplies out on a table or a tray.  An adult should hull the strawberries and cut two pieces to resemble the claws of the crawdad for each child (see photo above).  The children can attach the strawberries by placing two toothpicks between the sandwich cookie layers and inserting the strawberry claws.  Have the children spread red frosting over the top of the cookie and add two candy eyes.

The crawdad cookies are a fun food craft to make & EAT when learning about the state of Louisiana!

Crawdad Song – a classic favorite as sung by the great Andy Griffith:

Other books about Louisiana for kids to enjoy!

GIVEAWAY From Blue Apple Books

Beginning today, 14 May 2014, you can enter to win a set of all four TRAVELS WITH CHARLIE books thanks to Blue Apple Books.

GIVEAWAY GUIDELINES:

To enter the giveaway you will need to complete the Rafflecopter section below.  That’s it!  You have from 5/14/14 at 12:00a.m. (EST) until 5/20/14 at 11:59p.m. (EST) to enter.  One entrant (must be 18 years or older) will be randomly drawn and sent an email (make sure to check your junk folder) on or about 5/21/14.  The winner has 48 hours to respond with a mailing address (US only).  If the information is not sent by the deadline, another entrant will be selected.  Good luck!  NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.  VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Our many thanks to Growing Book by Book for coordinating this special event.  To check out other activities for different states please visit the website!

We’d also like to thank the other participating bloggers in #BookingUSA –

Growing Book by Book, Everyday Snapshots, Teaching in the Fast Lane, The Educators’ Spin On It, Crayonbox Learning, Enchanted Homeschooling Mom, 3rd Grade Thoughts, Mama Miss, Teaching Stars, Fabulously First, Lemon Lime Adventures, True Aim Education, Guided Math, Primary Inspired, Surviving a Teacher’s Salary, Second Grade Smartypants, The Brown Bag Teacher, The Preschool Toolbox, Country Fun, Picture Books & Pirouettes, One Lesson at a Time, The Resource(ful) Room, Creative Family Fun, Peace, Love, and First Grade, Edventures with Kids, Africa to America, Teach Beside Me, Elementary Matters, Inspiring 2 NH Kids, Pink Stripey Socks, Kid World Citizen, iGameMom, Second Grade Math Maniac, Rockin’ Teacher Materials, Great Peace Academy, Kathy Griffin’s Teaching Strategies, Journey of a Substitute Teacher, My (Not So) Elementary Life, Stir the Wonder, Kidding Around Greenville, The Good Long Road, Kathy’s Cluttered Mind, Curls and a Smile, Dilly Dabbles, Mama Smiles, Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy Crafts, Sprout’s Bookshelf, All Done Monkey, Growing Firsties, ALLternative Learning, Delightful Learning, Kids Yoga Stories, and Where Imagination Grows.