Kids Spring

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Foothills Digest

619 2nd St NE
Hickory NC 28601
Phone: 828.475.1323
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: foothillsdigest.com

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

CARMEN ECKARD
JON ECKARD

JOEY OSBORNE

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2

Letter

from the

Editor SPRING 2019

Hi kids!

This issue is all about the color green. I think
you’ll learn some things, and I hope you have a
lot of fun. I’d love for you to email me pictures
of projects you do or art you make, or ask me
any questions you might have.

Spring is the time that all of nature starts
fresh. Look around and appreciate the new
plants that are growing and blooming. Learn
the name of some of the birds that live in your
neighborhood, and listen to their different
songs. Smell the flowers. Go barefoot every
once in a while, and feel the warm dirt and
grass under your toes. Spring is lovely, and it is
when nature displays all of it’s most beautiful
greens. Enjoy it and breathe deeply, friends.

With love,
Mrs. Carmen

Visit our site, foothillsdigest.com and be

sure to check out Foothills Digest!

Green

Green is a SECONDARY color, made out of the colors
blue and yellow.

Green is the color of most plants, and it is produced by
a process called PHOTOSYNTHESIS.

“Green” is a term used to describe the practices of
REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE.

Sometimes people use the word green to describe someone
who doesn’t have very much practice at something.

On the color wheel, green is opposite red.

Green is the second most popular color, coming in behind
blue.

Green was the favorite color of GEORGE
WASHINGTON, the first President of the United States
of America.

In China, the color green represents virtue and beauty.

Kermit the Frog famously said, “It’s not easy being
GREEN.” What do you think he meant?

COPPER is a metal that is used in pennies, the Statue
of Liberty, and many other places. When it gets old,
it OXIDIZES and turns green. The Statue of Liberty is
green today, but when it was new it glistened like a
new penny.

We use traffic lights on our streets, and when you
see a light that is green, it means it is safe to go.

About 80% (that means MOST) of the oxygen in our
world is created by ALGAE. They are tiny, green, one-
celled organisms that use PHOTOSYNTHESIS to turn
sunlight and water into oxygen and energy.

EMERALDS are green minerals of great value that are
mined in some places in Western North Carolina.

In some languages, like Thai and Vietnamese, there is one
word that means BLUE and GREEN instead of two words.
Why do you think that is so?

Green

Pop Pop’s

Mya and Jeremiah were very excited to visit their Pop Pop
and Meemaw. They were there to plan a trip to the mountains
together. They knew they wanted to go to Asheville, and Meemaw
got out her phone and asked Siri for help. “Hey Siri: what’s a
great hotel in Asheville?”

“The highest rated hotel I see is The Foundry Hotel Asheville.”

“Well I’ll be,” Pop Pop said. “I remember visiting that place when
I was a boy. Back then, it was the YMI, which stood for ‘Young

Green Book
Men’s Institute.’ People of color could go see plays and concerts
at the YMI, and it was right next to the Palace Grill. That
was our favorite place to eat, and I don’t think we’d have
known about it if it weren’t for the Green
Book my dad had.”

“What’s a Green Book,
Pop Pop?” asked Mya.
“And couldn’t people see
a play anywhere they
wanted to?”

“Well, those are big
questions. Let me see
if I can find my Green
Book.”

It wasn’t long before Pop
Pop was back, holding an
old and battered book
called The Green Book.



“When I was young, this North Carolina in the Green Book, Courtesy
country had something called of the New York Public Library.
‘JIM CROW LAWS.’ Those
were a whole group of laws country. If a business was on
that meant that black and white the list, our family didn’t need
people should have different to worry about running into
schools, different businesses to problems caused by the Jim
interact with, different seats Crow Laws or angry people.
at plays and even different That made going on a trip much
water fountains. This wasn’t more fun, because we could
good for black people, because relax.”
the schools, businesses, play
seats and water fountains for One of our favorite trips was
the white people were better. going to visit Asheville. We
A lot of businesses had signs visited all the places on the list!
that said, ‘No Negroes Allowed.” We stayed at the Booker T.
Some white people would become Washington Hotel one year, and
angry when people of color the Savoy Hotel the next year.
came in their businesses, and
that could be scary. Sometimes We ate most of our meals at
people do bad things when they the Palace Grill, and we’d go
are very angry. It was easy see plays and concerts at the
enough to know the people in YMI, which wasn’t in The Green
your own town, but traveling Book.. Mama even got her hair
could be tricky.” done at Butlers, and my Dad
got his done at Wilson’s Barber
Pop Pop paused, and Jeremiah Shop. We loved that town. I’m
and Mya both looked at him glad we are going to visit it
eagerly. together, kids.”

“So some men made this book,
The Green Book.. It’s a list of
places that are friendly to all
people in towns all over the

“So am I Pop Pop! Can we stay at that hotel?
Will you tell us more about what it was like when
you were little?” Mya was excited to learn more.

:”Yes, darling. Of course.”

When Jeremiah and Mya’s parents came to pick them up, the kids
told them all about what they had learned.

Fold a Boat

ADDITIONAL READING

Check these books out at your
local or your school library.



YOGA is a way to exercise our body, our breath and
our minds all at the same time. See if you can do
each of these poses, named for animals. Once you
are in the position, hold it while you take several
deep and slow breaths.

yoga



Earth Day is April 22. It is the world’s largest
environmental movement. The first Earth Day was
in 1970, and it is always on April 22. The day was
started by a Senator who thought that people should
pay more attention to the way we were hurting our
environment. More than one billion people celebrate
Earth Day! What does your family do to celebrate?

This Earth Day, make a list of three or four things you
and your family could do to help the environment.

Planting trees, recycling, and using less electricity are
some good ideas!

Reduce.
Reuse.
Recycle.

It is important that we all do our part to keep the earth
healthy. One way we can do this is by remembering the
words “reduce, reuse, recycle.”

REDUCE: This means use less. Can you use less water,
less electricity, or make less trash?

REUSE: Instead of throwing away an empty spaghetti
jar, you can use it to hold something else. You can keep
plastic bags to use over and over again.

RECYCLE: This is when plastic, paper, glass and metal
is melted down or ground up and then formed into new
items.

Hiddenite
Hiddenite is a special kind of stone that is only found in
a handful of places on earth. It was found in Alexander
County, North Carolina in 1879. No one had ever
seen a stone like it before. A young man named W.E.
Hidden found the gemstone and he took it to a scientist
that had been sent to the area by Thomas Edison.
To find hiddenite, you have to dig in the
ground, like a pirate looking for treasure or a
paleontologist looking for dinosaur bones. It takes
a lot of patience and hard work, and also luck!

The area where the gemstone was discovered became a
popular rock-hunting site, and the town was renamed
“Hiddenite”.
Another green stone is an emerald. There are also many
emeralds found in our area. In fact, the largest emerald
ever found in the United States was also in Hiddenite.
There are mines that you and your parents can
visit in the town of Hiddenite. You can dig for
emeralds and hiddenite. You might also find
amethyst, sapphire, aquamarine, topaz or garnets.
If you dig for gems, remember, you might not find
anything. It’s an adventure, a hunt. If you don’t find
anything, you can always try again. You live in a great
area for it!

Hiddenite



Upcycled

Crafts

Upcycling means to take something that would have
been trash, and use it to make something cool. That
could be any number of things, and you can certainly
use your imagination! Your home recycling bin is a
great place to look for supplies for this craft!
• To make a kitty planter like the ones in the picture,

first you’ll find an empty soda bottle.
• Cut off the top. The cut should be straight, except

you’ll leave two triangles for the cat’s ears.
• Paint the inside of the bottle with acrylic paint,

then let it dry.
• Use Sharpie markers (be careful not to write on

your clothes or the furniture) to draw a face on
your cat. You’ll draw eyes, color in the ears, then
add a nose, mouth and whiskers.
• Glue buttons and sequins on your cat, then let it
dry.
• Poke a few holes in the bottom for drainage.
• Fill about one quarter full with gravel.
• Add dirt/soil. Leave about one inch to the top of
the container.
• Follow the directions in the next project for
planting your seeds and enjoy!





a SeedHow to Plant

1: Make a small indention in
your dirt, then put in a seed. The
directions on your seeds will tell you
how close together to plant them.
Seeds are small and they grow into
different things.
2: Cover the seed with dirt.

Seed

3: Water the seed. Follow the
directions on the package of your
seeds, because different plants need
different amounts of water. They
also need sunlight, so make sure
your plant is somewhere that gets
some sunshine.

4: In some ways, this step is the
easiest, and in some ways it is the
hardest. For step 4, you wait. It
is easy because it doesn’t require
any work. But it’s hard because
sometimes it is difficult to be patient.
But when you wait long enough, a
plant will sprout and grow.

Plants need AIR, WATER, NUTRIENTS, and
SUNLIGHT.

Find 10 differences!

What is your favorite Spring
activity?

Use math to color this image!

Crossword
Puzzle





Draw this recycling symbol!

Use the grid to help!

River
5

Maxwell
7

Green

Screens

Green Screens are used very often in modern
entertainment. They are a piece of fabric or even
paint that is a certain shade of green. They hang
as backgrounds for photography or videography
shoots. Even though in real life, the picture has a
green background, like below, the pictures or videos
can then be used in an interesting way! A computer
program is use to replace the green with a different
background, like the scenes to the right. One picture
is shown with different backgrounds, like a lake and a
volcano. We also showed the boys being chased by a
dinosaur and surrounded by rare blue ghost fireflies.

FREE

GAME OF
BOWLING!!

SHOE RENTAL INCLUDED.

ONE PER PERSON PER DAY
EXPIRES 9/30/19

1: What can you do to
help the earth?

PLEASE 2: What does the color
COMPLETE: green mean to you?

(THIS COUPON IS INVALID IF THIS SECTION IS 3: Why was The Green
LEFT EMPTY) Book important?

NAME:

EMAIL:

SCHOOL:

4: What is something
you could do to enjoy
the Spring?

38

is so very happy to bring this Foothills Kids
to you! For each magazine we sell, we give a
Foothills Kids to a local student. We hope that
you enjoyed reading this as much as we enjoyed
making it. If you have things you want us to write
about, questions, art, or anything else you want
to share with us, we hope you will! You can send
emails to [email protected] and we’ll
be sure to answer you. You can also mail things
to 619 2nd St NE, Hickory NC 28601.
Be sure to remind your folks to pick up a copy of
Foothills Digest! It’s full of information they will
enjoy, as well as art and recipes. The magazines
are available online at foothillsdigest.com or in
the following stores across Western NC: Publix,
Lowes Foods, Food Lion, CVS, Walgreens and
some Targets, as well as many local stores like
the Hickory Tree and the Hickory Station.