When All Else Fails, I Revert To Food...

O.K. let me explain. So, the reason I have not posted recently is because June has been a crazy month. First, I had this ongoing project for social studies that my class had been working on since March! The project was on a national park, and my park was American Samoa National Park located in of course, American Samoa.  Then, I got out of school really late due to all the snow days that I had. Lastly, my summer has been really hectic and crazy! So much for my effort to "post more this summer".  

Back to the school project... At first I had no interest in learning about this park...and then I started uncovering tons of interesting facts!  The park is located 2,600 miles from Hawaii and 4,800 miles from the closest US mainland. There are only about 4,000 visitors per year at my park which is nothing compared to the more than 9 million at the most visited park, the Great Smokey Mountains.  Don't worry if you have never heard of the park before, neither had I! You should worry even less if you haven't been there, afterall, flights only go from Hawaii two times a week.  I also found out about this very cool coral reef and crown of thorn starfish...more on that later!
 
Fortunately, this school project presented me with a chance to create something other than a written report.  I was just about out of ideas ( it was afterall already the end of June!) on what creative art project I could do and my mother was insisting she would not be spending loads of money at Michaels with only 3 days to go in my elementary career.  What could I do? ... Hmmmm, food anyone?

First, I wanted to do something with blue jello because almost 38 percent of this park is underwater. Then I realized that the jello would melt in between 8:50 and 1:30 (the time my school started at and the time that the projects were being presented at).

Then it hit me, why not bake a cake and do something creative with it. So, on June 19, I baked the cake. Then I made frosting, food colored it 2 different colors, food colored coconut, and frosted ice cream cones.  The green frosting was my grass, with the coconut on top of it, the ice cream cones were frosted green, like trees. The almond flour (left over from my rum cake) was the sand on the beach. Then the blue frosting was my ocean along with blue sprinkles. Then I got modeling clay and made a crown-of-thorn starfish with a coral reef. The coral reef had a stomach on it because that is how the starfish eat the coral. These starfish are killing the coral reefs so I thought that it was important to display one. 

So, do you wonder how the project ended?  Well, most importantly, the cake turned out to be a big hit!  I also learned that it's possible to do a great art project in 1 afternoon with 3 days left in the school year without spending loads of money at Michaels. Well...finally, I learned...


WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, I REVERT TO FOOD!!!!

This is a picture of my project