Melting A. Blob Book Extension Craft

Monday kicked off a big week with people from all over the Nation coming together to observe Random Acts of Kindness Week and Engineers Week. For the next 7 days, people will be leaving kind notes for one another, practicing their coding, paying for the person behind them in line, and building Rube Goldberg devices in celebration. ​

With one of our own authors, L.A. Kefalos, being both a full time engineer and writer of 2 picture books that champion kindness, we wanted to join in on the fun and bring you a new picture book extension craft that builds kindness while sparking interest in the S.T.E.A.M. (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) fields.

The inspiration for this activity comes from the blog, Engineering Emily, which is run by Emily, an engineer/stay-at-home-mom/blogger. Her site is chock-full of fun S.T.E.A.M. activities for children, life insights, and interviews with inspiring women engineers (including L.A. Kefalos!). Head over to her blog to view her original craft, which she used to celebrate Valentine’s Day!

This twist on Emily’s activity extends the lessons found in L.A.’s picture books. As children mix ingredients and observe the chemical reactions, they will learn that there is often more to someone than meets the eye and, with kindness and empathy, we can melt away a hard exterior to reveal (and help!) the true person underneath. ​

Read the instructions below to make your own Melting A. Blob craft!

What You’ll Need

• This is A. Blob, by L.A. Kefalos
• A. Blob on a Bus, by L.A. Kefalos
• 1 cup baking soda
• ¼ cup Water
• Vinegar
• Purple (or red and blue) food coloring (optional, but recommended)
• Small toy (such as bouncy ball, penny, etc)
• Small clear glass bowls
• Safety glasses (optional)
• Heavier stock paper
• Pen
• Cookie sheet or tray with edges

​To Create A. Blob

1. Mix the water, baking soda, and food coloring together to form a soft dough.  If your dough begins to crumble, simply add more water.
2. Make a small “pancake” with about 1.5 Tbs of dough.
3. Write your message on a small strip of paper and roll into a small scroll (see lesson below for message ideas).
4. Place the message onto the pancake of dough and mold the dough around your message.
5. Add more dough and mold into the shape of A. Blob.
6. Place your blobs on the cookie sheet and let sit until dry.

​*Note* These take about 8 hours to fully dry. If you plan to have your students make their own blobs, allow 2 days to complete the activity. If you plan to pre-make the blobs, do so the night before.

Please also note that the food coloring WILL slightly stain your hands when you form the blobs. If this is a problem, we suggest grabbing some plastic gloves and your hands will be stain free!
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The Lesson​​

Begin by reading This is A. Blob, by L.A. Kefalos. Before starting, ask the students to make predictions about A. Blob. What do they think A. Blob will be like? Why? Ask this same question halfway through the story.

After reading the book, ask the students what they learned about A. Blob. Were their assumptions correct? Explain that we can’t see inside people. We never know exactly what they are going through or experiencing. Go over some of the reasons why people bully others:

• They want to feel powerful
• Fear of rejection
• They have been bullied themselves

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While these issues don’t make it ok to bully others, understanding them can help us find positive solutions to the bullying. For example, if A. Blob hurts others because it is afraid it will be rejected for looking different, being mean and hurtful in return will only make the situation worse.

A. Blob takes a swing at children on the playground in "This is A. Blob".

A. Blob finds itself alone in "This is A. Blob"

After this talk, pull out A. Blob on a Bus, by L.A. Kefalos and have students make new predictions:

• How will A. Blob will behave on a bus?
• Will its loneliness cause it to change its behaviors?

​​As you read, pause occasionally to define the terms “bystander”, “target”, and “upstander” in the story. After reading, ask students what it means to look through the eyes of another and define the term “empathy”.

Refer back to the first book when we were able to see what A. Blob was like in public and in private. How does it help to learn why someone behaves the way they do? What benefits come from viewing life through someone else's eyes? What happens in the story when the children choose to do this? Point out that it wasn’t until the other students stood up to A. Blob and ALSO exhibited empathy and kindness that A. Blob’s slimy exterior began to “melt”. ​

The children face off with A. Blob in "A. Blob on a Bus".

Something strange is happening to A. Blob in "A. Blob on a Bus"!

Ask the students to describe how they feel when someone is mean to them. Do they get tense? Maybe shaky? Do their thoughts begin to run around and make it hard to focus? Next, ask the students to remember something kind someone said or did for them. Choose one or two students to share their stories. ​

How did those kind words or actions make your students feel? Often, the answer is easy to see as a smile blooms across the students’ faces as they recall the memory. Just like A. Blob “melts” in the story after the students try to look through A. Blob’s eyes, we tend to soften and relax when someone is kind to us. That is the power of kindness!

Challenge students to search for what is underneath the exterior of their classmates. Encourage them to be friendly and kind and get to know one another. Soon, the kindness will melt hard exteriors and bring out the best in everyone!

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​The Activity

Explain to students that they will be doing an activity to help them better understand the lessons they just discussed.

Bring out your bowls of vinegar (placed on your tray) and your baking soda blobs. Explain that the blobs of baking soda represent A. Blob. The exterior is hard to represent A.Blob’s hard attitudes and mean behavior. The vinegar represents empathy and kindness.

Choose one student to place A. Blob in a bowl of kindness (vinegar). After the blob stops fizzing, ask students to see what was buried inside the blob.

There are many options for what to hide inside A. Blob. In this activity, we decided to hide personality traits that can be brought out with kindness, such as friendliness or humor, along with some issues that sometimes contribute to a person acting like a bully, such as a difficult home life or abuse. Our goal is help children understand that we never know what someone is dealing with and that kindness can help us understand why someone behaves the way they do and even melt away a hard exterior to reveal a friend. 

If there is time, give each student their own A. Blob, plate, and cup of vinegar. After revealing the message inside, have them write a reflection on what the message says and why it is important. ​

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​Extensions

An alternative way to utilize this activity is to let the students predict what they think is under the goo at the end of A. Blob on a Bus and hide their predictions inside their own blobs. Have students write a short explanation of their predictions.  Let blobs dry overnight. The next day, drop them in vinegar and have a few students share why they wrote their prediction.

Another way to extend the learning is to make bath bombs instead of baking soda/vinegar balls. Hide a kind message or a cute trinket inside and give the bath bombs away as a random act of kindness!

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The Science

Finally, here is the science behind the fizzy blobs. The bubbles and fizz are actually the result of a chemical reaction called an acid-base reaction, the baking soda being the base and the vinegar being the acid. When the two ingredients are mixed,  hydrogen ions in the vinegar react with the sodium and bicarbonate ions in the baking soda. This forms sodium acetate, which is a salt, along with carbonic acid. This acid quickly decomposes into water and carbon dioxide, a gas. This gas rises to the top of the mixture, causing the fizzy bubbles kids just love!

The chemical reaction that occurs  is written as:
(sodium bicarbonate/baking soda) NaHCO3(s) + ( dilute acetic acid/vinegar) CH3COOH(l) -> (Sodium acetate) CH3COONa(aq) + (water) H2O(l) + (carbon dioxide) CO2(g)

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We hope you enjoy this extension craft and that it inspires kindness and a deeper interest in the S.T.E.A.M. fields. Let us know in the comments how you are celebrating Random Acts of Kindness Week and Engineers Week!

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If you enjoyed this craft, check out these other book extension crafts!

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​A. Blob is back, and this time it's on a bus! As the slimy bully pokes and pesters the children of Lincoln Elementary School, it seems like they will never be able to ride the bus in peace. That is, until one brave girl takes stand. 

Can one act of bravery change everything--including A. Blob? Find out in this second installment of The Blob Series!

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​Before it was on a bus, A. Blob was on the playground. This first installment of The Blob Series follows the antics of A. Blob, as it wreaks havoc on the elementary school playground with its bullying ways. As the story progresses, however, readers learn that A. Blob may have more than meets the eye.

Along with its powerful illustrations and rhymed verse for early readers, this story invites children to put themselves in the shoes of another and encourages readers to consider why bullies behave the way they do – and start to consider what can be done to help.