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3 Check It Out! 4 Rollicking Roller Coasters 6 10 Fun and Fascinating Facts 8 A Ride on a Boneshaker 9 Decoding License Plates 10 Puzzles 12 Building Castles in the Sand 13 Max & Gracie 14 Jill & Jason’s Outdoor Puzzle 18 A Horse Is a Horse 20 Make a Balancing Horse 21 Draw a Horse 22 Summer Lights 23 When Lightning Strikes 24 Crimestopper Cat 27 The Fascinating Praying Mantis 28 Kids Corner 30 Puzzle Solutions 2
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here are so many fun and fascinating things to do in summertime. Adventures are always just around the corner. We’ve shared some popular activities with you. Is your favorite among them? Are you crazy about riding roller coasters? Is cooling off at the beach your number one choice? Maybe you like looking for unusual insects like the praying mantis or chasing fireflies at night. Whatever you enjoy doing during the warm summer months, write or send us a picture and tell us about it. We will share your thoughts in a future issue of Fun For Kidz and also write back to you! Be sure to let us know if you have a favorite we didn’t think of. Have a great time enjoying fun summertime activities! Report in to us at: Fun For Kidz, PO Box 227, Bluffton, OH 45817-0227. Or email us at: kidscorner@funforkidz.com
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Rollicking Roller Coasters by Diane Winebar
What gives you a dizzying, topsy-turvy, stomach-churning feeling? Roller coasters! Climb aboard a coaster named The Racer, Corkscrew, or Mean Streak, and you know you’re in for a hair-raising ride! Many families go to amusement parks during their summer vacations just to ride their favorite “scream machines.” Instead of the wild, looping rides we have today, the first “rolling coaster” in America was more like a runaway train. It actually was a train that once brought coal down a Pennsylvania mountain. When the train was no longer used for coal, the owners decided to turn it into a ride. It would carry people instead of coal. Tourists came from miles around to experience the exciting, shaky descent down the mountain. Soon more “railway” rides were built across the country. The age of roller coasters had begun! Most early roller coasters were pretty mild compared to modern coasters. One Pennsylvania ride built in 1902 cruised over gentle hills at 10 miles per hour. It is called Leap the Dips and is the oldest operating coaster in the world. If 10 miles per hour seems too tame for you, never fear. Lightning-fast coasters are found in many large amusement parks. North America’s fastest and tallest roller coaster is the Kingda Ka at New Jersey’s Six Flags Great Adventure. This steel Mantis, Cedar Point, Ohio coaster’s top speed is an astounding 128 miles per hour. It shoots riders up 45 stories into the sky. Wow! The longest roller coaster in the US is at Kings Island in Ohio. The Beast is a wooden coaster that carries riders along a nearly one-and-a-half-mile-long track. This ride lasts just over four minutes, but when you’re going 65 miles per hour in an open car, that can seem like an eternity! Steep turns and tunnels keep you wondering what’s coming up next. Some roller coasters have you standing the entire ride. Others leave your legs dangling in the air. Some go fast, and others go more slowly. But they’re all fun, and that’s why they’re called thrill rides!
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American Eagle, a wooden roller coaster in Six Flags Great America, Illinois
Raptor, Cedar Point, Ohio
s r e t s a o C g in ll o R o t s e d li S e c I m o r F Would it surprise you to know that roller coasters were inspired by winter ice slides in cold, snowy Russia? Over 300 years ago, Russian ice slides were very popular. Imagine climbing lots of stairs to reach the top of a 70-foot-tall wooden structure. Someone is waiting there to help you get on a sled. The sled might be made of wood, or it might be just a block of ice with a straw pad. It’s a good thing that pad is there. Otherwise, brrr! Once you’re settled, you grab the rope that’s attached to the sled. Do you see the sloping ramp in front of you? It’s hundreds of feet long and covered in a sheet of ice. Someone gives your sled a little push and whoosh! Off you go, speeding down the icy slope! Built-in bumps make your ride even more exciting. Before you know it, the ramp levels off, and you plow into a pile of sand that slows you down. People in other countries wanted to build their own ice slides. But there was a problem. Some places weren’t cold enough to keep the slides frozen. Someone had the great idea of putting wheels on the sleds. Later, tracks were added to the ramps. Now the cars could run on tracks and move smoothly and swiftly down the ramp. No ice needed! Who first thought of adding wheels and tracks to the slides to make a rolling coaster? No one really knows. But aren’t we glad they did?
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How would you enjoy riding a boneshaker or a dandy horse instead of your bicycle? If you lived 230 years ago, you would be thrilled to have any kind of riding machine. Many men came up with their versions of something to ride. A Frenchman built a wooden contraption called the velocifere in 1790. The rider sat on a cushion and used his feet to move forward. There were no brakes and no way to steer. Then a German created the earliest twowheeler in 1819. Named the dandy horse, it had a way to steer, but you used your feet to push it forward and glide. (See illustration.) This was the first balance bike. Later models didn’t become popular until 2013! In 1864, a French father and son team designed a machine with an iron frame. The wooden wheels were wrapped in an iron rim. Pedals were attached to the front wheel. It was called the boneshaker because of the way it shook the rider as he rode on bumpy cobblestone streets. Today there are all kinds of bicycles. What will riding machines be like in 2056? Will they even resemble the bikes of today? Maybe they will glide off the ground like a hoverboard. Use your imagination, and draw what you think the bike of tomorrow will look like. Send it to us at Fun For Kidz, and we’ll share it with our readers. Who knows? Maybe your drawing will look like the real bike of tomorrow.
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It is summertime, and your family has planned a road trip to visit a national park. You are excited about going, but not about spending hours in the car. To help pass the time, watch for unusual license plates on other cars. Some people pay extra to put their own messages on their plates. These are called “vanity plates.” How can you figure out what the owner of the car is trying to tell you? Here are clues to help you:
1. Write down the license plate. It might take you a little while to figure it out, and you don’t want to forget what the letters and numbers were.
2. Sound out the phrase. The letters R or AR can stand for the word “are.” A group of T’s (TTT) could be translated as “tease.” Here’s an easy one: RU. Just repeat the two letters, and it says “are you.”
3. Sometimes, letters and numbers are combined. 2TH means “tooth.” B4
is “before.” LV2 reads “love to.” Can you guess what BU2FL means? It’s “beautiful.”
4. Consider the vehicle when trying to decipher the plate. If you see a
black jeep with the letters BAABAA, it might mean “baa-baa black jeep.” If the plate’s letters are “EIEIO,” maybe the last name of the car owner is MacDonald.
5. If you get tired of looking at plates while riding, try making up some of your own. Have fun with it! Send us your ideas, or send in a photo of any unusual plates you see.
C U L8R!
a Sta r Wa rs fa n
fo u r- w h e e l W h a t d o e s th is o th ro u g h ? d ri ve ve h ic le g
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