Today we’re off, since it’s Independence Day and people are out at parades and barbecues, and since Ogden School District’s lunch program also takes the day off for the holiday. But since we miss all of you, and since we’ve been scattered in our posting lately, here’s a bonus 4th of July edition activity you might like to try out at home.

I walked into the prep area yesterday to catch up on our supply needs and questions from staff when someone brought up “butterfly cups.” These have been on our list of things to do on Move It! day, but since we have new people each year, no one had this cultural knowledge passed down to them. In addition, searching the internet didn’t reveal exactly what these “butterfly cups” really were nor how to make them.

So, I grabbed a couple of cups that you might have accompanying you on a picnic, along with some tape and rubber bands. The basic idea is that if you tape the bottoms of the cups together, with the tops of the cups facing away from one another, you have a kind of flying machine that looks a little like a butterfly — except that this butterfly can spin. So, by wrapping rubber bands around the cup combination, you can simultaneously launch and spin the cups. With a little practice, they fly really well.

Here’s the demo, featuring a seldom-seen program director:

Enjoy. Just make sure you recycle the cups rather than throwing them away!