Goodbye Google Friend Connect

Do you follow blogs using Google Friend Connect?

Then you may or may not know that this method will end as of Monday, July 1st.

Which means if you want to continue to follow your favourite blogs (and hopefully mine) then you'll have to switch to another method.

 I have a couple of ways attached to my blog page.

The first is through Bloglovin.  Just press the button on the top right side of this page.

The other method is to follow through your email.  Every post written will be sent directly to your email for easy access. 

I also have a Facebook page that gives little snippets of information about what's happening each day, quotes or articles that I think may be of interest and photos from our program.

And finally you can follow my Pinterest boards.  This is where I file the many ideas I find while I surf the net. 

Hope you'll switch over and keep following along.

Who’s Calling?

While garage sale shopping a few weeks ago I found this old
fashion candle stick phone.
                      
It inspired me to bring out other phones from the cupboard
and set up a centre.
     
It included the candle stick, a rotary, a push button with a cord,
a cordless and a cell phone.

There were lots of conversations happening to unknown receivers,
to themselves,
      
and to one another.
       
Even across the room.  We practiced telephone words;
hello, goodbye, see you later.
 
We added phone numbers to our book.

And we took messages.
Do you have phones available in your centre?

Ocean Playdough

 
Last month I attended a professional development day for StrongStart facilitators from the north island.  Each person that attended left with a draw prize.  Mine was this wonderful sectioned basket which contained shells, jewels and sticks.  I added blue play dough and watched the children play.
                

 
        
Play dough offers many opportunities for children.  Storytelling, fine motor, experimenting (will the sticks stand straight up), sharing, creativity, understanding how materials can work together, are just a few.

Potato Cooking

From our two spud tubs we harvested approximately 60 potatoes
which gave us lots to make several recipes.
  
But which recipes should we try? 
Yes, I do have a cook book dedicated to potatoes.
  
We started by boiling some of the potatoes and having a taste test.
 
Then we mashed some of them for our first recipe.
 
            
Added some cheese, a bit of flour and made potato pancakes.
 
Our second recipe also used mashed potatoes and cocoa.

After mixing in all the ingredients, enjoying the fragrance of the cocoa,
we scooped the cookie dough on to the pan. 
                 
Yum, we made chocolate potato cookies and we shared them with our big buddies.
 
Lastly we made potato chips in the microwave.
      
Slice the potatoes thinly and soak in water for a few minutes to help remove some of the starch.  Microwave for a few minutes and flip them over then microwave until they are brown and crisp.

Mermaid Dreams

              
Mermaid Dreams by Mark Sperring is about Meriam who doesn’t
like getting ready for bed.  But as her mom brushes her hair, shells
and other ocean items fall out.  They are all hints to the end where
we learn that she is a mermaid. 
  
The illustrations in this book flow across the pages. The picture of Meriam’s tail has been created from a variety of paper, layered on top of each other.
         
                  
I was inspired to try to copy the mermaid.  I began by making a stencil
on styrofoam for the children to paint and print.
                     

Yarn was used for her hair.  Old greeting cards and scissors with
scalloped blades were used to make the scales of her tail.
They also cut crabs from a special hole punch and used those to
decorate their pictures.
       
We also used shell and star shaped sponges to paint the background.
            
            
The children’s creations turned out lovelier than I could imagine.