Bead Threading

            
I saw this idea on another site, I think Teach Preschool, but I couldn’t
find the link so I apologize for not giving correct credit.
  
I’ve been collecting beads at thrift stores for awhile so was able to offer
a variety, wooden, plastic, round, oblong, letters for threading.
     
The children were so focused on threading the beads on to the wire.
And quickly learned to hold the wire while threading.
        
The children’s first reaction to the beads was running their fingers through them and dumping the bowls which meant my biggest concern was to keep them on the table, safe from little one’s mouths.
                
                
This activity has been out for two weeks and the families have been awesome
in keeping it safe for and enjoyable for all.

Clay Play

           
  
          

Millie’s Corn

               Back in March Millie wanted to grow corn. 
She started by putting some kernels in paper towel inside a plastic bag.
 
After Spring Break she took it down from the window to see if anything changed.
  
We saw one little sprout.  So she wrapped them again and got the paper really wet before putting it back in the bag and taping it back on the window.
 
During her next visit this is what she found when she unwrapped her kernels.

It was time to plant.

       
               She placed them once again on the window sill

    and created a sign to let everyone know what she was growing.

                 
The corn grew very well in the cup but it was time to plant them out doors.
   
          
Millie’s mom invited our program to help plant a garden at their home.  I’ll save that for another post.  But here is where we transplanted Millie’s corn.  We'll see if her ambition and perseverance pays off with cobs of corn.

Hungry Caterpillar

        
Today for snack the children could make their own bread dough hungry caterpillar.  I used our basic pretzel dough recipe, split it and coloured it
green and red.
   
The children kneaded and rolled the green dough into a long shape then added
a red head.
             
The dough was sticky and needed flour to stop it from sticking to our hands. 
For some children it was a little off-putting and they took it slowly.
 
The pan is lined with parchment paper so the children can print their name
beside their snack.  Then into the oven.
                   
                  A hungry boy eating his hungry caterpillar.

Fire Hose

      
When we were brainstorming about fire fighters one thing that was mentioned by most children was a hose.  They were needed to put out fires.  They sprayed water.  They were on the trucks.

So a hose was something we definitely needed for our fire truck.
          
I found the orange reel at a yard sale just down the street from my house for $2.  I couldn’t believe how lucky.  I then visited one of the local bike shops (one of our dad’s works there) and asked for old bike tubes.
                 
I cut off the valves and stapled the tubes together to make one long piece.  Covering the staples with black electric tape to prevent getting scratched while we played.
    
    Then I attached it to the reel with packing tape and we wound it in. 
       A hard piece of cardboard tubing was used for the nozzle.
    
The fire fighters worked hard breaking into the structure (yes it is our truck but also worked well as a burning building) with their axes then spraying in water.  A parent added blue streamers in the end of the nozzle.  I love that the grown ups are comfortable adding and inventing too.
                  
Just like a real fire station we leave our equipment all set for another day
                                          of fire fighting.

Fire Fighters

For the last several weeks we have been talking about fire fighters.
          
We spent about a week reading books and brainstorming what we know
                                 about fire fighters.
            
A parent that works at Costco saved us this great box.  Once we opened it
                  we started to plan how we would get in to it.
               
       
      The children drew the windows and doors and I cut them out.
        
Added two chairs, steering wheel and radio and it was ready to go.
          
This is an interesting question for us because in our valley we have three fire departments and they all have different coloured trucks.  We are planning trips to a couple of those fire halls so we will ask the fire fighters why their trucks are different colours.

In the meantime we had a visitor to our school.
    
The fire house came to school for the grade 3 classes to learn about getting
                        out of a burning house safely.
                  
Retired Deputy Fire Chief was volunteering and we asked him to visit our room to take a look at our fire truck.  We asked, 'why the trucks are different colours?"  He explained that a few decades ago it was believed that black and white was easier to see in traffic and that is why some fire trucks were changed.  But most trucks are still red.  We will have to survey the children to see what the majority want to paint the truck.