Making Sunshine

Happy Solstice!

First day of summer, I almost forgot.

So quickly changed focus at the art table today.

Even though the sun was shining for us outside

we made our own sunshine inside.

 They spooned powder paint on to the tray,

and sprinkles if they wished.

Then sprayed water like rain falling.

 She asked how do we mix it,
we wiggled

our fingers

and her face lit up.

 She added a bit more paint (I mixed a little flour in the paint to make it thicker)

 Then made a print,

She now has her own sunshine to take home.

Hope you enjoyed the longest day of the year.

Play Trays week 20

What was on our trays last week?

Have a peek.

 Fishing bobbers, egg carton sections and tongs.

Next we had a stone X and O slate game with

glass stars and shells.

Then laminated pea pod cards with numbers.

Roll the plastercine into peas and place on the cards

to match the numbers.

Last you've seen before but this week I put our marble tree into a deep tub.

It worked great.

The marbles were contained and they could play with no worries of the little choking hazards getting all over the floor.

Riddle Me This?

We are focused on the ocean at the moment and I found

these riddles that describe different ocean creatures.

 

The paper pockets with matching pull out cards, I bought at a dollar store

sometime ago.

 

The riddle is on the outside of the card with the picture answer on the inside slide out.

Yes the answer is on the outside too.

If your children are reading then I would delete the answer.

But at my program the parent/grandparent reads the riddle for the child.

 

I like that the riddle also includes a word that rhymes with the answer 

on the third line.

 

The pictures I found on google images.

 

If all the cards are pulled out and mixed up they can easily

be matched

because the back of the pull out card is the same pattern as the pocket.

Hermit Crabs

Spirals have been a reoccurring theme for the past couple of months.

Today we used them again to make a hermit crab at the art table.

A friend of mine recommended Eric Carle's book

"A House for Hermit Crab"

to read before we go to the beach next week.

Eric Carle's illustrations are very child friendly.

Colourful and inviting.

We started by cutting a paper plate into a spiral for the shell.

 

Then we glued the spiral on to a sheet of paper.

Red squares of paper were provided to make the crab.

 Some children used the squares as is to make 

their crab.

 While others cut the squares into different shapes 

and sizes to build their crab.

 Conversation began about how many legs a hermit crab has.

We looked at the book and counted 6.

Then I googled the question and learned that in total

they have 10 legs.

Six legs on the outside and four more 

that are inside the shell.

The crabs were finished with eyes, antennae

and decorations.

Which led us to our story time and reading the book together.

I printed off images for the story and handed them out to the children.

The children became part of the storytelling process not just

the listener.

As I read they brought their picture up and added it to the 

crab.

Our plan is to search the beach next week for Hermit crabs.

Cinnamon Snail Swirls

Mmmm making bread is so much fun.

And smells so good.

This week we used our regular pretzel dough recipe 

to make Cinnamon Snail Swirls.

The children love using rolling pins.

This recipe is nice for letting children roll to their hearts content.

After rolling the dough flat and thin,

the next step is to brush melted butter on the dough.

Then sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top.

 There was enough dough for the grown ups to make their own.

Some children respond better to seeing what to do rather than being told.

What a great opportunity to model how to roll the dough.

Yum!

Dough Recipe

1 pkg yeast
1 1/2 cup hot water
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp oil
4 cups flour

Mix in a large bowl in the order shown.

You can use right away - no need to let rise.

Story - Billy Goat in the Garden

On a visit to the library I saw this book

"There's a Billy Goat in the Garden"

 

I was first attracted to the illustrations,

they were made from fabric.

Then reading the story, loving it's repetitive nature and I knew it would be a great one to tell

at school.

So I found fabric for a garden, made some clothes to hang on a line

and printed out animals.

Ready to go.

Spud Harvest

Harvest Time

I didn't have high hopes of great success since the last time we did this, two years ago, we didn't grow more than a dozen potatoes.

But the plants looked big and healthy so it showed promise.

We started by sharing the book Tops & Bottoms 

by Janet Stevens

I like this book for a couple of reasons.

One, it focuses on parts of the plants that are edible and not.

Two, it talks about consequences that may happen when you rely on someone else to do all the hard work.

Before we started pulling at the leaves I asked the question

"Which part of the potato plant do we eat, the tops or the bottoms?"

Interesting that half of the children said the tops.

Time to pull and dig and find out.

The expression on the little boy's face shows how hard it was

for them to pull the potatoes out of the soil.

Some stems broke but we managed to get potatoes out.

It was exciting.

Then we used our hands and shovels to dig for the rest.

When all the leaves and stems (the tops) were gone 

we thought we had found all the potatoes (the bottoms).

But then two little boys, brothers, arrived and wanted to play in the soil.

Sure.

And we found a lot more potatoes deep in the tub.

They had the privilege of washing the spuds too.

But how many spuds did we grow?

We sorted by size - 

small, medium, large.

 We estimated how many potatoes there were altogether.

 

Then counted each group and added them together.

For a grand total of 47.

YAY!

Next week is our Spud Celebration with our big buddy class.