Shake Pudding

The recipe.

Mix instant pudding powder with milk.

The small measuring cup with the handle makes it possible for the children to pour the milk themselves.

Put the lid on tight.

The container is actually for cooking an egg in the microwave.

 Now the fun part- shake, shake, shake!

Ready to open.

Mmmm, banana.

Dairy Farm Field Trip

What a beautiful day for a field trip.
We visited a dairy farm this morning.

This is the milking barn.  The cows had already been milked this morning so we saw the equipment that is used.

The farmer told us that the cows line up to get milked and that the same cows are always in line first and the same ones at the end.

Pete wanted a closer look at the suction cups that go on the cow's teats.

 The milk goes through here to be filtered then is stored in this large tank.

 The farmer has a calendar to keep track of the cows that are milking, pregnant and soon to give birth.

The next barn housed the cows.  They were busy eating.

But didn't mind us checking them out.

One cow had a little nibble on Pete when he tried to say hello.

We were impressed with how big their tongues are.

 

The farmer milked a cow for us then Pete had a try.

On to the calf barn.  We had to check out to see if this one was real or not.  Decided it was not.

 The calves ranged in age from 1 week to 5 months.

 

It took the calves a few minutes to become comfortable with the noise and little hands pointing at them.  Then they started licking.

 

A highlight was seeing the farm machinery.

 

They are filling these long air tight plastic bags with shredded corn to use later as feed for the cows.

At the end of this wonderful tour the farmer provide snacks of yogurt, chocolate milk and cookies.

Thank you.

Udder Painting

Tomorrow we have a field trip to a dairy farm and hopefully see how a cow is milked.
For the last two days at the art table we have been trying our hand at milking the cow painting.

I filled a rubber glove with paint and suspended it from a frame.  Poked a hole in a fingertip and put paper underneath.

At first the children and parents experimented with the glove.  How much do we squeeze to get the paint to come out?  Do we need to use both hands?

Ah success!





What fun to watch the stream of paint come out and land on the paper or the floor.

Today we tried balloons instead of rubber gloves but found that they didn't work as well.

Still a lot of fun.

And messy!

 Right to the last squeezed out drop.



Beautiful pieces of art.

Leaves Are Falling

I added a basket of silk like leaves to our nature inspired play area.
I picked one handful and set it on the lowest branch.
One little boy saw me and added one handful of leaves.
As the branch became full the leaves would fall down.
The little boy picked up two handfuls and put them on the branch.
With a smile on his face he watched the leaves float down.
Then he scooped up an armful and tried to put them on the branch.
But they would flutter down quickly.
By the big smile on his face I could tell it didn't matter.
He continued until the basket was empty.

 

 "How do we clean up leaves?", was a question asked.

Rakes!  We went to a storage box with outside toys in it.

Found two rakes and went back to work.

I call it work but as you see another boy soon joined in

on the play.

The play continued on with other children in other ways.

Story - The Boy Who Turned Himself into a Peanut

This week's story I've been telling for a couple of years.  It's easy to tell because it's sequential, interactive and I add sign language.  I've discovered that out of every group I tell it to there will at least one if not more children that will go home and tell it again.

The Boy Who Turned Himself into a Peanut

 After the story I set out the boxes for the children to retell the story.  I'll post more on those later.
Hope you enjoy this story.

The Boy That Turned Himself Into A Peanut

Once there was a little boy that lived with his father. The little boy really wanted to go fishing and kept asking his dad if they could go.

Dad told him that they would go as soon as he got his work done around the house.

So the little boy went outside to wait. He sat on the front step and waited and waited. He got bored of waiting and decided to play a trick on his dad. He would hide someplace where his dad couldn’t find him.

So he looked around and thought I’ll hide under the porch – no dad would find me there. He thought I’ll hide in the bushes – no Dad would find me easily in there.

Then he saw a little peanut sitting on the ground in the yard. Ahha I’ll hide in the peanut. And then with a little magic he “snip snap poof” right into the little peanut.

But the boy hadn’t noticed a chicken pecking around. The chicken saw the peanut and thought mmmm and snip, snap, gulp swallowed the peanut up.

Where is the little boy?

He’s in the peanut, in the chicken.

On the porch railing there was a cat. The cat saw the chicken and thought mmmmm and snip, snap, gulp the cat swallowed the chicken up.

Where is the little boy?

He’s in the peanut, in the chicken, in the cat.

Walking along the fence was a fox. The fox saw this fat cat and thought mmmmm and snip, snap, gulp he swallowed the cat up.

Where is the little boy?

He’s in the peanut, in the chicken, in the cat, in the fox.

Slinking just in the woods was a really long snake. He saw that plump fox and thought mmmm and snip, snap, gulp he swallowed the fox up.

Where is the little boy?

He’s in the peanut, in the chicken, in the cat, in the fox and in the snake.

When snake’s are full, all they want to do is fall asleep. So the snake slithered down to the riverside and found a nice warm rock to curl up on.

In the river was a humungous fish. The fish saw the snake and thought mmmm and snip, snap, gulp he swallowed the snake up.

Where is the little boy?

He’s in the peanut, in the chicken, in the cat, in the fox, in the snake and now in the fish.

By then the father had finished his chores and he was calling for his little boy. Son, Son it’s time to go fishing. But the boy didn’t answer. The father thought oh he must be playing down by the river. I’ll take our fishing rods and go and see. When he got there he didn’t see his son and thought I’ll start fishing and I’m sure he’ll be along soon.

The father cast his line into the river and he got a bite. It was a big one. He reeled it in and reeled it in. Finally he got the humongous fish onto the shore.

He looked at the fish and said – You look you’ve been eating a lot – let’s see. So the father open the fish mouth and looked inside. Do you know what he saw? He saw a snake. He pulled it out and let the fish swim away.

The snake had a big lump in it’s body and the dad said what have you been eating? So he opened the snakes mouth and looked inside. What did he see? A fox. So he pulled the fox out and let the snake slither away.

The fox looked nice and plump so the father opened the fox’ mouth and peeked inside. What did he see? A cat. He pulled the cat out and the fox went scampering away.

The cat had big fat tummy so the father opened it’s mouth and looked inside. What did he see? A chicken. So he pulled the chicken out and let the cat go back to the porch.

The father said to the chicken well everyone else has been stuffing themselves today what have you been eating? Just then the chicken sneezed and out came the peanut. The peanut hit the ground so hard that the little boy popped right out.

The little boy was so happy not to be inside a peanut, inside a chicken, inside a cat, inside a fox, inside a snake, inside a fish anymore that he never hid from his father again.

Hammering

One of the most popular activities at our centre is hammering.
When I set up at the beginning of a school year I keep in mind that the children have grown, interests may have changed,  and new families are arriving.  But from the first day of school I have had children ask "Where are the hammers?"

This week I brought out the hammers, golf tees, safety goggles and prepped some styrofoam.  I cover the styrofoam with cardboard to lessen the mess.  Broken pieces of styrofoam are fussy to clean up.
One year I put out real nails but a few parents were quite concerned, remember that our program is open for children birth to 5.

A couple of days of listening to the hammering echoing off the wooden table we put carpet squares under it to dampen the sound.

The goggles were suggested by a parent who is an optometrist - safety first, also developing good practice.

The children that have never used a hammer before are learning how.  That the back part of the hammer is to help you remove the tee if it went in crooked or in the wrong place.

What I enjoy observing about this activity is that all ages give it a try and the grownups are always involved.  They lend a hand with using the tools, they encourage a calmness and sharing but most of all they talk about experiences.  Experiences that the child might have with hammering or talking about someone that the child knows that uses the same tools.  Making connection between play and real life.