Apple Pie Roll Ups

Yesterday the children cooked their own snack. 

They made Apple Pie Roll Ups.

I found the original recipe at Spend With Pennies

I modified it slightly by using an electric frying pan

instead of the oven.

A finished roll up.

Here is how we made them.

 Flatten a slice of crustless bread with a rolling pin.

 Add a spoonful of chopped apples that already have a bit of cinnamon sugar on them.

Roll it up and squish to hold it together.

 Brush on butter,

 then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Cook it in the frying pan till crispy and eat!

It was a hit.

In An Apple Tree

Our families have been sharing their harvest with us,

which is great for our snack table.

To build on the harvest concept I set up a small apple orchard.

 I placed two of our fake trees in a big box, that I covered with a green blanket.

I put them in the box in hopes that it will corral the apples and they will

not be rolling around the room.

So far so good.

 Over the years I've collected a variety of fake apples

and I placed most of them under the trees.

But some I hid in the trees.

To encourage the children to look up in the trees I sang this fingerplay

"Way up high in the apple tree,

two little apples smiled at me.

I shook that tree as hard as I could.

Down came the apples

Mmmm, mmmm good!

They enjoyed shaking the trees to see the apples fall.

They also enjoyed hiding the apples back in the trees.

 Once they picked their apples they could wash them.

An amazingly simple idea of water, apples and toothbrushes

can keep children busy for some time.

How Does a Baster Work?

Turkey basters - how do they work?

 We've used eye droppers a lot at the art table

and it's a challenge for most of the children.

This week I put turkey basters in the water table expecting them to be a challenge too.

I was impressed how much easier they seemed to be able to work the basters

compared to eye droppers.

Is it because they are that much bigger and they can use their whole hand?

 

The parents were wonderful modeling how the baster works and sitting back and letting their child try over and over again.

Here's a photo study of concentration.

After a week of using the baster we will use eye droppers again soon.

Hunting for Teeny Tiny

Last week we went for our first walk in the forest behind our school.  We weren't going to be outside too long so I decided to have them go on a hunt for small items that can be used in our fairy play area.

As a measurement tool we used empty raisin boxes.

This helped the children to really look around and think "what can fit in this box?"

Once they filled their boxes we headed back to the school.

Inside we emptied the boxes at our Fairy table and started to play.

As the children collected their bits outside I overheard a couple of things they imagined they could be; like a stove or a blanket.

I'll be watching and listening for more of their ideas.

Sunflowers

 I love sunflowers.  They are so big and bright.

I set up the art table for the children to work together to paint petals 

to make giant sunflowers for our bulletin board.

 Instead of paint brushes I provided small sponges on a stick.

 

 The children used the sponges on sticks in different ways.

Some dabbing, some swiping, some doing a combination of both.

The sponges were great to help them blend the colours.

Lovely autumn colours.

More at the Beach

One other thing that I have noticed with children at the beach, and pretty much anywhere, is that they love rocks.  The toddlers will pick one up and walk around with it in their fist.  The older children will stick them in their pockets or pails if they are at the beach.  So with that in mind I set up a few activities around rocks while we were at the beach on Monday.

They stacked rocks into towers.

Went on a scavenger hunt to find rocks to match the pictures.

They counted rocks.  

First matching rock to rock on the pictures then counting them.

But the most popular was painting rocks.

What is an activity that you have done around rocks?

A Morning at the Beach

It's our first Monday back to school and we spent it at the beach.  While planning for our first month at school I was trying to think of what we should focus on.  It's difficult after a vacation to know what the children will be interested in.  Even more so at StrongStart because we don't know what children will be coming, which have moved away or on to preschool.  So I thought I would plan around what they may have experienced, living here on an island, during their summer vacation.

The beach!

Last week at school I set up a table that looked like the beach.

Blue fabric for water, beige felt for the sand.

Rocks and shells for crabs to hide under.

 This morning as soon as the children hit the beach they were turning over rocks 

and shells finding crabs.  Little green crabs that they easily pick up.

No fear for most of the children.

We were lucky to find two hermit crabs too.

The bigger one was being shy when I took this picture.