Gingerbread Pirates

For the last several years we have participated in a fundraiser for our local Boys & Girls Club. It's so much fun because we can design, build and decorate our own gingerbread connection.

Last year we designed a playground with our grade 4 buddy class.
This year we were inspired by a book The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup. Also last Christmas my daughter gave me pirate cookie cutters so we were set.

This year we have grade 3 buddies and they brainstormed and drew out their ideas and then we started baking. They were very creative when deicing how to make the cannon and trees.



















Our StrongStart little ones made and decorated the gingerbread men with their buddies and then we put it all together.It will be on display for the next two weeks so visitors can vote on their favourite and silent bid to win.

Splatter Painting

Screening, old picture frames and toothbrushes made for a simple but puzzling craft for the kids.

We placed a wooden shape on the paper under the screen so when we were done it left a blank shape with splatter surrounding it.

It was a nice surprise when the screen was removed.

Runaway Gingerbread

Today we made a gingerbread man.
We rolled and cut and put them on a pan.































Then we put them in the oven to bake.
And we went back to play to wait.




But when it was time to take them out,
We were surprised that no gingerbread men were about.








Until we spied a trail of crumbs





That led us to a note

"We've runaway to see the world,
We'll send messages about what we see.
Don't worry we'll be back by Christmas."




Do you think they ran away? Outside? Where do you think they went?

Can you help us?
If you see our gingerbread men, please send us a postcard or a note from your home town, telling us what seasonal event they were at.
We really want to learn more about our school, community, country and the world.
You can send your postcard to
Brooklyn StrongStart
1475 Noel Ave.,
Comox, BC
V9M 3H8

First Snow

This weekend was our first snowfall of the season. Everything is beautifully white outside. So I decided to make one of the play areas white too. I brought in a big white sheet and covered the riser by the block area. Set up a little town, added snowball pompoms and watched the play happen.

I added thin magnets to some of the poms so they could build snowmen.

Snowballs everywhere.

Rotten Pumpkin Soup

Oh how our pumpkin is rotting!

We've been observing and recording the changes.


But along side this rotting pumpkin is our re-growth.

We've taken care with watering and letting it have light.

There are now 13 pumpkin sprouts growing and we can see the roots too.

This week we'll have to transfer them to individual containers.

Caps for Sale

This week's animal of focus was the monkey and the book I chose was
"Caps for Sale"
by Esphyr Slobodkina.

I went to the Dollar store and bought about 16 baseball caps for $1 each.

After reading the book for a few days and having the felt board pieces available to play with, I told the story as if I was the peddler.

It was a lot of fun putting all the caps on my head and having the families keep count for me.

Once all the hats were stacked, I went in to selling mode.
"Caps, caps for sale! 50 cents a cap". Then the children became the monkeys and each had one of the peddler's hats.
We used the line "monkey see, monkey do" to encourage the children-as-monkeys to copy the peddlers actions.

This Little Light of Mine

Join the WeeHands Challenge on Tuesday, December 7th at 11am.

We will be singing and signing the song This Little Light of Mine.

For more information check out WeeHands