Granny Apple Dolls

Today we began making our Granny Apple Dolls.  They are easy to make and inexpensive, especially if you have friends with apple trees.
          
   You will need apples, peelers, tools for carving, doweling, and lemon juice.
   
The difficult part for children to do is the peeling, although some gave it a great try.
 
                   
                       Next carve a face into the apple.
 
Poke a piece of doweling in your apple (we’ll add fabric for clothing to it later).  We printed our names on tape and stuck it to the doweling.
              
After dipping them into lemon juice (to prevent browning) we then we poked them into a piece of styrofoam so they stand up while they dry. 
           
We noticed that the apples with red peels are much whiter than the apples with greenish-yellow peel.
    
Some of our Granny’s have interesting features and unique personalities.
 
            
We will check them every day and watch as they change from young apple dolls
                         to Grandmas.

Building Our Barn

    Welcome to our first cardboard box creation of this school year.   
      
Two families donated these great boxes which worked perfect for a barn.

Using a poster of a farm as a reference we began by planning where to cut the doors and windows.

The flat box needed to be cut in half to make it lighter for the roof.  Once the doors and windows were cut we pulled open the doors and went inside to push the windows open.

The box is a great size for the children to easily walk or crawl in depending on their age and size.  The animals were soon moved in and the play began.
        
                        A productive first day of building.


                                        Day 2 was painting. 
When we visited the Petting Farm we talked about what colour to paint our barn.  Most children said red.  I wonder if that was because most barns in the story books we read are red.

We only paint one coat so it doesn't take long for it to dry and the children are soon back inside.  These little ones that are just over a year old loved crawling in and playing peek-a-boo with their mom, who was on the outside.

         
    
                             Our finished barn, or is it? 

Find Me–Outside Game

Last week I went outside and took pictures of our playground.
     
    
Then I glued each picture in a folder. 
       
I cut out one or two small windows in the cover of the folder to have a small
peek at the picture.
         
Each child choose a folder and looked through the small window. (It was so tempting to open the folder and look)
             
But with their grown ups help they searched around the playground to guess which piece of equipment matched their picture.
            
                  
         
Some of the children (and grown ups) found it very challenging and preferred to just play.
   
While others really enjoyed the challenge and did 5 or 6 folders before playing.

Petting Farm Visit

                
             This morning we visited a farm that Mireille owns. 
          It is a petting farm with a wonderful variety of animals.
 
We were able to feed many of them by hand; like the chickens and roosters.
        
 
                                The goats and sheep. 
      They were very eager to eat from the children’s hands. 
                   They lick the food rather than bite.
 
                 The Shetland Pony and donkey were a little shy.
  
        The miniature horse was willing to come close and be poked.
         
                    The big duck taking a bath was entertaining.
 
                                 Are these llamas or alpacas? 
                         Alpacas, we learned from the farmer. 
        The children were fascinated with pulling the hair off the fence.
           
                                We saw four peacocks.
 
                                    And one baby chick.
 
         Two potbelly pigs with deep snorts rather than an oink.
 
                     A cat that loved all the attention and petting.
 
                       And a 12 year old rabbit named Charlie.
                    Thank you Mirielle for sharing your farm.
       
We enjoyed our own snack and a story under an apple tree in Mirielle’s yard. 
        
Tomorrow, back at school, we will work on building a barn from these
                                    cardboard boxes.