Our Finished Gingerbread House

            Yesterday we painted tubes to look like candy canes.
 
Today we used the candy cane tubes to make a ball run on the side of the
                                 gingerbread house.
                      
I first used double sided tape to place the tubes then secured them with
                                        packing tape.
     
                                          It was a hit!

Sometimes they had to wiggle the tubes to make the ball continue it’s path
                                   through all the tubes.

          Today we made wreaths to hang on the doors of the house.
              
            We started by painting our hands to make two wreaths.     
                     
It didn’t take long to finish the two wreaths so I added bingo dabbers
            and as you can see we now have a lot of wreaths.
                
Our completed gingerbread house from the front.  Part way through this morning two children were playing inside and when I opened the door they told me the coffee shop was closed.  Hmmm another possible transformation idea for the new year?

Rosemary Scented

I belong to a book club and this month one of our members showed up
with a big bin of rosemary that she had pruned from her garden.
            
I have a sensitivity to fragrances, even plants, but the rosemary didn’t make
my eyes water so I brought it to school and put it in the sensory table.
                          
           It provided a great opportunity to practice snipping.

                          And holding the scissors safely.
                   
     The more we handled the rosemary the more fragrant it became. 
         The same went if we didn't handle it we couldn't smell it.

The Barn Transformation

     We have this fabulous box that we’ve been using for our barn. 
              
  It’s a perfect size and still in great shape so instead of putting it
                into the recycling bin we re-painted it.
          
       After painting we transformed it into a gingerbread house.
 
           I added lights and a fabric that looked like icicles.
   
         
               The children painted paper plates for roof shingles.
      
         Our red/green patterned gingerbread roof half done. 
It took two days to paint enough shingles to cover the one side of the roof.


            
          Today we used the salad spinners to make candy decorations. 

I also found a different set of lights that change colour.  After hanging them
I spotted children throughout the morning taking a closer look at the lights.
           

              

We still have a few more decorations to make.
          
Tomorrow we will make candy cane tubes and on Thursday we will
                 make handprint wreaths for the doors.

It’s exciting when we can continue to use materials but in different ways. 
            I wonder what the box will become next?

Wishing for Snow

         
It’s December 1st and we’re wishing for a little snow so I set up
                  our fairy teepee in a winter scene.
           
I found these white balls at IKEA, they are used to cover little lights but I thought they would make great snowballs.  Also added smaller white pom poms for variety.
             
These two girls found more fairies and added them to the snow scene.  I noticed they were trying to stick the pom poms together and asked what they were making.  She wanted to make snowmen.
               
             So a little brainstorming led us to try some tape.
               
She had to figure out how to use the tape so it would stick to both balls.  Laying it flat across one ball didn’t work.  Laying it across the other ball didn’t work.  How to have sticky tape on both?  We learned how to roll the tape around our finger to make it work.

As I type this post I see that it is snowing outside.  Hmm did the fairies help with that wish?

Good-night, Owl

                
Good-night, Owl! by Pat Hutchins is a great book of animal sounds.

                
I turned it into an oral story by finding pictures of each of the birds, insect and animal that was in the story.
Hope you enjoyed it.

Gingerbread Creation

This is our fifth year participating in a fundraiser for our local Boys & Girls Club.  We create a Gingerbread building, donate it and it is raffled off to the public. 
   
                     The Club provides the board for the base. 
This year I remembered to paint it first which helps give it a nicer finish.
                  
We have been focused on farms for the past two months so it made sense to create a gingerbread farm.  The toy barn was used to make a pattern for the
                                    gingerbread.
    
                 
The children painted the sides with red frosting and decorated the roof
                                         with candies.
   
                 
We made gingerbread animals; cows, horses, chickens and a dog.  The haystacks and trees were made with melted marshmallows, corn flakes and shredded wheat.
                        
       Time to put it altogether.  Tootsie rolls and pretzels worked for a fence.
                     
                                 We added a pumpkin patch.
    
   Then covered the surface with brown frosting before adding the animals.
                       
  It was very tempting to want to pick off the candies while we assembled.
                
A bird’s eye view gives you a glimpse of all the animals and plants we saw
                                 at the farms we visited this fall.
                
              A thank you to the three farms that allowed us to visit.