Tuesday, February 9, 2010

A deceptively sunny day kept us inside--it was bitter cold nearly all day. The PreK made it outside for a short time in the late afternoon. Today we modeled beeswax and colored with beeswax crayons. We enjoyed playdough, markers, winter stickers, and a good lunch of "burro tails"!

Anam drawing with such precision . . .

Good morning, playdough!

Beeswax . . .

Shaping a heart . . .

Learning to make a snail . . .

Sorting letters . . .

Giggling friends . . .

Decorating hearts. . .

Amanda reading a book . . .

Water play . . .

Porter . . .

Building a castle . . .

Community time with Kari . . .

Is that a dog? No, it's Lily Belle, our minature horse.

Chef Hudson and Chef Cole make "burro tails" for lunch with Anthony.

Sleeping Luca . . .

Sleeping Porter. . .

Sarah is busy rounding up Abby and Lily Belle for the farrier's visit. This is a multi-tasking mom!

Watching Lily and Abby in the front yard.

Playing horse with our "gentle leader"!

Drawing on a heart with beeswax crayons . . .

Dance party before lunch!

Naptime!

Our farrier, Julie, is here!

Friendship Activities 2/11 and 2/12

If your child would like to exchange valentines with a friend, we will be doing that in class on Thursday. Thursday morning, we will have a friendship tea at morning snack, enjoying tea with our treat. On Friday, we will make friendship fruit salad for morning snack. Feel free to bring a piece of your child's favorite fruit to include in the mix!

Homemade Playdough

This will make a big batch of playdough (about 2 32oz yogurt containers full). Don't like playdough in the house? Play it outside on the back porch or at the picnic table. Playdough is incredibly entertaining for children, and kneading can be very relaxing for adults. Feel free to add a couple drops of essential oil to the mix, or substitute some of your favorite hand lotion for the oil in the recipe.

PLAYDOUGH
5 cups flour
2 1/2 cups salt
10 T cream of tartar (we usually buy ours in bulk in the spice aisle--this time at Sprouts)
2 T oil
10 cups water
several drops food coloring

Mix dry ingredients in a large pot, then add oil, water, and food coloring. Cook over medium-high heat stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until playdough begins to form a ball and looks shiny. Remove from heat, allow to cool a bit, then knead the dough until it is no longer sticky and is very pliable. Store in an airtight container. Enjoy!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Today we began our week of "hearts" and "spreading love". We enjoyed making and playing with pink and purple playdough first thing this morning. We enjoyed a story about the origin of Valentine's Day. The rain stopped and we enjoyed about 90 minutes outside, where we ran through the labyrinth, climbed on logs, and planted cabbage and a variety of pepper seeds in trays since it has been too wet to till our garden. A cool front moved in accompanied by a thunderstorm just as we were finishing a candle lit lunch. It was a perfect day for a nap!
Our work today also included painting hearts that we started last week and pouring colored water.

Making playdough this morning . . .

Enjoying the finished product . . .

A variety of cookie cutters, rolling pins, and plastic knives.

We store our playdough in large yogurt containers.

Washing the table between playdough and morning snack.

Jeanne reading to the Twos class.

Ellen helping the children glue decorations on their hearts.

Our chalkboard drawing by Kari.

Props for our story about St. Valentine.

Two girls and one boy were interested in the lower case alphabet that was displayed. In reponse to their questions, we wrote out the name of each child in the class in lower case as well as some common words accompanied by pictures. Learning--it's gentle, and happens when the time is right.

Learning about size and volume . . .

Free choice time in the Twos class . . .

Pouring colored water . . .

Painting hearts . . . Is Kari counting children or teaching numbers?

Mud calls for boots and splashing!

Playing in what will become a sweat lodge--beautiful work, Jennifer!

Labyrinth . . .

Even the teacher needed boots!

Planting garden starts--organic soil and organic/non-GMO seeds . . .

Menu for Feb. 8 - Feb. 12

Monday
AM Snack: Organic toaster pastries, water bottles
Lunch: Cheese pizza, steamed green beans, organic milk
PM Snack: Z bars, water bottles

Tuesday
AM Snack: Seasonal fruit, water bottles
Lunch: Organic spaghetti with grass-fed beef and marinara, steamed organic green beans, organic milk
PM Snack: Annie's snack pack, Craisins, water bottles

Wednesday
AM Snack: Bananas, water bottles
Lunch: Vegetarian black bean chili, fresh baked bread with butter, Colby Jack cheese sticks, organic milk
PM Snack: Pirate's Booty, organic raisins, water bottles

Thursday
AM Snack: Seasonal fruit, water bottles
Lunch: Donkey tails [flour tortilla, natural ham rolled and heated], steamed organic mixed vegetables, organic milk
PM Snack: Organic blueberry smoothie with greek yogurt, all natural pretzels, water bottles

Friday
AM Snack: Seasonal fruit, water bottles
Lunch: Organic egg salad, sunflower/flax seed bread, organic baby spinach with homemade vinaigrette, organic milk
PM Snack: Air-popped organic popcorn, cheddar cubes, water bottles

This Week, 2/1-2/5/10

This week we learned about fire and enjoyed the story of the fire fairy. It rained, rained, rained, so we were inside a lot! We welcomed a new friend, Isabella. Elijah's father, Anthony, joined our school to help with cooking and afternoons in the classroom. Monday we painted fires, Tuesday we drew with beeswax, Wednesday we baked bread and Thursday we painted hearts to hang in our trees outside next week!

Snipping parsley for lunch . . .

Watching the garbage truck empty the dumpster. . .

Playing with felt dinosaurs and a felt board . . .

Cooking . . .

Playing . . .

Smiling . . .

Hiding . . .

Building tents . . .

Making a domino slide . . .

Bread . . .

Playing a baking game . . .

Building a train track . . .

Hiding behind bars . . .

Waylon changes the weather wheel for us at community time . . .

Yes, Waylon, it is raining again!

Little nap nests await the Twos class . . .

Maya celebrated her second birthday this week, and Miss Christin made her this:

Painting fire or a fire fairy . . .

Children enjoy hearing older children read . . .

Naptime . . .

Self-serving lunch, using our new "glass" plates in PreK.

Our seasonal tray . . . we light the candles for PreK at lunch.

Our painted hearts . . .

Jeanne tells this week's story to her group . . .

Porter smiling before a nap.

Menu, Monday 2/1 - Friday 2/5/10

Our menu may sounding oddly appetizing, (or not HA HA), i.e. serving "pesticide-free" cucumbers. We want you to know that we take great care in providing as many organic options as possible, and when children will be eating the skins of fruits and vegetables, we try to make sure that they are as "clean" as possible if we can't do organic. We feel it important to note the items we source that are "organic", "nitrite/nitrate free", "pesticide free" and such.

~Leslie and Janie

Monday
AM Snack: oranges and/or cantaloupe, water
Lunch: almond butter and honey sandwiches (organic bread), organic apple wedges, organic milk
PM Snack: organic blueberry fruit smoothie, organic animal crackers, water

Tuesday
AM Snack: fresh pineapple, water
Lunch: broccoli cheddar quiche (organic eggs, broccoli), organic milk
PM Snack: air popped corn, craisins, water

Wednesday
AM Snack: whole grain cinnamon toast, water
Lunch: chicken pasta with parmesan (Whole Foods chicken), fresh baked bread with organic butter, steamed organic green beans, organic milk
PM Snack: fresh baked ginger snaps, organic raisins, water

Thursday
AM Snack: organic apples, water
Lunch: organic red lentils with steamed rice, organic mixed vegetables, organic milk
PM Snack: veggie straws, colby jack cheese sticks, water

Friday
AM Snack: cantaloupe, water
Lunch: tuna salad with organic crackers, pesticide-free cucumbers, homemade ranch dip, organic mik
PM Snack: organic hummus, pretzels. water