What's Cooking?

To kick off our cooking week we discussed fruits and vegetables. Ms. Rhonda read aloud this favorite:

If you've never read it, check it out. It's a great story! Pre-K 2 began by cutting out pictures of food and using them for a writing prompt in their journals.

 They wrote, "I like to eat...."

 They also made fruit loop necklaces at a center!

 After discussing vegtables they cooked up some pizza at the craft table and added the toppings they would enjoy.

  

We brought our own healthy snacks during the week and we enjoyed sorting and graphing what we brought by size, color, type, etc. 

 Pre-K 1 read this story:

 Then we made our own stone soup in class!

 We acted out the story as we went. One pea was the traveler in the story and the rest of the class were the townspeople who came forward adding one thing at a time.

 

 

 We let it cook all day....

 Ms. Angela served our soup for afternoon snack. Suprisingly, they loved it!

 Some people even had seconds!

 Pre-K 2 discussed fruit and did a fruit patterning activity.

 

 They also had a big farm puzzle they worked on as a group.

 Great job girls! 

I love this snaggletooth smile. :)

 Later both classes made a recipe using fruit: apples! Pre-K 1 made traditional apple pie.

 Yummy!

 After eating it, we graphed who liked it.

 

 Pre-K 2 made apple turnovers which were also very yummy!

 



Ms. Rhonda and Ms. Amy provided several sensory tubs with soapy water and kitchen utensils.

The peas enjoyed experimenting with measuring, pouring and whisking.



We also got a little math work done during the week. We have manipulatives out all the time the peas can use to sort, make patterns and count with. We also have the white calendar numbers you see below that we use for number games. The peas wanted to play with the numbers and took them to the table and began sorting manipulatives and matching them to the numbers. Then they began adding them by making number sentences. It's so amazing to see how some concepts evolve naturally through play. I added the addition and equal sign for them and explained what they mean. I love impromptu learning opportunities!

Next, Pre-K 1 did a little pizza activity of their own. We set up a table of toppings.

Then Ms. Angela invited friends to come over and make their own pizza.





Meanwhile, at another center we invited the peas to journal about pizza. They worked hard drawing some interesting pizzas and doing some wonderful writing.



Yum, a pepperoni pizza in the works. It looks delicious.

I love this journal entry. Precious.

That wraps up cooking week. Happy Wednesday!

 



{Snow} & {Mittens}

For snow and mittens weeks at the ECDC we began with plenty of great books!



One of our first art projects was to paint snowmen after reading Snowmen at Night, one of our favorites.

After making some snowmen shapes out of white paint, we waited for them to dry and cut them out. Later I helped them add whatever they wanted to accessorize their snow-people with and we added a writing extension activity.

Here's a few of the finished products. Adorable as usual!

During circle time we labeled a snowman as a group.

Then we drew snowmen and counted arms, buttons and noses from a Pinterest inspired activity. I loved this center because they had the opportunity to be creative and count as well!

We had a sensory "snow" center that was fun and smelled pretty great, too.

We even practiced our letters in the snow.

When it was time to switch Ms. Angela would say "hands up!"

We had "P" show and tell...I'm not sure you've seen this before, but I have a microphone we use sometimes when we're speaking. Here, one of the peas is using it to introduce his "P" show and tell item. (It doesn't really work, but it's super cute watching them use it!)

Later, when we did letter O, we gave Pre-K 1 a challenge. The challenge was to think of as many double o words as possible. The peas love anything with the word "challenge" attached to it! They took it VERY seriously!

All throughout the day they would return to the board to add words. We didn't give them words, but we did help them spell some of the words if they asked. We also gave them clues by reminding them that many words that rhymed would be spelled similar. Check out how many words these 4 & 5 year olds came up with! They blow me away!

Pre-K 2 got busy making snowmen next door.

Super cute guys!

They made winter trees, too by rolling a marble in white paint. 

Next, both classes read this book:

It is a very heartwarming story about kindness and a sense of community. We made our own mittens and cut them out.



During the midst of this week we had hat day. How cute are these peas?

I made a tree for them to hang their mittens on!

Everyone worked together to get the tree finished.

Then we hung it up and put the finishing touches on.

We also did a color sight word coloring sheet and they did GREAT at it! Those sight words are coming along!



Pre-K 2 made name snowmen. I love these guys.

Also, we opened the igloo for reading. But as most of you know, it collapsed in the front. I used it as an opportunity to explain that things don't always work out the way we plan. Sometimes we have to start over. I'm glad to report that although it looks a little wonky, the igloo is fixed and ready to be inhabited again!

Another fun activity we did about mittens was with the 3 Little Kittens. We read the Nursery Rhyme and discussed it. We talked about a time when we had lost something.

After reading the story, we broke up into groups and drew pictures of what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story. They even added words.



Each group came up and added their part to the mitten.

Here's the finished product.

When we were done, I used an ipad to look up a 3 Little Kitten song to celebrate our hard work. We found this one. We thought the pies look like waffles, but the song still works!

To round out our mitten fun, we measured with mittens, matched and hung mittens on a line.

They loved hanging the mittens up and I loved all that fine motor practice.



Each group took turns measuring their friends. This one was 5 mittens long!

Then we added how many mittens long we were so we could compare.



That wraps up our mitten and snow weeks. Hopefully as we continue into February we won't still need our mittens! Stay tuned as I catch up on our Cooking Week and Space weeks!