Sweet Genius! Cooking Up A Little Playdough Fun

As you might guess, there are a few drawbacks to sharing my classroom with another group when Pre-K in not in session. There are also some major benefits. The elementary school age kids share my room in the mornings before school and later in the afternoons. I taught a majority of these kids when they were in Pre-K, so it has been a bonus to me to watch these kids grow and mature each year.

This morning, the kids were busily working with playdough at the table. I watched for a minute, thinking about how much their play with playdough had changed over the years. As I listened, there was a lot of talk of winning and getting judged, so I asked what they were doing exactly. "We're playing Sweet Genius",  one of them said. Apparently, "Sweet Genius" is one of those competition cooking shows on The Food Network ( I don't watch cable. I know, I live under a rock.). They were making a variety of pies, cakes and cookies and some of the other kids were going to judge them just like on the show. We talked for a minute, then I let them get back to their game. As I started to leave them to their game, they asked me to take pictures of their creations. They know that if they do something cool or interesting, no matter how busy I am, I'll want to see it and take pictures. I'll make the time. They know me well. 

Here are some of the sweet treats I found them making this morning:

Candies with Fruit

A Fancy Cake

 Layer Cake

 Fancy Pastry 

Cookies

 Adding Sprinkles to a Cupcake

Fancy Cupcake for the New Year

Just because a moustache is fun!

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Finding Treasure

Today, as I took the kids outside for recess, I found this on the playground. I'm not sure exactly what is was or who made it, but it is quite lovely. I can guess that it either had to put together by members of the 3 year old class or the 2 year old class. (I'm guessing probably the 3's, since they were on the playground right before us.)  The posts I usually share are about things I see and the processes of our activities. This time, I can't tell you anything about this, but I thought it was somehow touching. A few of the preschoolers passed it by as they went about their business of play, but no one seemed to bother it. The moment I saw it, I thought that the kids would certainly see this as prime pickings for their own play, but when we went back inside for lunch, it had remained untouched. Maybe they recognized something special in this little arrangement, too. 

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