Parachute Play at Circle Time

 Lately there have been more families visiting with younger children and I noticed that story time has been a little noisier.  

Time to get more active.  

Out came the parachute.

We have been singing Shoo Fly and it works well with the parachute.

We walk in a circle as we sing

“Shoo Fly don’t bother me, Shoo Fly don’t bother me, 

cause I belong to somebody”.

When we sing…

“I feel, I feel, I feel like a morning star” 

– the parachute is lifted and the children run under.

Then they run out as we finish singing

 – “I feel, I feel, I feel like a morning star”. 

They love it! 

A second song we sing is “I Have a Rocket” we learned it from our music teacher, Jill.

First we put little balls that we call rockets onto the parachute then sing the song.

“I have a rocket, I’m going to fly it to the moon. 

I have a rocket, I’m going to fly it really soon.

I’m going to make it fly on the count of

5,4,3,2,1 BLAST OFF!”

The rockets go flying and the room is filled with delighted screams.  The children run to collect a rocket, throw it back on and we do it all again.  

I wish I had thought of doing this earlier in the year.

Homemade Banana Ice Cream

Today for our special snack we had homemade banana ice cream.

The wonderful thing is that the only ingredient is banana.

Slice bananas and lay them out on a cookie sheet and freeze.

Then put them in a food processor.

 

Keep blending it, stopping a few times to scrape the sides,

until it is creamy.

It is delicious.

 

We talked about different things you could add;

frozen strawberries or blueberries, peanut butter, chocolate...

Mmmm any extras you can think of?

 I found this recipe over at Come Together Kids.

Have a peek at her blog, you'll find many great ideas.

Story - Tops and Bottoms

"Tops and Bottoms" is the story I told at our Spud Celebration.

It comes in book form and I've read it to StrongStart families before.

But it's very easy to tell without the book.
The story is about a lazy bear and a hardworking rabbit.
The rabbit tricks the bear into getting the best part of the harvest.

Dressed for the Oscars

Today was our school's final assembly and it has become a tradition to hold it as if we're going to

 The Oscars.

Staff and students came dressed up.

It was a lot of fun.

For the occasion, I set the craft table so we could make a little "bling".

Bells and beads, we've done it before and we'll do it again.

It's an activity that improves their fine motor skills.

From the first time doing this activity this year

to today

I've seen a big change in the children.

They've become independent in their choices

and capable of threading themselves.

When finished and dressed,

our principal led the school into the assembly.

And there was the red carpet to welcome all.

The countdown is on to the last day of school.

Spud Celebration

Today we wrapped up our study on growing potatoes.

Over the last couple of weeks we've talked about different ways we can eat potatoes.

As you see from the above list, mashed potatoes was mentioned first and often.

So we, the teachers, decided to have a mashed potato sundae bar.

This idea was mentioned in our Spuds in the Tubs training session.

 Our sundae bar featured...

a scoop of mashed potatoes,

 sour cream, shredded cheese,

 chives, bacon bits

and surprisingly chocolate sprinkles which we called dirt.

Before we choose our toppings our big buddy teacher talked about our 

Spud experience.

StrongStart, grade 1 and our grade 3 buddies all participated.

We had 5 tubs and our harvest was about 200 potatoes.

She had samples of potatoes.

How they looked when they were dug out of the dirt,

then washed off,

then cooked and mashed.

It was a great visual for our littlest ones.

Time to pick our toppings

and enjoy.

 It was a big thumbs up delicious.

Making Sunshine

Happy Solstice!

First day of summer, I almost forgot.

So quickly changed focus at the art table today.

Even though the sun was shining for us outside

we made our own sunshine inside.

 They spooned powder paint on to the tray,

and sprinkles if they wished.

Then sprayed water like rain falling.

 She asked how do we mix it,
we wiggled

our fingers

and her face lit up.

 She added a bit more paint (I mixed a little flour in the paint to make it thicker)

 Then made a print,

She now has her own sunshine to take home.

Hope you enjoyed the longest day of the year.

Play Trays week 20

What was on our trays last week?

Have a peek.

 Fishing bobbers, egg carton sections and tongs.

Next we had a stone X and O slate game with

glass stars and shells.

Then laminated pea pod cards with numbers.

Roll the plastercine into peas and place on the cards

to match the numbers.

Last you've seen before but this week I put our marble tree into a deep tub.

It worked great.

The marbles were contained and they could play with no worries of the little choking hazards getting all over the floor.