Fun with Apples

Oh, how we love apples. Personally I am partial to Granny Smith as I love all things tart and sweet at the same time. They are also the best apples to use when cooking and baking. We also have used apples for painting as well as early math play.

Measuring how tall we are in apples was so much fun! Not only does it introduce young children to the idea of measuring but it is in a standard they can understand. They are also comparing and contrasting their own height with their friends'.

I allowed the children to help stack the apples for their friends.

When we were done we tallied everyone's height. 

The activity extended to our dramatic play area where the kids measured their doll friends. 

Pretend Play - Our Community Bakery

As part of Community Helpers month we extended our pretend play to include our very own community bakery. There is really no better way to "teach" children about the world around them than pretend play. Young children love pretending to be grown-ups and especially love pretending to "run" things like grocery stores, fruit stands, movie theaters, etc.

We made the signage for our bakery with watercolors (I made the bubble letters and the children filled them in) and our "products" were made out of scented playdough.

The dollar store is a daycare provider's best friend! Our cookie sheets, muffin pans, cutting boards, pastry brushes, etc all came from the dollar store. 

The best part of watching the children work were getting to hear their conversations. So much negotiating needs to happen in order to pull it all together. Who makes what? Where is the oven? Should the cookies by "bunchy" or flat. And what about those cupcakes? What flavor cupcakes are we selling?

The oven actually ended up being under one of our tables. 

Our bakers then took turns being shopkeepers and customers. Our sweets were packaged in little take-out cartons. 

We use these tickets for so many activities. On this particular day they served as our money.

Thanks for coming, have a nice day!

"My Thumbprint" Cookies

We spend a good deal of time in the kitchen, especially in the winter and rainy seasons when our outside time is limited. As part of our "All About Me" theme we love to make these easy thumbprint cookies. Not only are they delicious but they are uniquely crafted to each child's individual tastes. 

First we made the cookie dough, I used this recipe from The Purple Spoon, and then I had the children break off tiny pieces and shape them into balls. I then had the children carefully make thumbprints in the cookies. Keeping track of each child's cookies was a challenge so everyone did two at a time and we placed the on our cookie sheets.

How cute were they? Totally adorable. Anyway, the cookies baked for about 10 minutes and while we waited we prepared our filling choices: chocolate (which was actually nutella spread), raspberry jam, orange marmalade or peach preserves. 

While spooning the fillings into our cookies we practiced our fine motor skills as well as measurement (finding the right amount of filling so our cookies didn't overflow!). 

Not only did they look great but they tasted really good. Buttery and flaky and the fillings made them just right. 

And everyone got to take a few home to share with their families. 

Japanese Rock Gardens

During the month of July we journeyed around the world in preparation for the Olympic games. One of our very favorite stops was Japan. We read the book My Japan by Etsuko Watanabe to learn more about Japanese culture. The book has some incredible images - I highly recommend it! After reading we set the scene by working together on our Japanese flag.

After transporting ourselves to Japan, learning about their culture it was time to make something to take back home: our very own Japanese rock gardens. Japanese rock gardens, also called Zen gardens, are usually small, surrounded by a wall and meant to be seen while seated from a single viewpoint outside the garden.

We used white liquid glue, crushed pebbles, construction paper, toilet paper tubes and blue and green construction paper scraps.

Each kid had their own ideas about what their garden would look like. We added tiny blue ponds even though historically the gardens only contained gravel.

The children loved playing with the crushed shells; they crunched and sprinkled and tossed them on their paper.

I loved watching the children and their process. The way they designed their gardens reflected their very different personalities and temperaments.

Supplies: 
Crushed shells
Construction Paper in black, green and light blue
White Glue
Toilet paper tubes
Scissors

Suggested Reading: 
My Japan, by Etsuko Watanabe

Making a Paper Ocean

I love doing craft projects we can all work together on as a group. While the kids love taking home and showing off their individual crafts, I have found they also enjoy working on things together and have reminders up all around them of work they have done as a team. Working as a team to accomplish a goal is a great learning opportunity for preschoolers. as long as the activity is fun and engaging and appropriate to the children's ages and skill levels you'd be surprised how much "getting along" can occur.

We started out creating the base for our ocean - a nice blue canvas from which we would build.

I used basic acrylic paint and mixed in a little shaving cream to give the paint some texture. It smelled great too!

While the "water" dried we got to work on coloring the sea animals. We had octopus, crabs, sea horses, starfish and jelly fish. 

We then populated our ocean with our creations...

 The finished product...

I added some sand made out of construction paper to give it a more authentic look. The ocean hung in the playroom the entire month of June and even a few days after. The kids loved showing their parents which animal was theirs and telling them to smell the ocean (LOL!).