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Save the date! In two short weeks, on Friday, February 17th, we are inviting all families to campus for an all-school storytelling event. We have been preparing to share our ongoing story work with you, but we want it to be a surprise. So here are a few other things we did this week...and maybe a few sneak peeks :)
And remember to check out our monthly poem (new for February!) and Morning Messages (updated weekly). Our latest questions included, "what character would run away from the Fungi Friends," "what kinds of mushrooms are there?" and "what would you do if your gingerbread cookie ran away from you?"
This week was all gingerbread, everywhere as we prepared to make gingerbread cookies on Friday with GB (Grandma Bear), Merritt's grandmother. On Monday and Wednesday, we made salt dough. We were able to practice important skills that we would need later in the week:
- reading a recipe
- measuring ingredients
- rolling dough
- cutting out dough
- waiting patiently
- decorating our "cookies"
The "X"s on the recipe (to the left) were a student's idea, to help us keep track of how much flour we had added to the bowl so that we could follow the recipe correctly.
It was a truly immersive sensory experience, feeling the difference in texture between the flour and the salt, adding liquid a little bit at a time until we achieved a "play dough" texture, pushing hard to knead and roll, and then delicately painting our baked creations. As you can see below, we added holes to some of our cut-outs to hang and we will be figuring out how to safely send these home!
We have also been working on...
Creating our own version of a gingerbread game, similar to Candyland - a student suggested Gingerbread World as a name!
Gingerbread lacing dolls as we practice our fine motor skills
Gingerbread people of all shapes, sizes, and materials, letting our imaginations run wild!
Finally, Friday arrived and it was time to make our gingerbread cookies! All our earlier practice cooking made us confident in the kitchen and we were proud to share our skills as GB led us in our baking project.
In small groups, we took turns measuring and mixing the dough, rolling out the dough, and cutting out our cookies. We even had several student photographers to help us document the process. Then, the cookies were baked to perfection! We left them cooling in the kitchen, but as we went to each lunch, we noticed the cookies were missing! That left one question - as Emily put it, "who peeked?" Luckily, the gingerbread cookies left us some clues. We followed the clues contained on the paper gingerbread people and finally found our cookies! We didn't let them out of our sight as we ate lunch. After lunch, we were able to decorate and eat the cookies, enjoying them as we listened to The Gingerbread Man: Loose in the School (Murray). Scroll through the slideshow below for a photographic journey :) and here's the recipe in case you need a "cold day" activity for Saturday!
The construction workers are busy with blocks, taking advantage of the new layout and opportunities to save work. Children can revisit their work for several days, adding on, renovating, revising, and telling stories. This week, we started recording the children's "block stories," to be displayed alongside photographs in the Bird Room for reflection and future inspiration. Here are the stories of the week:
Secret Mansion: This is a place for villains. It’s a mansion. A secret lair. Each time someone goes in a praying mantis is called because no one can bother the bird and the ant. If someone makes it in they chase them until they are captured. Then they’ll go in a special jail. The name of this place is ‘Secret Mansion’. There is thunder always falling down in this place!
Ocean Beach: There is some rain coming to the beach. Some Polar bears are here and they like to go in the cold water a lot. The Polar bears like the trees. They hang out by the trees. Three animals live at this beach.
Beacon: Grasshoppers, Gorillas and Elephants are here. It’s an animal place. All the animals are in it. They find their prey and they eat it. Like this Gorilla is eating some ladybugs. And this Hippo is eating some water. The Elephant is eating leaves. This Panda is eating bamboo. The Praying Mantis is very big so it eats plants.
Big Bug House: This is a place where big bugs live. This is the part where the big bugs play. They have big bug toys that they play with. They push the door open with their big bodies. A rhinoceros beetle stays inside the house. They eat plants. They eat bugs too. But there is no food anywhere. Except for a tree. Now they won’t be hungry anymore. But I don’t see any bugs around here for them to eat. Some insects fly in and the big bugs catch them and eat it for lunch.
Cheetah House: The cheetah goes inside and then goes outside for food. There’s two cheetahs. A cheetah family. It only has one mom and one little sister.
Zoo: There’s a grasshopper and one tree. All the bugs are together. That’s the building I made! I added the Brooklyn Bridge to my building. I was just joking!
Castle: It’s a little castle for the little juggler character. He’s a clown bear. And he’s a babysitter to the pandas. He rests and has little beds for the children to get babysitted. His name is Bear-lee!
August's Building: The new guy is the crocodile. The lizard and crocodile are friends with each other. Look there is a Christmas tree. They are eating their food right now. Nibbling on mango. They all eat mango and chocolate. The worms and also one ant are here. They are also eating right now. The different square colors are the food. They always eat all of their food. The frog has super jumps but he always lands back. The leaf bugs are their friends too. They eat so fast that they fall!
We can't wait to share more stories with you as the buildings are rebuilt and evolve over time!
And, if you got this far, a sneak peek of our preparation for the family storytelling event:
Any ideas about what we might be up to?? Shh...it's a surprise!
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