Week Twelve: Cranberry THANKSGIVING

This week we focused on Thanksgiving.

Our main book was Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin:

Tuesday was such an easy day because there was no meticulous cutting and pasting and hardly any prep, but the kids LOVED what we did.

First, we used this observation sheet I made to record our notes on how we feel about cranberries using our five senses, a little experiment about whether or not cranberries float and why they float, and labeling the parts of a cranberry.

Next, we played a game they absolutely loved, inspired by theinspiredtreehouse.  I filled one cup with cranberries and put an empty cup on a table on the other end of the room.  I handed each kid a spoon.  They took turns scooping up some cranberries from the full cup and bringing them over to the other cup, once they started walking I would shout out a challenge for them.  I used theinspiredtreehouse's challenges.  They loved this game and it was such a great way to practice team work, cooperation, and both fine and large motor skills.

For our snack, I made mini cranberry muffins using "Grandma's Secret Recipe," but actually just Krusteaz.  We ate most of them, they were delicious :)

While they ate I showed them this super neat YouTube video about how cranberries are harvested and made into things like cranberry juice and craisins.  They were completely enthralled and one kid later asked to watch it again!

Next, I set up cranberry themed centers for them which they cycled through.

In this one they practiced measuring.  I drew "fill-to" lines on three cups and they simply had to fill to the line.

The next one was inspired by littlebinsforlittlehands.  I asked them to use each provided utensil to put one cranberry in each egg cup.

This one was a "cranberry bog." Super easy and this was probably the favorite.

After playing with this one for a while, I added onto it for them by giving them some funnels and cups.

And I asked them to pick out the bad ones like the factory workers did in the video.

Then they decided they wanted to fill the bin up to the top with water so they all grabbed a cup and walked back and forth from the bathroom sink to the bin to fill it up with water: 

For the last center I just put water in one cup and they had to transfer the water to an empty cup using a turkey baster.

 Fine motor play all around the room!

Finally, we did cranberry painting.  My idea was to just crush up some cranberries and paint with them, but they were way too hard and it was not working.

So, we had to problem solve.  We brought the bowl of them into the kitchen and put it in the microwave.  This worked like a charm.  The kids were pretty fascinated.

They turned out beautiful:

Since that Friday was the last day of class before Thanksgiving, I wanted to read a more educational book about Thanksgiving.  I chose The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern which was long but they didn't seem to mind.

Then we made mini books (download here), which were all about the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving.  They really loved putting themselves in the Pilgrims' shoes.

Our snack was pumpkin pie in a cup.  They loved this, though it made them a little crazy.

Then we made these adorable Turkey headbands from preparingforpeanut.

And we made these puppets which they played with all day.

Download template for the pieces here. Just print each page in the appropriate color of construction paper.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Week Eleven: How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman:

This is one of my favorite books of the year.  It is so fun and the kids love it.  Plus, there are so many activities to go along with it, I even had to pass some up!

First, we did apple tasting:

They were very excited about this and absolutely loved being little scientists and sharing their opinions. You can download the notes and observations sheet here.

Next, we made mini apple pies.

My inspiration was from kiwicreate.  Instead of a rolled out pie crust, we did a press-in pie crust. I bought some pre-made rolls of pie crust and divided it into balls.  It was pretty crumbly and hard to work with, so I added some shortening to each ball to soften it up.  Before we used them, I let them sit out for a few hours to soften some more.  Then, I just gave them each a ball in a mini pie tin and let them get to work:

Next we filled them with homemade pie filling:

And added some crumble (made out of flour, cinnamon, butter, sugar).  He's excited:

They brought these home and baked them with their families.

On Friday, we read the book again, and then we traveled the world.

I made and laminated two sheets of country names and maps, one set big and one set little, which can be downloaded here and here.

First, I clipped a Ziploc bag on the back of each big card.  Each Ziploc bag held the item the girl in the book got from each country.  For instance, for Italy, the Ziploc bag held some wheat.

Then, I hid the bags around the room.  Italy was in the kitchen:

I wrote numbers on the back of the mini ones and handed them out.  I also handed out some mini brown bags with handles to collect their ingredients in, as well as a list of ingredients. We went through the book and I gave them hints as to where each country was hidden.  When they found the country, I gave them each an object to put in their bags and we moved on to the next country.

On the way to Italy, we brushed up on our Italian:

 This is what I gave out for each country:

Italy: wheat
France: a chicken drawing
Sri Lanka: pieces of bark
England: cow drawing
Jamaica: sugar cane drawing
Vermont: apple drawing

The kids really love when we are able to act out and really live in the story.

Next, we made "parts of an apple" crafts:

You can download the templates here:
-Stem
-Leaf
-Core
-Skin
-Labels can be downloaded over at What the Teacher Wants.

This book has so many different potential activities, and they were all so fun!

Colored Rice + Alphabet

Colored rice was already deeply loved by my kiddos:

So when I saw this on Pinterest, it jumped out at me.  What a great way to make the ABC's fun!  Especially when posed as a challenge.  I told him: "I don't know if you're gonna be able to do this one, it's pretty tricky..."  Immediately he just had to prove me wrong. 

And prove me wrong he did :)  Just look at that face.

Organization

I am slowly trying to get organized.  Today I finally bought these colored paper sorters, and they are my favorite thing.  I know they are so common and everyone has them, but you don't know what you've got until you... haven't had it? Idk nevermind.  Because before this, we had a huge pile of paper and it was impossible to ever find enough of what I needed.  Also, you may notice the labels.  I love to label everything.  I don't know what it is, but it helps me sleep better at night ;)

Since I teach only in the mornings, I put this sign here so I can put anything I want them to take home in the afternoon right here.

Here is our diaper changing table turned music cart, which can be easily rolled into the other room when it is music time:

My biggest pet peeve is clutter so I try hard to keep the classroom clutter free.  It's a little hard with preschoolers though, naturally.  But of course I don't mind clutter in the form of artwork.  That is my favorite form of clutter :)

For instance, this is the artwork hanging in our classroom right now: