Icebergs

Today was so fun! It is my birthday and the kids kept singing happy birthday over and over again to me. They were so well behaved and I felt super lucky to have things go so smoothly today. We learned about icebergs in the arctic and talked about them melting. We started by writing our name in the snow (shaving cream).

Afterwards I had frozen little paper cups of water that they pulled out and dumped blue water and salt on to watch them melt. They loved doing this and started a little competition to see who could make their iceberg melt the first. 

And last today we made our own edible iceberg floats! Just make blue Kool-Aid and pour half into a clear plastic cup, add some sprite and then a scoop of vanilla ice cream at the top for the iceberg. So yummy! 

Strangers

We have been talking about safety and today we discussed strangers. We watched a quick little movie clip on Little Red Riding Hood and talked about who was the stranger in this story. Of course they all yelled out, the wolf. I like this version because they make the wolf appear to be very friendly at first  and he looks nice when he really is a big bad wolf. We discussed how not all bad people look mean. Some of them can look really nice but may want to still hurt you. We also talked about Little Red Riding Hood and what she said to the wolf that you should never say to a stranger. For example; telling him her name and where her grandmother lived. I also found a great list of things that are good to talk to your kids about when discussing strangers. It talks about things a stranger may say to you to try to get you to come with them. And what to do if you get lost. I have included the movie and list for your convenience to look at. Afterwards we made puppets of the big bad wolf to remind them that they should stay away from people they don't know.

Little Red Riding Hood story



Talking to kids about strangers

The Bean Museum

We were able to go to The Bean Museum again this year for one of our field trips. We always have so much fun here seeing all the animals and finding them in a scavenger hunt. We also had a reptile show given to us again. This part is so fun to see real reptiles and learn about different things that make them different from other animals. Just a side note though: They don't open until 10 if anybody is wanting to go earlier. We learned this the hard way. :)

 Answering questions about reptiles.

 Must use 2 fingers to touch the animals.

 Pretending to be a turtle and hide in the shell.

 Snake names Cuddles:) How appropriate for a boa constrictor.

 A little nervous about touching the snake.

 A gecko.
I can't remember his name and it has been bugging me. Oh, I think it was Bruskie. Not sure on Spelling.

Snowy Owls

We have been talking about Arctic Animals this month. One of them that we talked about this week was the Snowy Owl. This bird is so beautiful to watch especially when flying. They are a brownish color during the summer months and the rest of the year a beautiful snow white. They primarily eat lemmings.
We read a book about these birds and then made an edible owl for cooking. They loved eating these. Thanks to Amy from superhealthykids for the idea.

recipe from SuperHealthyKids

Arctic animals and health/safety month

It's been a fun and busy month so far. We have been working on lots of things and I have been doing a lot of testing for Parent/Teacher conferences. But through it all we have of course enjoyed ourselves too. We have a field trip this week to The Bean Museum and will be seeing their live reptile show. I am excited to go. This month we have been focusing on Health and Safety as well as learning about some Arctic animals and their survival skills in the cold bitter months.

We talked about the Emperor Penguin and how the father penguins hold onto the egg while the mothers go to get food. The father has to make sure not to drop the egg and have it sit on the ice for too long or else the egg would crack and the baby would die. After the baby penguin is born it is also important for him to hold the baby between his legs to keep the baby warm and able to survive. We watched a video to show the kids how this exactly works. I was so excited to use my new apple TV so I didn't have to show the video on my laptop. Instead we watched it on a much bigger screen. The link is below.

Penguin Dads

Afterwards we did an activity that we did last year. I have rolled up socks that the kids get to pretend to be the father penguin caring for his egg. They have to waddle around holding the egg between their ankles. If it falls out they have to quickly pick it up with only their feet.

We also made these cute little penguins for art that day. 

For Health and Safety so far this month we talked about the Food Pyramid one day. I made a picture of the food pyramid and then had a bunch of different foods in a box. Each child got to use my little shopping cart to go shopping for some food. They then brought the food they picked up to the chart and told me which food group it belonged in. They really liked doing this. We had talked before they went shopping about how important it is to eat all sorts of food and to not eat a lot of junk food. I was surprised that they all wanted to pick healthy food when they went shopping. No one would pick out the donuts, cake and other junk food. Hopefully they eat that healthy at home :) Afterwards we played food bingo and then made some juice using my juicer. The juice had apples, oranges and carrots in it. I always find it funny that they think it will taste gross to have carrots in their juice and then end up loving it. They all looked so cute with little orange mustaches. Too bad I didn't get a picture of them.

On a different day we talked about emergencies and made a list of things that were emergencies and what isn't an emergency. I found a news clip of a little girl who was able to save her mother during a seizure by calling 911. The kids thought this was so neat that they could call the police to help them if someone was in trouble and needed help. 

Girl saves mom video

Afterwards we each took turns practicing dialing 911 on a toy phone and then made our own little phone to practice learning our home phone number. I laminated each phone so they could keep practicing at home with their parents. 

Christmas 2010

You will have to forgive me for not updating the blog the last couple of weeks. Life got super busy and I kept forgetting to get to it. We had a great month though! We were able to do Christmas Around the World and learn about different ways that other kids celebrate Christmas. The first Country we talked about was Germany. Their Santa Claus is named St. Nikolous. Saint Nikolous Eve is on December 6th. On that night, German children put a shoe in front of their home's fireplace, so that Saint Nicholas will leave behind goodies. This custom is a bit similar to our Santa Claus tradition, in that children wait to see whether they have been deemed "good" or "bad" by Saint Nick. Children who think they may have been "bad" worry that twigs will be left in their shoes. They also love to decorate their homes with Gingerbread houses. The children were able to decorate their own gingerbread house and  color a picture of the German Santa Claus. 

Another day we talked about Christmas in Mexico. They have presents delivered from the three kings also on January 6th. In Mexico they love to celebrate with lots of pinatas. They also make homemade ornaments with foil. I thought I took pictures of the ornaments we made but can't seem to find them. We used tin foil cupcake liners and flattened them out and then glued scraps of green and red tissue paper on it. I then punched a hole at the top and strung some yarn through it. The kids loved learning how to say Merry Christmas is Spanish. Feliz Navidad! I found a picture online of a foil ornament to give you an idea of some of the ornaments they might make. 

We also had  a Polar Express Day this month. The kids looked so cute all dressed up in their pajamas. We played a couple of Christmas Games and then I had them all sit in rows that would be like a train. We read the book and talked about the bell and how the boy was the only one in the end who could hear the bell of santa's sleigh ring. It was because he still believed in Santa Claus. I had some large bells that looked very much like the bell from the book and we took turns jingling it while singing jingle bells. For cooking today we made homemade hot chocolate. I have a really good friend who is obsessed with "real" hot chocolate not the stuff out of cans. I use to think it must taste pretty similar but I was so wrong. This hot chocolate was so delicious and healthy as well. It is made with honey to make it sweet instead of sugar. It is also really easy to make. 

Hot Chocolate

2 cups milk (or try 2% milk)
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
Combine 1 cup milk, honey, and cocoa powder in a saucepan and heat on stove on low/medium heat until honey and cocoa dissolve. Add the other cup of milk. Heat until you get the temperature just the way you like it. Whatever you do, don't boil. Top with whipped cream or marshmallows.

Serves 2.

I gave them each a peppermint stick to stir their hot chocolate and suck on too.

We were also really busy taking pictures and working on our Christmas books we made for the parents. 

Finally the last day we had our big Christmas party! Thank you so much to those of you that helped out, it was so much fun. We played a fun game with a gift bad and a bean bag. The kids had to balance the bean bag on different parts of their body and get it into the gift bag. They also played Santa Says which is just like Simon Says. We made a really yummy popcorn treat with m &m's and almond bark. We read some christmas and winter books. Played the dance freeze game. Just turn on some Christmas or any music really and let the kids dance like crazy, freezing when the music stops. They love this game. And we also opened our gifts from each other, every child was able to get a new book! 

I hope you all had a wonderful Winter Break and Christmas. I am looking forward to starting up again in a couple days. See you soon!