Stone Soup - 2021

"Bring what you've got! Put it in the pot! We're making Stone Soup."

Our classroom focused on the version written by Heather Forest and illustrated by Susan Gaber; however, there are many versions of Stone Soup, all of which teach the lesson of how each of us is significant and, no matter the size of the contribution, when we come together, we create a healthier, happier community.

The children worked hard to churn heavy cream into butter, which we enjoyed during our feast.

Not only did the children contribute items for the soup, they worked on their cutting skills and did a wonderful job!

Along with the many different versions of Stone Soup, I read to the children, each day, Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message by Chief Jake Swamp. 

Every individual has something to offer a community; when we come together, we create a community worth celebrating. 

We have so much for which to feel thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Dodecagon Turkeys

Inspired by the Indian traditional art of rangoli, the children have been working with manipulatives, such as tangrams, to create beautiful designs using patterns to build different shapes, such as dodecagons. 

These beautiful displays overlapped with our conversations about Thanksgiving and the tom turkey, who uses his display to attract a mate. Here is one of our Rangoli inspired dodecagon turkeys! 

Of course, there's also the old tradition of hand-traced turkeys this time of year, but we like to take those up a notch, too. 

The children's hands have been quite busy increasing focus, concentration, and fine motor strength!

Of course, we had to weave in some feathers to showcase the turkey displays. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tomato Update

If you are following our tomato experiment, the picture below shows the latest progress. So far, the children have observed that, while batch one sits in the window and batch two is in a box with a banana and no sunlight, they seem to be releasing lycopene at a similar rate. What do you think?

batch one

batch two

 

Harvest Festival (Halloween Party)

For our harvest festival, the children enjoyed a bean bin scavenger hunt with flashlights...

fine motor building ghost cutting...

and they absolutely loved creating their own apple rings with a variety of toppings, prepared for them by our fabulous room parent -thank you!

The children also enjoyed an excellent fine-motor building math work - 16 beads per stem times 8 (how many beads, total?!) - which turned out to be a fabulous pumpkin decoration.

 Happy Autumn!