January included several unenjoyable snow storms, ice storms, and otherwise ugly weather. We tried to take advantage of some long days and some nice fluffy snow (not yet melting into soggy mud) for some fun times outside building snowmen, making "snow art," tossing snow balls, and various forms of sledding (including one less successful attempt to try body sledding...). We're definitely ready for some nice days where we can get out some energy and enjoy some time playing on the playground and running races in the field.
In the meantime we've been trying to keep everyone occupied in the class room, and we've found some fun ways to do it! We have been expanding our repertoire in felt crafting and recently did a unit on making our own
ugly dolls (because they're so ugly...they're cute). We began this unit by drawing a sketch of what our ugly doll would look like. Would it be big or small? Fat or skinny? Multicolored or monochrome? The options were endless and everyone quickly got involved. When the sketch was complete, including the application of the final color scheme, we constructed a true-to-size prototype from construction paper. This step actually took a few days, and we expected the students to take their time during this process, instead of viewing it as the precursor to the final step.
When the construction paper prototypes were complete, we got to work with our felt. We started by tracing the existing prototypes onto the felt and creating a front and back. Though this is the first step, attaching the two halves was the last thing we did. The students chose which side they wanted to be the front and began to embellish their dolls with expressions, eyes, distinguishing marks, and clothes. Even those not inclined to sew had a good time pulling together their projects. Ms. Alison was nice enough to bring in her sewing machine from home so the final step of the project was (relatively) quick and painless, and the students who were interested were given the opportunity to learn a little bit about how to use a sewing machine.
We've been keeping busy in other ways as well. For the past few weeks we've had a special guest in our classroom, Chelsea Faust. Ms. Chelsea is finishing up her education to become a nutritionist, and she's been completing her practical with Boyd's Arts and Enrichment Program. Her goal is to educate early about how to choose healthy foods, and to know what we're putting in our bodies.
We started this unit by creating our own food pyramid, following the
revised structure. We discussed who created the pyramid and how the amount of each group was determined. We created a large triangle out of corrugated cardboard, painted each section the appropriate color, and spent some time sorting through magazines until we had acquired enough pictures to paste into our pyramid, the selected food corresponding with its group. As a wrap up, we discussed how no food is inherently bad, and how we can make better choices when it comes to what we eat.
Our second week has focused on the importance of grain. We kicked it off by making some homemade pizza with live yeast before migrating into the bread area. Ms. Alison recently attended a class at Enrico's in the strip about how to make bread, and the history of bread. They hold these classes once a month.
Check it out. So she was more than prepared to share with us all the amazing things that have gone into making bread as we know it. We explored the differences between white, wheat, rye, and rice flour, and talked about flour allergies. Then we made banana bread. And then we made apple bread. And then we made foccacia bread. And then we made zucchini and carrot bread. And it was all delicious.
In an effort to kick of better and more adventurous eating, we've also created an Adventures in Eating Passport. Every time a child tries a food they've never tried before they get a stamp in their passport and when they've accumulated 10 stamps they get to choose what they have for snack. We've tried apricots, kiwi, mango, papaya, pomegranate, chickpeas, olives, tomatoes....Some of our kids are more adventurous than others, but we hope they're enjoying the taste testing so far!
We've also enjoyed making our own hummus and fruit smoothies. I can't wait to see what we're going to get to eat next....
