November 2011

Here are some pictures from this past week. Enjoy!

Letter toss practice.
The kids had to roll the die, and whichever letter it landed on, they needed to write it in the corresponding spot on their paper. They just love playing this "game!"

One of the most important things we do here, is develop fine motor skills. One of the best ways to do that is to cut! I put out salad bowls, give them scraps of paper, and they make "paper salads." One of our favorite activities!






Here are the kids from the older class demonstrating their awesome cutting skills, while cutting out "Tommy the Turkey".



Speaking of Tommy the Turkey, we sang a song about him, which was a great way to teach the letter 'T....
(Sung to On Top of Old Smokey)
Tommy the Turkey
He starts words with T's.
If he asks for a tapple,
give him an apple, please.
If he asks for some toup,
give him some soup, please.
If he asks for a tarrot,
give him a carrot, please!

I had a Tommy puppet, and I gave them each a piece of play food, and I would have "Tommy" ask for the item (totdog, tookie, tilk), then they would have to give it to him. They were laughing so hard! It was a lot of fun!

So, here is the night before the big feast. I think I love having a chalkboard wall more than the kids do!

All of the projects and hats ready to go!

The turkey slow cooking away...
Here is the recipe for, what I think is the easiest, best way to cook turkey so that it is easy for kids to eat, and absolutely DELICIOUS...

1. Mix together the juice from 2 citrus fruits of your choice (I used an ora blanko grapefruit), 2 T olive oil, 1 tsp salt, 1tsp pepper, 1 T honey, 1.5 tsp thyme.
2. rub mixture all over the turkey, and even under the skin
3. Top with some zest from the citrus
... Cover the wing tips with foil, and make a "tent with foil over the turkey.
4. put in the oven, and follow the baking instructions on your turkey.
5.After it is cooked, get all of the meat off, and put it in the slow cooker, along with the juices from the turkey, and another 1/2c to 1 c of chicken stalk.
6. Leave it in there for a few more hours, and just let it shred away!
7. The turkey is juicy and delicious, and best of all, there is no cutting required!
Enjoy!

I had the kids pass around the Thankful Teddy, and say something they were thankful for and why.



Before the big feast, I thought it was important that I tell them the Thanksgiving story. And, as luck would have it, I don't have any good books that don't bore the kids. So I told them the story, and had them imagine it.
We will often "imagine" our stories, and the kids just love this! Before we do this, we warm up our imaginations. First, I give the kids a noun, for example, a pumpkin. I will then tell them to close their eyes, and see if they can "see" the pumpkin. Once they have, they will raise their hands. I will do a couple more words, then I will give them a silly one. Like today, I had them imagine a dog with cat ears and a lizard tail. They all got a good giggle, but they were all able to imagine it!
After the warm-up, they were ready to "imagine" the Thanksgiving story!

Now, the feast!
One child suggested that all of the girls be Pocahontas, and all the boys be John Smith. It was a great idea, as in the past, deciding who would be which, has been a difficult task.









Thank you to all the parents who brought side dishes and deserts! I couldn't have done it without you!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I will see you next week!

Last weeks of school 2011...

Here we are during our unit on bedtime stories...What goes along with bedtime stories better than pajama day?! I had the kids bring their favorite bedtime story to share. I thought it would be neat to take a picture of them all behind their favorite bedtime story...






Azure crawled behind her big brother, Ace...(he's not sitting on her, I promise :) )

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Here are my (8) little monkeys jumping on the bed...

We also did "Ten in a Bed"


The last two years, I have had the kids stuff their own pillow. I just go to Wallyworld and buy their fleece scraps; cut them up and tie them, so that they are all ready to stuff. It is one of my favorite things to have the kids do...


And, what goes better with pajama day, then pigs in a blanket?! Each child got to roll their own pig in a blanket. The kids LOVED them! I even had a few who asked me for the recipe! FYI, all it is a hot dog rolled in pastry dough :) so easy!



For the summer birthday party, we of course had to play pin the tail on the donkey...among other things....

No peeking...





Azure even had to try it. She wouldn't keep the eye cover on, but she did do her own spin, right before!

Here's the kids from the older class who have summer birthdays....quite a few...


Thank you for all of your support with graduation! I am kind of...well maybe not "kind of""--I AM a one woman show, and I know sometimes things don't go as smoothly when that is the case...but, I thought your kids did a FANTASTIC job! I was so proud of them! Thank you to all the parents who helped out with and who performed in the program! I wasn't able to take any pictures from the program, so if you have any, please email them to me at [email protected]. Also, here is a link to the pictures of the cupcakes:

http://sweetenyourday.com/sograduation.html

Thanks, again for a wonderful year! And, thanks for letting me do what I love :) You are all wonderful!