Bb for bees

We had Bb bumblebee day last week.  I love getting to pull from my old files for a starter.  I used some of the same things, but added a few new items.  Here's last year.

I read these two books, same as last year.  In the Trees, Honey Bees and Are You a Bee?

We played this letter identification game with B and b.  

We made this letter B craft again, except this year we rolled marbles in black paint around on the body of the B.  Here's Lou's from last year. 

I had more in my picture files this year to share with the kids.  This class really likes to talk about the pictures.  There are a few kinks to work out, like that a few kids want to share about every picture and are upset when I can't call on them for each one every time. 

For example, for this little bear picture, some said, "It's a bear cub in the flowers."  Another said, "The little bear is running to his mama because he got scared."

They had some fun comments for this little boy in boots.  Some decided that he was fishing with his grandpa and tossing some rocks while they waited for a fish to bite.

This boy on a bike was riding to school they thought.

I added this little activity.  This particular class is a little lower than my group last year, academically.  They need some additional number recognition work.  We used this sort of like a bingo page.    It's just a simple little page and played really simply, but it went really well.

I really like using the clear glass beads to cover up numbers and letter in a game because you can still see them.  I need to keep an eye out for more.

Here's the journal pages for Bb week.  You can read more about the journals Here.

preschool journals

I'm so excited about these preschool journals.  They are a 'new to us' project for this year.  I love how they are coming along.   We picked up composition journals over the summer for each friend. 

Here's what we have so far.

Self portrait:     (This bottom friend must be a germ or bacteria cell)

I love love love their little preschool drawings.

We will redo this one at the end of the year. 

I know that the parents will treasure this collection of little projects. 

Here's favorite color:

 So far, we have something for each letter.  I think I can keep going with this.  Aa is for apples on the Aa.  It's little inked finger prints on the letters and then we drew on a few stems and leaves to make them look like apples.

For the letter Bb, we had two choices.  First, they could turn a B into a bee.

Or, they could stamp bees on a Bb.  I only have one bee stamp, so I wanted another Bb option.  Just about everybody wanted the stamp option though.

 Here's C week.  Coin rubbings on the letter Cc. 

 Also, if the kids do a little drawing or something and give it to us, we're sticking some of them in the journals.  This little friend was drawing me a lot the first few weeks of school.  She would draw rows and rows of me.  This one she said was 'two Ms. Beth."

We used tracing your hand as sign in one day.

Usually, for the first part of the year anyway, this is our sign in, tracing their name or writing their name.   I think we'll include this once every few months anyway.

Here's how we're fitting this into our day.  We either have it as the sign in for the day or it's at a table.  The kids do something quickly at the sign in table as soon as they enter (name, tracing hand, etc).  Usually, I have one table set up each morning for journals. We have other tables with other table toys or themed activities. I try to make sure each friend stops there once a week to complete the project.  Some really like it and can't wait to do it on Monday and want to do it each morning.  Others, need called over on Friday and promised it will be quick, but that's just a few.  It hasn't been time consuming or a burden to plan yet.  The parents that have been in for leader day so far are loving it and can't wait to see what's been added.

Here are other posts with our journal ideas: 

journals again  June 8, 2013
journals  Jan 19, 2013

biscuits and a 13 year process

 When hubby and I got married 13 years ago, I had a list in my head of a food items that I needed to figure out how to make really well.   They mostly involved carbohydrates.  I think, after all these years, I have biscuits checked off the list.  They are finally fluffy and tall, just like they should be.  

The problem was, for the first several years I was trying to go fat free, which just doesn't work.  Gravy either... we had a lot of bad dinners those first years.  When I switched to the philosophy that if it's really really good, it's worth a little longer longer run the next morning, I started making headway.  It's a good philosophy, by the way, much more enjoyable than eating rice cakes!  Not every treat is worth it.  Pumpkin pie- no.  Cheese cake- probably.  Fudge- generally.  Cadburry cream eggs- always.

So, the final thing that fell into place was when I ran out of lemon juice.  I had to make the buttermilk with vinegar.  I always used lemon juice for fear the vinegar would give it a funk flavor.  Turns out, it's not the case.  

So, here's what I've got:

Fluffy 13 year biscuits

Make butter milk:
3/4 milk
1 T vinegar- plain white kind.   Then refrigerate milk.
combine:
2 c flour
1 T bkg powder
1 T sugar
1/2 t salt
Mix with a whisk and refrigerate at least a few minutes.
Cut up quickly with knife and add to flour mix:
1 stick butter
Using pastry blender/knife, cut butter into flour mix.  You're working on getting the butter quickly into pea sized pieces. 
Add buttermilk in at least three pours, blending gently with wooden spoon in between each.  You're working quickly here.  
Dump onto floured surface.  Working pretty quickly, get dough floured enough that you can roll it but not too dense with flour and not too warm from your hands.
Roll no thinner than 1 inch thick.  Think about that 1 inch, don't go too thin.  Cut with biscuit cutter or open end of a drinking glass.
I use a stone, but that's probably not a deal breaker.
Bake 450 for 10-12 minutes

This only makes 10-12 biscuits.  I don't double the ingredients, I make two batches if I need more.

To turn into scones, here's the only slightly different recipe (same method) and then add fruit or nuts or white chocolate chips while adding milk.  Cut into triangular wedges.  That must be what sets them apart from biscuits. 

Note:  I am writing this while on the treadmill.  Delivery pizza- worth it.

okra and tomatos

 I was looking for other ways to eat the okra, and I found it.  Fresh and raw.  They can't be great big long ones- those are hard and stringy.  Oh man, if you can put aside the slight slime- this may be the best way to eat okra.  That sounds appetizing doesn't it!

Tomatoes in October.  Good grief.  They aren't pretty and you have to wash really well or you'll eat a pill bug, but we're still getting bunches every other day or so.  I have been lazy and have been freezing more than canning this year.  I'll regret that decision this winter I'm sure.  It's working for me right now though  Think there will be another BLT for me today!

leaf people

At the library this week, the kids made 'leaf men' to go along with the story, Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert.

Bee's cracks me up because her leaf lady looks like she has a saggy chest.  Those are her legs she says.

Lou's looks like a little leaf devil hiding behind a bush.  Silly me, he says those are feathers.  That's a leaf eagle hiding from a cheetah.

projects

 The kids do lots of projects for school.  Last week Lou had to build a homework machine robot.  It was quickly dismantled at home and I never got a picture, but here's a recent one from Bee.  

It's a 3d model of a local business.  She chose the local ice rink, complete with their domed roof. 

 All the skaters are tiny women in skirts. 

I didn't get his homework machine, but I did snap a picture of this cheetah.  or chedu.  Lou loves chedus. I love invented spelling!

favorite hour

It's my favorite hour.  The hour after we get home from our weekly trip to the library.  Bee and Lou almost always spend at least 40 minutes enjoying the stack of fresh books.  

I love it.  There is usually no fighting and no noise.  Just the sound of pages turning. 

apple day -preschool style -deja vu

I'm trying to get back into a routine that allows time for blogging.  Since school started, if I want to make sure there is food prepared, clean clothes to wear, a somewhat tidy house, and homework completed, the end of the day is here and I'm off to bed without a second thought to the computer and potential blogging.  Add soccer and piano lessons and errands and parent emails and a suddenly muddy 5 year old and I'm a hot mess before the sun goes down.

Anyway, I'm enjoying this school year.  I am able to use many items from previous years, which is making this year doable.  I have two classes, which is fun.  One class I find easier.  those 3 year olds are challenging.  Everything about school is new.  and hard.  and not what they necessarily want to do. 

This week we had apple day, which is always a favorite. This was for the Pre-K class.  They are 4ish.  I did several things from last year, but had to rework parts, as this class isn't as strong in math as last year's. 


On the table for arrival time was the new apple stringing activity.

This apple matching activity from last year:

This apple pie activity from two years ago.  

I get asked about the pies on the original post sometimes. They aren't clip art, I just drew them up on construction paper.  It's a brown piece of paper and a white.  The red part is just marker.  People ask.   UPDATED:  Here's a link to a printable version of the pie.  It's black and white, you can trace it onto construction paper or copy and color it.   I'm new to google docs, so let me know if it's not working.

These apple mats for making playdough worms.

 My co-teacher set out the neatest contact paper activity.  I didn't get a picture, but we taped a huge sheet of contact paper to the table, allowing the sticky side to be assessable.  She had cut out a bunch of red apple shapes, green leaf shapes, and brown stem shapes from foam paper.   The kids assembled apples and silly apple pictures on the contact paper.  The best part was that the foam paper peeled right off and we were able to use them another day.

We also had out the apple sensory tub.  This photo is after our play.  It's cute and tidy before they get to it. 

My favorite item in it is these little crocheted apples.  It's a free pattern from Planet June.
  

I read this book again:

We made applesauce again.  Every time I use the rest of my stash of baby food jars, I inherit more.  This summer my dad brought me about 150.   I'm slightly sentimentally attached to them, which is another story, but I'm not letting it stop me.  They got a really good wash and we used them. 

 We cook it in the crock pot all morning long.  

The kids help cut the apples at arrival time.  We give them sliced apples and they use a table knife to dice it up.  It doesn't really matter how tiny they get them. 

Then the leader helps add cinnamon, a little water, and helps me mash and stir a few times.  It cooks up fast.  In about 2 1/2 hours it's done.  I spoon a little into each jar about 1/2 hour before dismissal so that it cools a bit.  Last year, I didn't let it cool.  They were too hot to hold!

 
We sent this sheet home:  (available here)

 I really want to share about our journals, I'll have to take more pictures.  I'm taking them on as my little pet project.  I'm just so excited about them.  We are aiming for one project a week.  I get a few kids to work on it each day and get them all through the week. This week's was apples on Aa.  

They used their little fingertips to stamp red dots and we turned a few into apples. Mostly they love gluing the page into their journals. 

We sang this song with 10 apples on the felt board:

      (add them as you sing)
      1 little, 2 little, 3 little apples
     4 little, 5 little, 6 little apples
     7 little, 8 little, 9 little apples
     10 apples hanging on the tree.
  
    (remove them as you sing)
     pick 1, pick 2,  pick 3 apples
     pick 4, pick 5, pick 6 apples
     pick 7, pick 8, pick 9 apples
     pick 10 apples from the tree.

     peel them, slice them, stir them, bake them, let's make apple pie!

We also sang this little song and I used 5 apples velcroed on a glove for this one, but you could use a flannel board again.

       __5___  red apples, high in the tree,
       apples always taste so good to me.
      So I shake the tree,  one falls to the ground.
      Now there are   ___4___ red apples, juicy and round. 


 Instead of a craft, we made apple pies.  The kids cut up apple pieces again and put them on top of a piece of crescent roll.  They added a bit of butter and a shake of cinnamon sugar.  They pulled up the edges of the crescent roll and put them on foil. We baked them and let them cool and then devoured them. 

I missed doing Apples Up On Top, but it just didn't fit in this year.