Seed Balls

Today we made seed balls!

It's a technique for planting in abandoned places, and often inhospitable land, that was developed in Japan by Masanobu Fukuoka, a pioneer in natural farming. And its fun.

1 part seeds, 3 parts compost, 5 parts clay. Mix in a little water to make the consistancy of play dough. Roll into small balls and let dry in the sun. Then the fun part....5,4,3,2,1...throw!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103129515

It's Maple Syrup Time

Here in the Northeastern part of the United States the days are becoming warmer and at night the temperatures still fall below freezing. These are ideal conditions to collect rising sap from sugar maple trees. We are very blessed to have six large sugar maple trees in front of our school. Each year we tap the trees, collect the sap and boil it down into maple syrup. It is a wonderful expereince for our students as we include our maple syrup project in lessons on science, practical life, history, nutrition, language, math and more.

History of Bread: Field Trip to the Flour Mill

Yesterday our class took a field trip to a local flour mill. Farmer Ground Flour grinds local organic grain into flours that are sold regionally. It is really exciting to learn about where our food comes from. The children were excited and inspired.

Fingerprints --are you a whorl, arch, or loop?

We've been studying the human body all month. After learning about our skin, we decided to make fingerprints. Here's the activity:

Pencil, paper, clear tape and your fingers (or toes!).

Rub a dark spot of pencil graphite onto a piece of paper. We used scraps of card stock for additional durability.

Rub your finger over the graphite.

Place clear tape onto your finger (sticky side touching graphite).

Place tape onto white paper to see fingerprint.

Now it's time to study and classify your print. Now this is real police work!
http://www.ridgesandfurrows.homestead.com/fingerprint_patterns.html

Analyzing fingerprints may be a little bit challenging for our younger friends.

Here's a great pattern observation introduction game for toddlers and younger preschool children.

Copy Me Game

A simple game fun for all ages. One player creates a pattern the other copies it. wonderful for building visual-perceptual and fine motor skills for reading and writing.

History of Bread: Lesson 1- Grinding the Wheat

And the Little Red Hen asked, "Who will help me grind the wheat?"

Wow, no wonder why it was so hard for Red Hen to find help, this is hard work!

Here are some locally grown, organic wheat berries bought in the bulk food section of our grocery store. Try smelling them, feeling them, tasting them, chewing them....I wonder who thought of grinding them? Who discovered flour? All great questions to ponder with your children.
The set up is simple: a spice grinder, a spoon, one container with wheat berries, and one container for the ground flour.

The History Of Bread: Lesson 2 Wheat Crackers

Our class has been studying the history of bread. After grinding wheat berries to make our own flour, we began experimenting with a basic wheat cracker recipe. After mastering the basic recipe we allowed the children to experiment by substituting different ingredients. We kept a careful recipe log and notes on each substitution. The children were incredibly insightful and creative. We tested about ten different variations.

The activity was set up as an individual choice for one child at a time. The crackers were baked in a toaster oven(supervised by a teacher).

Basic Wheat Crackers

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup of cracked wheat
1/8 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp of water

Mix dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients. Knead dough until smooth and consistent in texture. Additional flour or liquid can be added to obtain the right consistency. Roll dough to approximately 1/8 inch thickness. Cut cracker shapes with small cookie cutters. Bake on a cookie sheet for approximately 5 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until crackers are lightly browned and crisp. Cool and enjoy.

Recipe makes 25-30 one inch crackers.

Namaste's Favorite Wheat Crackers

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup of cracked wheat
1/8 tsp salt
2 tbsp of butter
2 tbsp of maple syrup
1 tbsp of fresh squeezed orange juice
2 tbsp of orange zest

The Fruits of Our Labor....Our Maple Syrup Store

Just had to share and follow up on our earlier posts. This spring we tapped the six maple trees that live in the front yard of our school (check out previous entries). After weeks of watching, waiting, boiling, and filtering we bottled our precious syrup. The children designed signage and bottle labels. They researched market prices and calculated our production costs. After much discussion we set a product price and planned for our sale. We used the bead materials to add totals and calculate change. We set up tables just outside our classroom doors and sold to families as they arrived to pick up at the end of the day. Everyone in our class has definitely caught the entrepreneurial bug!

Spelling, sorting, and mapping...just a few new activities that are popular right now

I found a big bag of letter beads on sale at the craft store and I am trying to find creative uses for them. Here's a simple language work where children build words by sliding the letter beads onto a piece of pipe cleaner. It's sort of a variation on the movable alphabet, matching, and a fine motor beading activity. We have some first year students moving up from our toddler room this summer. Here is a simple sorting activity with dinosaur counters. They can be sorted by color or type of dinosaur.

This sorting activity is a little more challenging. Children place the objects on the chart sorting by color and type of vehicle. We have it out in our math area but it could just as easily find a home in the practical life area or language area.

Here's a simple map drawn on card stock, some command cards (recycled plastic pill containers), and some counter vehicles. Lot's of fun and incorporates so many different skills.

A Taste of Summer

It been a cold, wet start to summer here in upstate New York. The gardens are flourishing becuase of the rain and despite the coolness it's beginning to taste like summer (even if we are still wearing sweatshirts!).

Here is a simple green bean food prep activity. Children cut the ends of the beans off and compost them; they slice the beans into smaller pieces and skewer them with a tooth pick before serving to their classmates.

Nothing sings summer like watermelon. Here is a watermelon balling activity. Children scoop balls of the melon, insert a toothpick, and serve to their classmates. Yum.

A Passion For Wildflowers...

Our children are discovering wildflowers on walks around our school property, through the nearby fields and up by the pond.

We incorporated this passion for wildflowers inot a variety of works throughout our classroom. Flower arranging in the practical life area, still life drawing in the art area, identification of wildflowers and wildflower bingo in the language area, parts of a flower and leaf identification in the science area, plus lots of books to do our research.