Fun Days-Teddy Bear Picnic

We often have different “themed” days in some classrooms.  Pajama day is always a fun one, and popular.

One day, however, I saw a great day in a classroom that almost made me wish I was still a lead teacher in the classroom just so I could implement it…almost, I love what I do.

They had a Teddy Bear Picnic day!

What did this entail?  Many FUN activities full of intentionality!

Everyone brings in their teddy bears.  If someone doesn’t have a teddy bear, that’s okay because the teacher had LOTS of extras!  If they forgot or didn’t have one, they were able to pick one to be theirs for the day.

The teddy bears are the children’s “students” for the day and the get to/must bring them around and share their activities with them. 

In the blocks, teddy bears were the receivers of beds made just for them…to size. 

In the dramatic play area, well, what teddy bear doesn’t LOVE coffee, cake, and plastic pizza?

During circle, they sat in a circle according the the teddy bears size!   This was a great math activity to start off and then having the responsibility of “keeping your teddy bear quiet” brought a new attention span to even the most wiggly child.

Circle time consisted of reading/singing the Teddy Bear Picnic book and going around the circle introducing the teddy bear to the rest of the group (name, favorite food, age).

At one of the tables, there were pieces of fabric, scissors, and patterns to make clothes for their bears…if they wanted.  There was one teacher close by to HELP the children stitch the things together with fat needles and thread.  Yes, the teacher allowed them to SEW with REAL needles!  Awesome practice in trusting the children!

At another table, if they so chose, the children had a picnic making activity.  Teddy bears and their owners spent time making sandwiches (math/patterning, fine motor, reading recipes), filling baggies with carrots (counting), and filling baskets with small group numbers of sandwiches, carrot bags, applesauce cups, plastic spoons, paper cups, napkins, plates, and pitchers of milk (community, counting, sorting, spacial awareness).

During outdoor time, teddy bears rode on tricycles going through obstacle courses, built sand castles, and went on…wait for it…a BEAR HUNT!  It was an awesome obstacle course!

Lunch was a picnic out on the grass!

Nap time was a breeze for the simple matter that the children didn’t want to wake their bears.

It was an awesome day!

What kind of fun days do you have?

Cooking Projects-Mashed Potatoes

Seriously, make mashed potatoes with the children.  It can’t be a better activity for those very active children.

It will also be a great test of your trust for the children because you have to let them use real tools.

Get out the potato peelers.  It works on their fine motor skills and all that.  Show them how to use them, work with them when they need help, and just keep a close eye.  Potato peelers, if you get the right kind (really the cheap ones work because they don’t have those pointy ends to take the eye of the potato out…(or the eye of the children).

Get a pot full of water and you will have to cut the potatoes because, let’s face it, no matter how much you trust the children, sharp knives are still a big no!  Even if it’s one-on-one with them.  You don’t want to give the children the idea that they can EVER touch a knife. 

Have them put the potato pieces in the pot of water and boil the potatoes until soft.  I actually did this in the classroom with an electric skillet, we just kept an adult by the pot at all times.

Once they are done, drain the potatoes, put them into bowls, and hand the kids mashers.  Let them go at it!  This is probably the most fun part for the children.  Add the milk, butter, salt, etc… (Put all the mashed potatoes into the same pot to mix it all up).

ENJOY!  We usually eat these as part of lunch.  Really, it takes us that long to make them.  When you make mashed potatoes at home, it is much faster.  I promise.  This will take you about an hour, if not more! 

The children will eat tons of mashed potatoes and now they have a life skill that they will be able to use forever.  It’s healthy, too!

Cooking for Life

In our classrooms, cooking projects are part of the classroom experience on a very regular basis.  If the cook is willing, we even get them in the classroom to help out; this serves as to show the children a little bit about what people in their community do.  Most of our cooks are very willing for this and actually look forward to cooking days in the classroom.

See, in reality, it makes their lives easier.  Why?  Because the children, when they cook, make the meal for the day; if the cook comes to the classroom, the class makes the meal for ALL the classrooms for the day.

At times, the children may make cookies, cakes, and other treats; when they do, they make it FROM SCRATCH, not from a box.

However, most of the time, they are making lunches and snacks that are healthy and nutritious.  Why?  Because we want the children to be able to cook HEALTHY MEALS for themselves.  This is a skill that children will need to know as they grow older, even into adulthood.

It also gives them a firm foundation and healthy eating practices.  It’s always fun to see a mom or a volunteer or a student teacher come in and watches in amazement (jaws hitting the floor) as children clean their plates from a fresh salad and they are fighting to get the last of it.

They do this because they make it themselves, and not from a bag, either.  No, they grow it in our gardens, clean and chop the veggies, mix the dressing, and toss it themselves.

Yes, we teach children the skills they are going to need in LIFE, not just in school.

Book of the Week-Pancakes for Breakfast

Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaolo is a fabulous book! It tells it's own story with no words. That was my first thought, however there are words. Strategically placed into the pictures to assist in telling the story. However, you don't need to know the words to understand what is happening.

I am a fan of all of Tomie dePaolo books. I love his illustrations the most. This one has to be my all time favorite; although I do enjoy them all, I'm not quite sure why, but I love this one.

The best time to use this is for something like pajama day when we make pancakes for lunch. It's a perfect book to talk about recipes and how to make things. It also illustrates to the children that these ingredients don't just come from a store...eggs come from chickens, milk comes from cows, etc...

Whether you sit with a child and read through it with them;,or leave it on the library shelf for them to look at on their own, this is a fabulous book. For older children, it can be expanded on curriculum to write the words together. For younger children, it's such an encouragement to just look at books.

A favorite of mine. It'll become a favorite of yours, too. Unfortunately, there is no picture of the author, therefore I am including one for you:

Cooking activities

I love cooking in the classroom. I have at least one activity every other week if not more often. We have done the jello to a home made salad from our garden. Mini pizza's a great! We made mashed potatoes one year as well. We never make things from boxes, everything is from scratch.

So, when we made egg salad one day for lunch, we made the mayonnaise (egg whites, oil, lemon juice) and boiled and peeled the eggs ourselves. I brought in a bag of potatoes to peel (using our fine motor and eye-hand coordination skills), cut up into cubes (for the most part the teachers did this, but we did allow some very capable children help while strongly supervised), and then, after boiling, we mashed the heck out of them.

We made a cake one year as a going away party for an assistant teacher, made from scratch. What was even more impressive about that was that the children managed to keep it a surprise for more than 1 week! We also made lemonade and sold it to the parents and the rest of the center as they came to pick up their children. A great lesson in math and money.

I will go into more details in how to do a cooking activity in the near future; and we will finish up our observation to lesson planning soon as well. Today, however, I want some suggestions:

What kind of cooking activities have you done? Leave the recipe as well so others can share with their classrooms as well.