Baggie Books

The other night in class I learned about "baggie books" This is probably the coolest and easiest thing I have learned about in a long time. This is what you need....Baggies, and pick the sandwhich baggies. I tried to get the bigger size and they all have writing on the baggie so you can add a date. You want to make sure there is no writing on the baggie. Cardstock cut to a tad smaller than the baggie. Then you can use anything you want to decorate the pages. I used the foam pieces and pictures. I like the foam pieces because they are raised up and it gives the children a different sense to 'read' the book to. You will need a stapler to staple the edges and some thick tape. I used different colors of duct tape.

I placed the photos on the cut to size paper.

I then added words, pictures, and the foam stickers. I placed the pages into the baggies and stapled the edge. Make sure the opening to the bag is to the left of the page....the zipper opening is to go where the binding goes.

Once you staple, cover the edge with duct tape. I love the colors!

I put about 3 or 4 layers. Sometimes the staples don't close all the way so the tape helps cover the pointy part of the staples. Then cut off the edge that hangs over the top of the book.Here are a few pages of another book I made. By the way....Wellington is our friend from England. We are doing a pen pal deal with the 'Cheeky Monkey' daycare. I still have another book to make. We swapped out stuffed animals and then we take pictures of the different places the animals went and send a book so the kiddos can see different places through the animals!! Cool huh? Our guy that is in England is named Washington and she has taken him to Egypt!!! I will post pics of that book when it arrives.

staying cool outside....

It's been in the high 80's low 90's here in Bellevue and it makes for a very uncomfortable afternoon. The best way to beat this is to add water. Super messy, but very needed and welcomed! They were throwing water at each and watering plants and themselves :) There are quite a few pictures here and are of no great meaning, other than pure joy. Enjoy mamas and papas! Have a super weekend!!

Lemons

This week we are talking aobut lemons and limes. At circle time we held them, talked about the differents sizes, colors, shapes, and textures. We brainstormed ideas of things you could make with lemons....muffins, lemonade, pie, sandwiches, mush, juice, etc. We then wanted to see what was inside. This is what we found. Lemons were yellow on the outside and yellow on the inside...we found seeds, juice, and pulp (new word). The limes were the same on the inside but were green like they were green on the outside. We then cut open the key lime. It was the smallest and green like the lime, but different from the lemon. Then.........

We tasted them. I thought for sure that they would hate it and never want to taste it again. WRONG...they made sour faces, but loved them. They loved the lemon, loved the lime..ewww for me....and loved the key lime...really ewww for me.

We then took them to the blue table and painted with them. Some made prints, some painted their hands, some used them to brush along the paper, but ALL smelled very yummy!! We liked the way our lemon paintings smelled!

Tomorrow....we will zest lemons for lemon bars and then cut our lemons in half, squeeze them out, add sugar and water, and drink up!!! Yummm!

On a plane trip

Today was a pretty calm day, I only had 7 children. At this point when they started building the airplane there were only 5. Olivia was in charge. She set it up, directed everyone where to sit, and was in charge of getting them there safely. When I asked "Where are you going?" She bolted out "ALABAMA! We are going to see Daddy Hall. I am going to show everyone pictures in a minute so they know who we are seeing. Everybody sit down, here we go!" Notice she filled all the empty seats with animals and babies.

Armaan is making sure the squirrel is okay and Loralei is holding on tight to baby. There was alot of play and imagination that went on here. Not to mention the amazing negotiation skills that Olivia has. Some of the kids would get tired of sitting there, but Olivia made sure she inticed them with something new and exciting. When Dylan and Lexi got there, they were very excited to go flying and they uped the anti a bit by getting dressed up. So then everyone was getting dressed and undressed and dressed again for the plane ride to Atlanta. Then the play took a dramatic turn..........
They crashed. The crashed hard and everyone was dead...and alive, and dead, and alive, and dead. I love how Dylan placed the chair on top of himself. They played crash for a while and eventually moved to something different. They were in this airplane mode for a few hours. It was great. I loved listening to the stories they made up and acted out. I didn't really involve myself too much unless someone was going to get hurt, I just let them be. All this role playing is great for them to try things out in 'pretend' that they might not be able to try out in real life. It gives them different senareos to try out...see what works, see what doesn't work. It is also very important for them to act out death, pretend someone is hurt...or dead...so that when real sitiations come up they might have better skills to deal with it.

I loved our morning! So did the kids. :)

Eggs!

It is that time of year again where we crack eggs. 2 rules...keep it in the bowl, and DO NOT put your hands in your mouth. We watch them closely and for the most part they follow the rules. Of course....keeping it in the bowl is hard, and I know that, so I don't care when they get it on their clothes, the floor, their hair...etc. I just keep giving them gentle reminders to keep it in the bowl. I do this every year and the children love it. This is about an hour project. They work in 2s and between them they crack about 3 dozen. When they are done cracking they start mooshing and dripping, and exploring their bowl full of eggs. It is quite the experience to watch. Olivia, who has been with me for over 3 years now....looks forward to it!! Even Lainey who is now 8 came to join in!

At first they cracked all the eggs into the bowl and put the shells into the crate. When they were done cracking they added the shells!

I am pretty sure Alondra would have gotten in if we let her :) Of course...Quinn is the last one. I think he was the last one last year too. I will have to go back and check. Here he is pretending his hand is a claw of some sort of bulldozer.....and here he is picking it up with his 'claw'. I washed all the clothes for you parents! :) I didn't think you would like dried on eggy clothes.