Tea for 3

Our newest three year olds celebrated with princess crowns

then laminated them and added an elastic band.

A tea party for the three-year-olds!

Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Muffins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl:

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1-1.5 tsp cinnamon

1/2-3/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1.5 cup white sugar

Add wet ingredients and mix until just incorporated:

3 eggs

1/2 C oil

1.5 C of canned or fresh pumpkin puree

1/2 cup water

divide into paper lined muffin tins (makes about 2 dozen standard size muffins) and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until edges are brown and center is set.

Pomegranates

None of the children had ever (remembered) seeing or eating a pomegranate. Even with aprons on and towels every where I think I was cleaning up spots for days. But, they are so pretty and delicious (not to mention high in vitamins C, K and Folate).

Turkey Time

- Handprint turkey feathers with craft paint. Paper turkey faces with googlie eyes.-

-Letter tracing and feather coloring with crayons.-

Fall Corn

(listening for the first popping sounds!)

Veteran's Day

I find that it is often difficult to teach young children about veterans and the military. But their brave service is too special to disregard. Typically it seems that those figures are most easily described something like fire fighters or police- people who are brave and help others.

After discussing the flag and looking at photos of service men and women, we played this counting game. Each player has a sheet of stars and takes a turn rolling a 6 sided die. The children counted the die and colored in the corresponding number of stars.

Apples

-paper cut outs from story time at the library-

While our apple week crafts weren't able to correspond with our trip to apple hill, they were still a lot of fun. A simple coloring page is so much more fun with messy paint. It is a weekly must do. Our story time teacher Ms. Chris prepared the apple cutouts and they were a big hit. The children had a great time personalizing their apples. Glueing big and small shapes helps with thier fine motor skill development.

Q-Tip Tree Painting

We spent some time in the morning admiring the changing colors on the trees. 'Lots and lots of little dots' is what my art history teacher would say over and over whenever discussing pointillism. I might have mentioned it a few times during art time, today.

It was our first try at q-tip painting. And what a big hit. The girls loved it. While not exactly earth friendly (non of the q-tips can be washed and reused) they are much easier for little hands to control and quite a bit neater than the regular foam brushes. Also, super inexpensive- so little ones can use 10 or 20 on one project and it isn't a big deal.

Product Recommendation: Stacking Robots

These wooden robots are lots of fun for all of my 2+ children. They are pretty noisy once tipped over, but there are so many different combinations that they never seem to become boring. The children learn through play about colors, patterns, symmetry and physics. I recommend getting (at least) two sets.

(Order from Amazon.com)

Ice Cream Alphabet

Each lower case letter is represented on a scoop of "ice-cream" while each upper case letter is written on a "cone." The children had a great time matching letters then spelling words.

Field Trip: Nimbus Fish Hatchery

I remember being this age and visiting this hatchery often. It was so much fun to watch the children point and scream every time a giant fish leaped up and onto the next ladder section. They really enjoyed it. We did skip the tour that includes artificial spawning- I have to say I still feel awful when I see the rangers gutting all those fish (I know it is is for the greater good, yada yada).

Gratitude, Day 1

Thank You, November! (It is Gratitude Month)

Have I mentioned, lately, how much I love the holidays? Though if I could have a say, I think Thanksgiving and Halloween should switch places. Perhaps then the children would be a little more grateful for the handfuls of free candy they receive from neighbors.

This month we will be practicing gratitude more than ever- daily gratitude "journals" (or one word-ers for the little ones) and lots of thank you role play.

Parents.com also has a great list of ideas to help make gratitude part of every day, not just a Thanksgiving day.