School News: Fair School

Today Isabel’s class went to “Our Towns” Fair School. Despite the rain coming down there was a large turn out and Isabel enjoyed it. Mrs. W was there to greet us and then she turned the class over to a guide, who took us on tour at the Fair School. Enjoy!

The first barn, our guide explained where food in our state is grown, what kinds of foods are grown, and then let the kids explore the room with help from the parents.

Isabel and I started with a few books and then moved onto vegetable magnets.
We stopped to work on this farm puzzle too.

We also stopped at the vegetable table and got to identify different vegetable’s that grow in our area. Here Isabel is holding an onion. Isabel and I didn’t get to continue around the room here because we needed to move on to the next barn.

 

In the next barn we learned how a farm takes wheat from a seed, plants it, harvests it, mills it, sifts it, kneads it, and then makes it into something good to eat!

Isabel is working on identifying the different parts of a shaft of wheat from the roots to the head. She did this on her own and did it correctly! She was paying attention!

Getting some seed kernels to put in the miller or grinder.

Giving that grinder a crank and milling the wheat.

After we grind the wheat we would sift it.

After sifting it, we would knead it into a dough and then…

We could make pasta like this or like…

… this! Or we could make bread or cereal or any other yummy things to eat with wheat.

 

After this we headed over to the last barn which is the petting barn. Where we saw chickens that lay white eggs, chickens that lay brown eggs, a HUGE male turkey (that scared Isabel when it gobbled!), runner ducks, ducklings, goats, alpacas, sheep and lambs, and bunnies (even kits too!).

This is the largest bunny that they have… and I forget the name of it.

This is an Angora bunny. So fluffy!

Petting alpaca’s… I think Isabel was trying to feed it but the lady told her not to put her hands by it’s face because they like to jump and kick.

Pygmy goat. Does she look nervous to you, too?

The whole class (plus 2 siblings) that was in attendance.
Back row standing left to right: Payton, Addie, Nevan, Aiden, and Ja’Siah
Front row seating left to right: Zackary, (unknown sibling), Rebecca, Lilliana, Isabella, (unknown sibling), Dany, Mila, Devan, Isabel, Emily, and Ezzra

Afterward we washed our hands, thanked our “teacher-guide” for the guided tour, and told Mrs. W good-bye.

We learned a lot and had fun at the Fair Farm!

School News: Letter W

Today is only Wednesday and for some reason I keep thinking that it’s Friday! This Friday however Isabel and her class will be going on a field trip to the “Fair”. I will share more on Friday!…

The Bible story was from Genesis 1:20-23 and was about Creation. The story was about the birds and the fishes Isabel said.

The letter “W” is for wagon, whack, water, and wiggly worms.

Keeping with the theme for the week of new life. Today they cut out birds and then Mrs. W and Mrs. Standfield folded the birds and added a stick.

Isabel named her bird “Birdie”.

Since it has been raining since Sunday, today they went to the gym for recess. Isabel said she was excited to go there because she likes running around in there. They played “sailors and sharks” and “Duck-duck-goose”. They also had a “stranger danger” drill today in case a bad person came to school to hurt them or their friends while there in class. They practiced by locking the doors, pulling the blinds closed, turning out the lights, and were very quiet.

The special helper today was Nevan. They didn’t have time for Nevan to do his show and tell because they had to do the “stranger danger” drill. So Isabel said he will probably do his show and tell next week. Which is unfortunate because next week is spring break! Poor Nevan. For snack, Nevan brought to share, fishy crackers and juice.

Homemade Play Dough

We finally ran out of play dough a few months ago and I have been wanting to make a batch of my own. I remember making it when I was in high school for the Sunday School class that I taught. This morning however, I made some simple cooked (I’ve never made a cooked dough before) play dough. When I first began to make it, I didn’t think it was going to work out (to runny) but after a few minutes it turned into dough rather quick in the pan. After taking it off the stove and out of the pan (with rubber gloves, it was HOT!) it turned out rather nice. I like the texture, smell,  and cleaning up any play dough bits stuck in hard to reach places is simple; just rinse under warm water! Also, I like that if at any point the dough begins to dry out, which happened several times. Just stop what your doing and gather all the dough in a ball and work it for a few minutes. Unlike the store bought dough, when it dries up it’s thrown away. So we’ll see…

Simple ingredients for this dough, baking soda, corn starch, and water. I cut the recipe in half because I did’t have enough baking soda which ended up making a good amount for Isabel to play with.

Loading up her shape maker for stars, circles, and crescent.

Stars to begin with.

Now it’s circles. Your hands do tend to pick up bits of dough as you play with it but that washes off very easily.

Later she made a pie with eyes. What fun!

School News: Bird Nest

Today the sky was a gorgeous blue when we headed out to class this morning. When I left the house to go pick Isabel up from class the clouds had rolled in and filled in all the pretty blue with grey. I was sad to see the sun and blue sky go.

The Bible story was from Matthew 13:1-23 and was the parable of the sower and the birds that ate the seeds that fell on the path.

The class talked all about birds and nests that they build. They talked about peacocks and got to to see and feel real peacock feathers. They read the story of “The Best Nest” by P.D. Eastman. Afterward they built their own bird nests on paper with feathers, paper, and bits of plastic strips.

Isabel’s nest it has red feather’s under all the paper.
The two round circles are the birds in her nest.

They worked in their Monday morning alphabet journals and worked with the letter “W“. “W” is for watermelon. Today during recess Isabel and Makayla played hide and go seek. When I asked her if anyone else wanted to play she said the others were not around to play so her and Makayla played together. During free play Isabel played with Eden, Addie, and Olivia. Isabel said that Olivia, Addie, and her were pretending to be puppies. Eden was the mommy of the puppies. Eden was a good mommy she said.

The special helper today was Ja’Siah. For show and tell Ja’Siah brought 5 dinosaur’s and 1 of them was a T-Rex! For snack, Ja’Siah brought to share Go-Gurt®, graham crackers, and fruit punch.

School News: Special Helper

Today was Isabel’s special helper day and I along with Olivia’s mom and sister were the Mommy helper.

Today started out with morning prayer and special helper Isabel pointing out the months letters, numbers, shapes, and color, on the bulletin board and…

The Bible story today was from Luke 13:18-20 and was the story of the mustard seed.

Afterward we headed over to the tables to plant seeds in cups.

It’s blurry!… special helper Isabel and special helper friend Makayla.

After getting the seeds in the cups they each got to water their seeds. The seed cups were then placed in the window to grow!

Rebecca giving her seeds some water.

After planting our seeds we headed outside to play.

Girls swinging all together.

Nevan and Zackary.

Emily looked so cute on her bike with her pig-tails.

After heading back into the classroom Mrs. W read a story while the snack was being prepared.

The story today was about a Musk Ox and was about a musk ox who thought that he was unusual from his horns on his head to his fur on his back. The little musk ox gets separated from the herd and in the time it takes him to find them again. He realizes that he is special and that his horns have a purpose and even the fur on his back! God made you special and he loves you very much!

After reading the story and talking a bit with the class, Mrs. W asked everyone what they wanted to be when they grew up…
Devan – army soldier
Zackary – race car driver
Olivia – cow girl
Presley – astronaut
Isabel – doctor
Emily – teacher and a cook
Rebecca – cowgirl
Makayla – super girl
Nevan – (he didn’t answer)
Dany – race car driver
Aiden – policeman (a good guy)
Lilliana – police woman
Ezzra – author and a baker
Payton – cowgirl
Isabella – vet
Mila – planter (like flowers)
Ja’Siah – help the soldiers (like his dad)

Afterward, they headed over to the tables (as fish – special helper Isabel’s idea) to have their snack. After eating their snack Mrs. W had them do a project for her for their journals. They were given a piece of blank paper. On the front top of the paper they were to write their name and then draw a picture of themselves. Then flip the paper over and draw a square and then cut a line (but do not cut the paper completely off) along the bottom. I was helping others work on their papers and didn’t get to see Isabel’s before she handed it in. When they were finished they could enjoy free play until the bell.

The special helper today was Isabel! For snack Isabel brought to share, blueberry muffins and grape juice to share. For show and tell she brought…

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Tumbling Tykes: Day 8

A lot of review and something new today in tumbling/gymnastics. The 4 foot balance beam!

To warm up the class, Ms. Mo had them work on all the routines they did last week. The airplane, the rock-n-roll, and the candlestick. She also had them running in place to get their hearts going.

They did the obstacle course again today. Beginning with the floor level balance beam, doing donkey kicks or the forward roll, then doing more balance beam work, crawling through the long tunnel, doing a handstand, and ending with the 4 ft. balance beam.

Working with Ms. Mo on the floor level balance beam.
Need to work on keeping those arms up!

Practicing those donkey kicks.

Ms. Mo had a name for this pad but I can’t remember now…balance beam work. The trick was to keep from falling off because the mat was so squishy.

Heading into the long tunnel.

She’s finally able to show Ms. Mo that she can do the handstand as well now.
Only 3 of the kids in class are able to do this and Isabel is one of them!

First try on the balance beam.

She made it to the end, now what?
I didn’t get a photo of the dismount… it was to blurry.

Practicing the log roll. Notice her feet are not together… she was rushing through it.

2nd of 3 tries on the 4 foot balance beam. She did great. Ms. Mo was very proud of the class for being so confident on the beam!

Great job!