Regie Rainbow visits our class!

Since we finished our visits to all the islands of healthy fruits and vegetables, Regie Rainbow came to visit our class. She encouraged the children to keep eating healthy fruits and vegetables and to try new and different foods during meals. The children were so excited to meet Regie Rainbow in person after learning about all the islands of color!

After Regie left, we made our island of purple recipe. We cut up lots of healthy vegetables and made ratatouille soup. Here's the link:

http://pin.it/hSRVqn4

The children enjoyed cutting up the eggplant, the zucchini and the tomatoes. As we cut the vegetables, we discussed why Regie would like this recipe. The children decided Regie would like the ratatouille soup because it had lots of vegetables and nothing sweet. "We don't put sugar in our soup!"

Through our cooking experiences the last few weeks the children have expanded their palates by tasting many new fruits and vegetables; practiced their cooking skills by cutting, measuring and mixing ingredients; and developed patience and self-confidence by waiting their turn. Our cooking experience have also engaged them on a sensory level, as they have been able to smell interesting ingredients like bay leaves and thyme, mixed ingredients by hand (very clean hands) and watch ingredients mix together to change in texture. We look forward to continuing with our cooking experiences the rest of the semester. 

Our Classroom Map

While the children were gone over winter break, we rearranged the furniture in the classroom. When the children returned, they were looking for materials and objects. One of the ways we helped the children find what they were looking for was by creating a map of the classroom. At first the children drew their own maps on paper, then we combined their maps together on one large poster-size board. 

Lily had many details of the classroom in her drawing including the art table and the snack table. Lily's drawing also included the "hanging thing in the bathroom that you and Ms. Masserant always hit."

Finally the children were given a poster with the outline of the classroom and asked to create individual objects for the map and place them in relation other objects in the classroom. As they worked on  drawing the shelves, tables and cubbies, they included many details that were important to them. They noticed mirrors on the backs of shelves, baskets tucked under shelves, and the vases of dried flowers on a shelf in the art area.

While this mapping experience encourages the children to look at details, the children are also developing spatial and directional language; strengthening their fine motor skills and enhancing their ideas about perspective. By extending this experience over many weeks, the children are revisiting and refining their ideas and using other children's work to add more details to their own work.