Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty  with the Busy Bees was anything but something that you might snooze through.  It was such a hoot!  Since I had already shared with them The Nutcracker back in December, we reviewed a little about Tchaikovsky, orchestras and ballet.  I taught them a few ballet steps-- releve, plie and jete.  We discussed that boys can participate in ballets too!  I told them about how strong males were in ballet. We found Russia again on the globe.

We also discussed who authors are and how Sleeping Beauty was written by the Brothers Grimm. We discussed how people have taken that story and written it themselves into different versions of the story.  We looked at several different copies of this book from the library, noticing what was the same and different.  

We also talked about what a character is and identified the ones in Sleeping Beauty.  Then we headed off to the table to color and cut character puppets from the story.  (This is shown in the first picture below, after the videos). Afterwards for math, we put numbers on the back of the puppets and discussed ordinals.  This way the kiddos could take their puppets home and know which came first, second, third and fourth in retelling the story in a puppet show.   

While the kids we were working at the table, they had the funniest conversation! It started with Noah and Sydney saying they wanted to be paleontologists when they grew up.  At which point Syd chimed in that she was going to be a paleontologist AND a mom. Noah, not to be outdone, then announced that he was also going to be a dad of 90-20 kids! Calli pipes up that she is going to be a missionary. Paige says she is going to be a mom. Ryder says he wants to be a basketball player.  Lincoln says he doesn't know. I say, fair enough. :)

On Wednesday, it was showtime! Below is our very own Sleeping Beauty production. Props were child-made-- the boys cut and glued together swords and the girls cut and glued together flowers.

Math (pictured above)... Aurora sleeps for 100 years in the story. We made 100 by each child counting out 10 bears and making a group of 10. (I did the extras to equal 100). Then we made 10 groups of 10 to show what 100 is. We wrote the number 10 on a post it note by each group.

Art (shown below)... Tchaikovsky painting.

The kiddos working on their props for our ballet/play! 

California Pizza Kitchen

 What an awesome field trip to CPK!! First, everyone (including siblings) got to create their own pizza. 

 Then, we all got to tour the kitchen.  Pat was great with the kids, and let them see everything. 

 The pizza's waiting for the kiln.

 

The dough press. 

 The prep station.  Little did we know, those yummy pizza's were for the mommy's.  :)

 Some of the pizza's getting cooked.  They move them around the entire time so they get cooked evenly. 

 The chopping area.  All their veggies are fresh and chopped daily.

 Salad station and cooking area.

 The fridge.  Wouldn't that be awesome to have at home?!  To the right of Pat, is the freezer.  Some of the kids braved the frigid room.

 The bread slicer.

 The kids watching their pizza's being cooked.

 Brunch. Nothing like a scrumptious pizza right after breakfast! 

 CPK was great.  They treated us so well.  We all got drinks and lots of pizza.  Amazing that this was all free!! 

Piggy Pancakes

Peter Rabbit

We discussed the healthy foods that peter rabbit ate!       -Christine

Jack and the Beanstalk - Part 2

In the book Jack and the Beanstalk (in case you forgot like I did), Jack climbs the beanstalk to a castle in the sky.  After he meets the Giant, he takes the chicken that lays the golden eggs and the magical harp.  After we read the book, all the kids got to climb the beanstalk and retrieve their golden egg. 

 Some of them were a little hesitant to go to the top, so the Giant (me) handed the egg to them on the ladder.

 Enjoying the goodies that were found inside the golden eggs.

Since it was raining outside, we had quite a few entertaining puppet shows.  Sam the snake, Larry the Lizard and quite a few golden-egg-laying birds made their debut.

 We ate 'Giant' carrots on a specially made train.

 "Choo Choo"

 We made bunny/chicken finger puppets.  Most of them looked like crazy alien puppets because of their color choices, but that's what makes them original.

We had a great time this week.  A little crazy at times, but nothing out of the ordinary or unexpected.

Jack and the Beanstalk

 This week we read the classic book, Jack and the Beanstalk.  Actually, we watched someone else read the book.  I thought it would be a fun change, and there are so many different versions of the book.  Sydney couldn't even be in the same room when the giant was spoken of.  I forget how sensitive little girls are (I remember being that way when I was little).

  After we 'read' the book, we all got a magic bean and talked about how seeds turn into plants/vegetables.

 

We went out to the garden and looked at the different stages of growing plants- seeds that you can't see in the ground, some that are just barely germinating and some that are HUGE (sugar snap peas). 

 

The kids couldn't believe how tall the peas were.  They loved how they started growing up the next door neighbors tree that leans over into our yard. 

They all got to pick some peas and try them.  Too bad I didn't have any beans growing - oh well, they basically grow the same way, and peas are much better to eat right out the garden anyway.  

After the garden tour the kids stayed outside for playtime.  It's so fun to watch these kids play together.  They've become such good friends.  Don't get me wrong, there are a few tiffs and taddlings going on, but I tell them unless someone is hurt, they have to work it out.  Much to my surprise, they usually can work through it.  Such big kids.  Sad to say my son is the instigator to much of the tiffs - if he acts like he does at my house, at your houses, you have my full permission to spank him! 

 After we came in from snacks and playing, we found the note that the giant wrote to these cute kids.

 

 He walked on our wall, so the kids got to pick a footprint to use for their measurements.

 The kids ran around the house measuring things that were longer, shorter and the same size as the giant's footprint.  They would find something, and then run back to me and I would write it on our list. I think they had fun with this activity.

 Then we took the other pair to each footprint and made "mosaic bean art" - glued beans to the footprint.  Saying that it's mosaic makes it become "real" art, right?. :)

 The masterpieces - Lincoln, Ryder, Sydney and Paige

 More artwork - Evan, Noah, Bronwen and Calli

Of course, Mrs. Doubtfire, the weather lady made a visit to preschool again.  Ask your kids about her; they think she's hilarious and it makes them crazy that I won't admit that it's actually me. :)  I love to ruffle their feathers.  

We have a fun surprise for them on Wednesday.