Snack Counting

Once the kiddos have their initial snack, they welcome to ask for seconds, but it's gonna take some work!  They are usually wanting additional crackers, so I ask them if they would like 5 more crackers or 10 more crackers.  Then they get to count the crackers as I drop them into their bowl.

This kiddo was recounting his 5 crackers...

Summer Camp - Bees

Circle Time - We talked about the body parts of a bee and compared them to spiders to see what is different.  We discovered that bees are hairy too!  The kiddos each drew a bee on their white board.  They were so cute, I wish I had had them draw their bee on paper.   Here are a few bees from my older group.  We worked on getting the 3 body parts, 6 legs, 2 wings, 2 large eyes and the hair.  They did great!

Now for some Bee Science - First we learned about how bees collect pollen.  They roll around on the flowers and it gets all stuck in their "fur".  Then they carefully comb their "fur" with their legs and gather all the pollen on their back legs and pack it into stiff hairs call pollen baskets.  That's how they take it back to the hive.

We decided to give this a try.  We got flowers (cupcake wrappers) with lots of pollen in them (crushed graham crackers) and we got a big fat bee (marshmallow) and rolled our bee around in the pollen (after licking it, because sadly, our marshmallow bees don't have any hair) and then we ate them!  Yummers!

With my older kiddos we tried a second pollen experiment.  We used Cheetos! They already stick so well to our fingers, we figured that was similar to bees and pollen too!  It worked really well, we wiped our Cheeto fingers on a cotton ball (bee).

For our next experiment we learned about bee's tongues.  They aren't like ours.  They are more like a straw and they are called a proboscis.  So we tried out having a proboscis (straw) for a  mouth...

Once we had that down, we tried using a proboscis to get some nectar...

We also talked about how bees make honey.  They collect the nectar from the flowers and swallow it to a honey stomach.  When they return to the hive they spit up the nectar onto the mouth parts of a worker bee.  The bee then rolls the nectar around on its proboscis to evaporate some of the water.  Next he places it in a cell of the comb and stirs it with his proboscis and fans it.  Once all the extra water has evaporated, they cap the cell off with wax.  Taadaa!  Honey!  For snack I made homemade biscuits to smear honey on.  (See recipe in previous post.)

Backyard bug hunt - The kiddos enjoyed hunting for bugs again today.  The weather was warmer, so we found some!  The kiddos also created habitats for their captured bugs (we did release them at the end of camp today.)

Here is a little daddy long leg...

 Here is an ant ...

 Here is a rolly-polly...

 
Yarn Webs -  A couple of the kiddos enjoyed making yarn webs again.  They tied up the swing set pretty well...

Yummy, easy biscuits

This is a family favorite and they mix up really quick!  (I do it all in my KitchenAid mixer and then knead by hand.)

Stir together:

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking powder

Cut in:
1/3 cup cold butter

Stir in:
1 cup cold milk

Turn out onto a well floured surface and knead about 15 times.  Roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thickness and cut out biscuits with glass or cookie cutter.

Bake at 450 degrees for 8 to 12 minutes.

For flakier biscuits, make sure oven is fully preheated and keep biscuit dough cold while waiting.

Enjoy!

Summer Camp - Spiders

Today in camp we learned about spiders...

Circle Time - we talked about the parts of a spider and how they are different from insects.  We also talked about how they create their webs and about their spinnerets (organ on the backside of a spider that created their silk).

 

I had the kiddos draw an anatomically correct spider on their white boards.

Plate Webs - Using a paper plate and yarn, the kiddos wove their own webs.  Once they got their webs created, we used the classroom plastic insects (and then later a cotton ball to take home) to wrap up with web (yarn) to get stuck in our web.

 

They turned out really cute and were fun to create!

Snack - For snack today we created webs from cooked spaghetti noodles and spiders from black olives.  A little goofy, but fun.  The kiddos loved eating the pasta.

Sticky Spider Web - I created, for the kiddos, a sticky web (masking tape) to get insects (paper balls) stuck in.  They had a blast throwing the paper into our web. 

Sticky Web Science -  We tried a science experiment with webs today.  Using double sided sticky tape we created a web on our papers.

We talked about how spiders spin sticky strands and dry strands into their webs and they remember which is which so they don't get caught in their own web.

They also secrete a smidge of oil on their "feet" that makes the going easier as well.  So we tried that out.  We dipped our fingers in oil and .... sure enough!  It worked!  Our fingers did not stick to our web!

Backyard Spider Hunt - We found plenty of spiders in the yard.  But we didn't want to disturb any of their webs.  Can you see the spider hiding in his web below?

 So we just observed them and noticed their different kinds of webs.

Yarn Web -  I brought yarn out into the backyard with the idea of creating large yarn webs.  But the kiddos were happy just to run around and play.  This little guy had a blast simply cutting yarn pieces.

The Great Outdoors! - Oven S'mores!

Hey!  That rhymes!

After the kiddos "toasted" marshmallows around their safe, tp log fires, (see post) they wanted to have melty s'mores!  so we did! 

The kiddos layered their graham crackers with yummy goodness and I popped them in the oven under the broiler for just a minute or so.  Don't take your eyes off them, because they go from light brown to dark brown really fast!  But they were yummy!

The Great Outdoors! - S'more Mix

S'more Mix!  Easy-peasy and yummy!

milk chocolate chips
mini marshmallows
teddy grahams  (You could also use Golden Grahams)

The kiddos scooped a 1/2 cup of each and shook them up in their baggie.

I saw this idea on this blog.

Dinosaurs - Fossil Cookies

Today we made dinosaur fossil cookies!  We made sugar cookie dough, the kiddos helped me roll it out and cut out circles.  Then they got to walk dinosaurs through the dough...


This was a fun, yummy activity.

Gardens - "I can eat the whole plant!"

"We can eat the whole plant" - For snack today, we discovered how we can eat all of a plant.  Mind you, the kiddos didn't actually eat much of it.  Bummer!

Flower:  broccoli or cauliflower

Stem:  celery

Leaves:  lettuce

Roots: carrots

Seeds:  sunflower or pumpkin seeds (Ms. Sara forgot to buy these - drat!)

The kiddos drew pictures of each plant item on their paper and then tasted the plant items.

Ocean - Snack - Octo-dogs!

Snack - Today we created Octopus hotdogs!

The kiddos pushed spaghetti noodles (arms) into hotdogs (octopus body).

 I boiled them for about 10 minutes and we got these wonderful, tastey octo-dogs!

I happened to have some buns, so a few of the kiddos ate their octopus on a bun with ketchup.

Ocean - Sea Star Toast

Snack:  Sea Star Toast -  First we toasted our bread, second we buttered it, third we cookie cutter-ed out a star, fourth we sprinkled liberally, and fifth we devoured it!   Delish!


The kiddos LOVED this snack.

Spring - Worms

To continue our spring theme, we learned a bit about worms.

We of course made the traditional chocolate pudding and gummy worm snack...

 I had both regular gummy worms and sour gummy worms for the kiddos to try.  I was surprised that they liked the sour ones just as well.

  

 I also cooked a pot of spaghetti noodles for the kiddos to play with.  My fours pressed them gently onto brown paper and drew tunnels around them.  My threes just played and munched (below).

 

 A fabulous book to share:

 

Space - Moon Phases with Oreos!

This week we are studying space.  I saw this great idea on pinterest to talk about the phases of the moon using Oreos.  Unfortunately I didn't pin it at the time, so I have no link to give credit to.  Sorry about that.  Such a yummy learning activity!

Here is the set up (below).  During the tailend of snack, I talked with my fours about the moon.  I showed them the pictures in this book and asked what they had observed about the moon.  As we talked I opened a few Oreos and showed them how they could created a moon phase in their Oreo by scraping off part of the filling.

Here is one of my fours hard at work.  The kiddos really did a great job at creating recognizable moon phases, better than I thought they would.

 Once they had created a moon phase, they had to show me their creation and tell me which phase it was - and then they could gobble it up.

Left:  This four is showing the half moon she created.

Below:  The four phases of the moon that we talked about.

Dr. Seuss - Green Eggs For Snack!

 I let my fours explore a bit with their eggs.  They got to crack them and stir them up.  Then it was time to turn them green.  Oh dear!  Ms. Sara only has blue food coloring, what should we do?!  Ha!  The kiddos weren't worried a bit.  They were too smart for me.  They knew that blue and yellow make green!  And so it did!

The eggs do look a bit un-edible.  But they were eaten!  One of my fours would not try them for anything!  Ha!

By the way, we ate our green eggs in a house, with a mouse! 

Valentines - Soft Pretzel Hearts

Soft Whole Wheat Pretzels

Mix together & let sit:

1 cup warm water

2 TBS yeast

2 tsps honey

In a large saucepan, melt:

½ cup butter

Add and heat to 120 degrees:

2 ½ cups milk

½ cup honey

Then pour into yeast mixture.

Stir together and add by bits to yeast mixture:

8 cups whole wheat flour

4 tsps salt

Knead dough for 5 to 10 minutes.  Cover and let rise for 1 to 1 ½ hours.

Knead a few times to release air.  Pinch off a smallish  ball of dough (depending on the size of pretzel you want to create).   Roll into a long snake and shape.  Place on cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

Right when you take the pretzels out of the oven, slather them with butter and sprinkle with salt.

½ cup melted butter

salt

* made 75 smallish heart pretzels (15 to a jellyroll cookie sheet)

Original recipe  here.