Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Dr. Seuss and Smell

The week of Dr. Seuss' birthday we had a little fun.  Along with reading a few of his books and doing some Dr. Seuss related activities, we had a special lunch one day.


"Thing One and Thing Two"

"One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish" - Candy fish in blue jello (water)
 
 
"Pink ink for the Yink"

"The Cat in the Hat"

Morgan
 
Walker

Hunter
 
We did a little project with smell last week.  Each cup contained a cotton ball that had been scented.  There was a match for each scent.

Each cup was labeled with a shape or a letter that they all recognized...Morgan and Walker don't know what numbers look like yet, so this worked better than numbering them.

I had them smell each cup and tell me what they thought it smelled like, as well as if it smelled like a different cup they had already smelled.  On their dry erase boards they made a chart of which cups had matching smells.

 
Walker recognizes about 10 letters now and can write W, M, I, and H.  Hunter knows all his letters and sounds and is reading short words.  They all are excited when school starts every morning.
 
Rachel

Saturday, March 8, 2014

School Again

A while back we did a science experiment.  We washed pennies.  We came up with a list of things that might work to clean them and they each told me what they thought would work best.  We tried water, soap, salt water, lemon juice, vinegar, vinegar and salt, and taco sauce.  I put some of each in separate cups and then we dropped the pennies in.  After a few minutes, we took them out to compare.

Vinegar and salt worked best, so the next day they got to wash them with that.
 
They all looked about like the dark ones there.  The clean one is one somebody washed.

Morgan showing a penny she was washing.

I got them each a dry erase board from the Dollar Tree.  They love them :)  We were doing addition in this picture.
 
Walker

While we were doing school one morning, Tanner was enjoying himself in the toy cupboard :)

 
Most mornings they are wondering when it's time for school.  Though when I bring out the alphabet flash cards Morgan usually gets grumpy..it's not so bad once we get going :)  And they're learning new letters slowly but surely!

Rachel

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Pig Cookies!

Grandma Kulla always made turkey cookies for Thanksgiving.  I remember at least once, probably after Saturday night sauna, Grandma had taken pig cookies out of the freezer for us.  Yum!  They are made with the same recipe as turkey cookies.  I got her pig cookie cutter.  And a while back I finally used it!
 
It's a 3 day process.  This time I did it in 2 days.  The dough is supposed to refrigerate overnight, but instead I finished it in the morning and baked them in the evening.

 
They are time consuming.  The dough must stay cold, so you take a little bit at a time and leave the rest in the fridge.  Plenty of flour so the dough doesn't stick.  The ears on the left side were prone to come off when I picked up the cookie cutter too quickly..or was taking the dough out of the cookie cutter because it stuck to it.  They reattached themselves while they baked.

 
While they are still hot, you put a warm glaze on them.  With each step taking so much time, and the baking only taking 5-8 minutes, the oven often sat empty, waiting for a new pan to be ready.

 
They disappeared quickly :)


Rachel