After the carrot harvest this past weekend, it seemed like a great time to celebrate carrots and how much we love them with our co-op group today.
This is what we did...
(For more info on how we structure our preschool/kindy co-op days, check out this post.)
As everyone arrived we began kneading and shaping our bread dough for snack. This week's bread was, of course, carrot bread! I just used my basic bread recipe (which I will post soon), and for part of the liquid used carrots juiced in the Vitamix. I also grated some carrots for the kids to knead into the dough. They got right to work pulling balls of dough and shaping them...mostly into carrots!
Baking bread is such a wonderfully calming activity for the little ones, incorporating all their senses into the work at hand.
Here are some of our finished shapes ready to rise on the pan!
We also washed our carrots for snack. I set up a big bowl of water, a basket of carrots, a scrub brush and a place to put the clean carrots. A couple of the kids really got into this.
Snack prepped and bread rising, we had circle time, ending with one of my favorite stories for this time of year, the Story of Hugin and his Carrot. I found it here, and I'm so thankful they shared it! It's very similar to The Turnip, only it's about a little boy named Hugin, some forest animals, and involves a little root gnome. Maybe next year I'll make some little felt animals to act it out. The props I used today were a carrot and a little root gnome figure.
Then the little ones played while we got our project ready.
This little one is a born story teller, and one of his favorites is the Three Billy Goats Gruff, which he plays every week!
A beautiful day for a swing!
Our project this week was making little wooden gnomes figures with acorn caps. One parent had some wooden figures, and one had the acorn caps, so it seemed like a great idea! And no, we do not have oaks here, and so, sadly, no acorns either, but Melissa had a family member mail her some. :)
I thought of several possibilties for coloring the figures, and eventually settled on beeswax crayons, for the warming, tactile nature of the process. I heated the wooden peg people in the oven while each child came in, found a seat and choose a crayone. When you heat the wood first, the beeswax melts just a little, allowing it to be spread and rubbed in with the hands. (You can also heat them after applying the wax, and then rub it into the wood. Careful not to get anything too hot for little hands!
Once colored, we glued the little acorn caps on, and let them dry.
Then we set the table and enjoyed our bread and carrots!
Somehow the baby ended up with the biggest carrot...
But they were definitely enjoyed by all!
There was a little surprise at snack time today...Jen brought cupcakes to celebrate Cohen's first birthday! The kids were thrilled. We lit a candle and sang this song, inspired by the classic Montessori birthday celebration, while Jen walked Cohen around the candle:
"The earth goes round the sun, the earth goes round the sun, the earth goes round the sun and now Cohen is one!"
Then, of course, came the cupcakes and Happy Birthday Song.
Happy Birthday, Cohen!
Then it was time for clean-up and good-bye circle.
Our gnomes were dry and ready to take home, perfect for adding to the nature table, and of course, playing with!
And that's how we had fun with carrots today!
Comments