Moving to Awesomeland

New season, new blog.  After 6 years on DMTotW, and 4 on VGP, I'm consolidating and giving my web presence, such as it is, a fresh face.  Both former blogs will stay up, but all personal and culinary content going forward will be at This is Awesomeland.  Come on over, at your leisure, and check it out.

PeeWee Field Trip: Water Fun

Last June, a few weeks before PeeWees ended, we had our final field trip - a simple picnic/water day at my house.  It was a great excuse to get a shade umbrella for our new patio table, which I went out and purchased that morning!

We broke out the baby pool, water table, and sprinkler ball.

 

PBJ sandwiches, watermelon, grapes, and pretzels rounded out the morning.  Our PeeWees just love to be together!

PeeWees: The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear (week 2)

From PeeWee mom Shaunel (very last PeeWee class)...

 

It's hard to imagine our weeks without PeeWees. It sure has been great to watch these kids mature and grow and become the best of friends.

We continued The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear this week.

Opening: Same wooden cutting food and thumb tacks. I was surprised how well both kept their attention, despite the repeat. The thumb tacks were much easier a second time around.

Circle: They sang the stand up song really well all by themselves (in honor of the last time). I love how they all do something silly during their stand up turn. So 3-year-old-ish :)

We tacked strawberries to the bulletin board as we counted. 14 and 15 were totally successful!!

We read the book, then I read them my version of The Little Pee Wees, the Giant Peach and the Big Hungry Bear. Poppy was the only who really understood the humor, everyone else kept asking what my drawings were of.

Snack: I had a bowl of fruit (peaches bananas strawberries) to try and get their brain ready to pick a fruit for their own story. They each chose a piece of fruit and then cut it in two, and shared half. We did 2 or 3 rounds and then we all made PB&J to cut into 4 pieces. I wanted them have a very basic intro to fractions. 4 people? How do we cut this into four equal parts?

Activity: I have a cute little "Bear Hunt" song from Westover, so we went on a bear hunt a couple of times--I had planned to also read the book, but ran out of time.
Art: Each of the kids then picked what fruit they would pick if they were in the story (Bodie and Jackson initially picked a car, but changed their mind by book time). We re-read my version of the homemade book, and then I gave them all their own to start illustrating. They each put their initial on the front and then picked a fruit. Some were much more into this than others (like normal), but Henry was fascinating. He kept stopping, and would pick up his book and read it saying "Dear Henry, I love you... (I can't remember what else)." He was the only one who really had the narrative idea down.

After most people were done, we went to "read" our books to each other. After Henry read his, I helped a few others tell the story, but then the kids took off and made up their own little stories. Very exciting.

Activity: We ended by going outside to play "No Bears are out Tonight"--an old night game from my youth where the "bear" hides and then runs out to tag someone while everyone else is singing the song. Of course, there was much screaming, rolling and tackling. They were adorable.

Afterward we said our goodbye chant and Moms came.

I was horrible with pictures. Glad Kari got a good group shot at the end.

 

 

PeeWees: The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear (week 1)

From PeeWee mom Shaunel...

 

The book was called: "The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear" by again my favorite duo, Don and Audrey Woods.

This book is definitely a family favorite. It's about a little mouse who picks a strawberry, and the narrator of the book scares him into thinking a big hungry bear will come and get it. The mouse tries hiding it, guarding it and disguising it, but the narrator says the only way to save it is to "cut it in two, share half with me, and we'll both eat it all up!"

We started out with the kitchen and food cutting (wooden food with velcro that can be "cut" with a knife). The kids did a really nice job cutting. We only had one wooden knife so most everyone used butter knives. Haley was content to just cook soup while the rest cut and baked their various veggies and fruits. When that got old, I had the kids use thumb tacks to tack up paper strawberries (the mouse guards the strawberry with some thumb tacks). Bodie and Poppy also brought out the farm animals--which even had a connection.

We counted strawberries, and found lots of S's (for strawberry) and sang our ABC's. I read the book 2 times with complete attention. Then we went on a hot/cold hunt for our package of strawberries we were eating for snack.

After washing our hands really well, we had snack. Each child was given a strawberry hulled and cut halfway down the middle. They then finished cutting it in two, and shared half with the person next to them. It was a huge hit. So much so, Jackson decided he now likes strawberries! Haley enjoyed the cutting, but not the eating (glad to know there are other kids who don't like them also). The mouse also eats some cookies with the strawberry, so we did the same thing with the cookies (cutting them in 2 and sharing half).

In the living room, I brought out a plastic mouse and showed them how giant a strawberry was for a little mouse. We pretended to be little mice, and I showed them 3 different sizes of strawberries, and they had to determine which one would be the real size of a strawberry if they were mice. They figured it out, and that became our strawberry for the rest of the day.

We hid the strawberry (more hot and cold--which they are getting so much better at!).

We guarded the strawberry, by building a wall around it.

We disguised the strawberry (crayons, markers and then paint)

And we cut the strawberry into 5

Ended with the goodbye song and I read the book again.

Overall, best day yet. 3 year olds are just easier to reason with. I think Jackson was the nicest he's ever been during pee wees (at our house). It was so nice!