Eating Green!

We talked a lot about colors and rainbows during our St. Patrick's Day theme, especially green. A fun science activity is showing the kids how to make green by mixing yellow and blue, and a delicious way to do this it with food! It's a pretty similar activity we did with our squish bags, but much tastier!
This is an idea that I borrowed from a great blog called Little Fingers Big Dreams!

Targets
Vocabulary- Green
Pre-science experiments
Requesting
Basic concepts- full/empty, more/same

First, we gathered our tasty ingredients-vanilla frosting, food coloring, graham crackers, plus 2 clear bowls, a spoon.

We started by putting the white frosting into the clear bowls.

We talked about all the senses--how it looked and smelled (yummy!). It was also a time to do a quick look at the concepts full/empty and more as we put frosting in one bowl and not the other (empty), then just a little in the other so that one had more and finally having the same amount in each bowl.

Next, we made some yellow frosting by putting food coloring in (we even snuck in a quick counting task by counting out 5 drops!)

and the kids got a chance to stir (and practice saying "he is stirring").

Same with making the blue frosting.

Then the students requested a plate ("I want a plate") and a graham cracker ("I want a cracker"). [And, what shape is a graham cracker?--a rectangle! sneaky way to talk about shapes ;)].

More requesting--"I want blue" "I want yellow" "I want a spoon"

Then, we all got to mixing--yellow + blue = green!

The best part--eating the green!

.

Valentine's Day Sweet Hearts

We are pretty aware of and take precautions with our students with allergies. So, when it came time to have our Valentine's Day party cooking activity, I was pretty cautious about what I choose. Finally, I came up with a tortilla sweet heart!

Targets
Vocabulary- Hearts
Size concepts- small, smaller, smallest; big, bigger, biggest
Fine motor skills-- pushing, pulling, squeezing
Requesting

First, I gathered our materials--

some tortillas (that we warmed up before each group's turn), sugar-free, squeezable jelly, sunflower butter (to avoid those peanut butter allergies!), Nutella (a.k.a. heaven), heart-shaped cookie cutters and napkins/knives/plates, etc.

Each child first requested thier tortilla ("I want tortilla") and we talked about it being shaped like a circle.
Next, they requested a cookie cutter--we had reviewed the sizes as our tortillas were being heated.
We helped the kids take turns pushing onto their tortillas to cut out thier heart shape.

 Next, they requested what they wanted on thier tortilla ("I want chocolate," "I want [fake] peanut butter," "I want strawberry") and they helped squeeze or spread it on.

Last-we ate! I personally thought our Sweet Hearts were pretty yummy!

We ended with our little class parties where the kids brought Valentine cards and treats for their friends. It was a lot of fun!! This was a great way to end our Valentine's Day theme. Our next theme will focus on Rooms of the House.

Happy Valentine's Day!