Old McDonald Had A Farm

What a fun week (I think I say that every week though). This week we learned all about where our food comes from and all the hard work farmers do for us. We sang "Old McDonald Had A Farm" more times than I think any one can count, found eggs the chicken laid with letters on them, had crazy popcorn for snack (pop popcorn with the lid off- it really does become crazy-the kids and the popcorn), worked on sound discrimination skills by shaking eggs with different items in them, read some great books about barnyards, pigs, ponies, and farm dancing, ground wheat to bake bread then baked bread, planted our own pea plants, and much more playing, dancing, running, etc. The children are becoming great friends and look out for one another.

Horrible picture but I just love the excitement showing in Boston's face. He sure loved pretending to be a farmer.
Farmer Kyler showing me his silly smile (this picture makes me laugh every time I look at it)

Gideon making a train out of puzzles. Boys and trains...

This week the kitchen area became a milk truck with three farmers delivering milk. The children came up with this idea on their own with no prompting except for our circle time about farms. This type of creative play engages them completely. Snack time is after play time which is about the only reason I could convince the farmers to leave their milk truck.

Finger painting mud for their pig pens.

Boston started by tentatively dipping a finger in the paint to swirl the colors around. After a while he delved in and eventually got both hands into action.

Lovin his messy hands!

The children watched in fascination as wheat kernels turned into flour. It was noisy though so they had to cover their ears.

Flour ready so onto the bread. The children did such a great job of taking turns and helping with the bread. I Hope they saved a bit for you to sample.

Our first "field trip" to Melissa Crumley's garden. I coudn't resist snapping a quick picture of them walking with their buddies.

The children wanted to know all about every single green sprout growing- what it was, how long it would take to grow, how it was planted, etc. Melissa's garden has recently been visited by bunnies so there wasn't quite as much growing but the children still enjoyed it and even got to see a lemon growing on the lemon tree.

Time to grow our own vegetables. First they had to make their pots their own.

Filling the pots with dirt.

Oh how they loved digging in the dirt.

Plant the seeds then water them and...

Ta Da! Growing our very own plants just like a farmer!