freckle juice!

I finished reading Freckle Juice with the kindergartens this afternoon. This is a great chapter book to read aloud to children who are making the transition from picture books to chapter books. It's not too long... only five chapters, and there are a lot of illustrations.

Here's the gist of the story: Andrew wants freckles, so he won't have to take as many baths. He buys a secret freckle juice recipe for 50 cents from Sharon, a conniving classmate. The ingredients are all normal household items, but when mixed together, they're disgusting.

I would know because today, in honor of finishing Freckle Juice, we decided to give Sharon's recipe a try!

We made it outside - I was anticipating a lot of excited shouting and the slim possibility of some urping, too. Here's a photo of the ingredients in a cooler: onions, lemon wedges, mayonnaise, mustard, pepper, salsa (a substitution for ketchup), olive oil, salt, vinegar, and grape juice. At this point, I was confident that no one was going to be brave (crazy?) enough to try whatever concoction we ended up with.

Here's an action shot of the olive oil going in. Mayo and grape juice give the mixture that lovely lavender shade... blech!

Some final stirring. Remember how I thought there was going to be shouting? I was completely wrong - the children were nearly silent with concentration. It could have been with fear, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't because they actually WANTED TO TRY THE FRECKLE JUICE!!!

Like a broken record, I kept insisting, "You don't have to try it." It didn't work. I tried, "It was just an experiment. There's a yummy snack waiting for us inside." No luck.

I even tried, "Freckle juice is a hoax! Do you really think I got my freckles from drinking that stuff?" (I was reluctant to go there because it felt a little like going into "Santa's-not-real" territory.) They pretty much rolled their eyes and politely explained that my freckles were probably the result of inconsistent sunscreen use. Seriously!

They wanted their freckle juice. That meant I had to try it, too. So, I need your help. Has anyone out there made and tasted Sharon's secret recipe and lived to talk about it?!! If so, please tell me that we're all going to be okay. I haven't felt sick yet, but it's only been 7 hours...

writing in the sand

The children in my classroom love to hone their writing skills in this box of blue sand.

Sand is the perfect medium for beginning writers.

It's more interesting than tracing sandpaper numerals,
and it's more forgiving than a pencil on paper.

Usually, the children practice writing letters in the sand,
but this child decided that he would rather write numbers.
(Hooray! for thinking outside the box! As I watched him write, I thought, Why haven't I ever done this? From now on, I am definitely going to use the sand for number practice, as-well-as letter practice!)

When a group of friends gathered around the number-writing child,
he effortlessly turned his work into a game...
encouraging them to guess what number he was writing.

It's the best when the children become the teachers!

melting ice

The idea for this game/science experiment came from Laura at My Montessori Journey.
It was the perfect activity for a hot, September afternoon!

Since we don't have a color printer, we couldn't print out the original direction sheet from hummingbirded.
Instead, Christy (my fabulous co-teacher) typed up the directions, and I drew the quirky little pictures on the side. :)

The children split up into groups of two.
I gave each group
a dice,
a dish of water,
and two ice cubes.
Everyone shared the shaker of salt.

Not only was this activity a fun counting game AND an ice melting experiment, it was an exercise in cooperation... and it was a riot!
(In a good way!)

If a child rolled a 1,
he held the ice cube in his hands
for 10 seconds...

If a child rolled a 2,
he had to drop the ice cube
down his shirt...
(miraculously, I never rolled a 2)

If the child rolled a 3,
he blew on his ice cube
for 10 seconds...

If the child rolled a 4,
he dropped his ice cube on the table...

If the child rolled a 5,
he sprinkled 10 shakes of salt
on his ice cube...

if the child rolled a 6,
he counted to 10
as his ice cube floated in water.

If you're wondering how to get your
ice cube to melt the fastest,
try to roll a lot of 2's.

7 out of 7 kindergartners agree,
dropping an ice cube down your shirt
is the most efficient (and fun) way to get it to melt!

ah, monday!

Today started with this
awesome
new pencil sharpener.

The children kept all their pencils
sharpened to maximum pointy-ness
AND
strengthened their fine motor control.

Oh yeah, did I mention
the pencil sharpener suctions to the table?
How cool is that?!

Today ended with this hobo spider
creepy crawling
across my living room floor.

I'm usually not too freaked out by spiders,
but the this guy gave me serious
heebie jeebies.

I hope there aren't any more lurking around the house
like in my bed...

YIKES!

t.l.f.

(true love forever)

Happy anniversary, Hubs!!!
1 down,
a lifetime to go!