Once upon a time there were three bears . . .

Each class this week had fun re-enacting this familiar story in their own ways.  Below, the M/W gang played with our miniature version and also together, taking turns as each character.  I like to begin the year play acting and exploring familiar stories, as it gives young children a place to start where they already have some prior knowledge. We center other activities around the story to connect our learning. The older children especially extended their play, creating different endings and versions of the story.  This is a great way to practice our use of language as wells as engage our imagination.

"My porridge is to hot!"

The M/W group also worked together to build a ramp for the cars - this was Colin's idea and he asked for everyone's help - great teamwork!

The T/Th group was just beginning to get the idea of the Three Bears, they also narrated their own versions as they played.

We added tiny bowls for the porridge.

And then the boys wanted to play with the cars . . .

We talked about what colors bears can be. . . 

We made brown together with many colors of paint, learning to combine them all, red, yellow, blue to get brown.

We enjoyed making hand prints, too.

A little snuggling with the books . . .

We made different versions of porridge.  Below, we learned to watch for the bubbles to signal that the water was boiling.

We took turns, carefully, stirring.

And everyone sure seemed to enjoy it! (after it cooled)

A Recipe for "Porridge"

3/4 cup Acini di Pepe pasta 

 1 Tblspn butter 

1 egg  

1/4 cup parmesan cheese 

1 Tblspn olive oil  

(and for grown ups: 1 tspn black truffle oil drizzled on top makes this decadent!)

Cook the pasta at a rolling boil for 10 minutes, turn heat to low, thoroughly mix in butter, egg already beaten, add parmesan, mix vigorously, take off heat, put into small “baby bear size” bowls and top with a drizzle of olive oil (or truffle oil, yum!) And watch out for little curly haired blond girls! 

The M/W group worked on their own versions of the book we have been learning to read.

And we shared them in the sharing chair.

The T/Th group explored rice in its hard form in preparation to see how it changes when we cook it - their version of the porridge.

It feels "nice" running through your hands, says Sinh.

They LOVE to get to the top of the climbing structure and yell, "Hellooo!"

And practice running down the ramp while our porridge cooled.