The Wonderland Cookbook

Do you remember our post on the Tasty Eating Cookies?????  If not, here is the link to refresh your memory.........

http://littlewondersschool-pre-k.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html

Well, from there we went to the Tasty Eating Cookies With Raisins!  MMMmmmmmm.....

The cookies started something BIG in our class!  You just might see one of these children on the Food Network in the future!  We are now making a cookbook with all of our recipies.  The children are doing one recipe at a time.  They write down the ingredients they need, either at school, or at home for "homework" and bring it in the class for us to look up on our computer for a recipe using the ingredients they wrote down.

We made the recipe for Tasty Eating Cookies (sugar cookies), and then we wanted to add raisins to them, so this was our technique ;0)  "Smoosh the raisins into the tasty eating cookie dough..........

They came out beautiful and delicious!

Kiersten was inspired to make a birthday cake recipe after she made this sculpture with clay and sticks..........

She went home and her parents helped her make a list of ingredients........ 

Due to the weather that week, we were unable to buy icing and we were short on time to make the icing, so the children came up with a brilliant idea to just put sprinkles without icing on the cake!MMmmmmmmmm, this was another success!

Ashley got to work on the Groovy Hot Brownies.......

We learned how to sprinkle powdered sugar on top, and they were delicious!

Trevor made the recipe for chocolate cupcakes, and right before we were about to start putting our batter into the cupcake pan, Phoenix thought it would be a good idea to add a whole bottle of vanilla to the batter!!!!!!!!!!!

We were a little upset, but we still wanted to see what they would taste like ;0)  To our surprise, they were "So Good!" ;0)  The children loved them! 

We did find out the importance of greasing the pan and spraying the cupcake wrappers with cooking spray!  We had to peel away at our wrappers!  Ahhhh, now we get it!

This picture was taken to show Phoenix how much we liked his extra vanilla!

Isn't this a beautiful cupcake??????

Trevor and Carter are still trying to think of the perfect name for their recipe.........

Ashley loved cooking her recipes, so she is always coming up with a new one as soon as she finishes with one.  Next, she got to work on a Blueberry Muffin recipe.  She actually thought up every ingredient on her own except for vanilla!  The children are so involved, excited and interested in cooking that they are retaining so much from this project.  She even took her ingredient list to the kitchen and could read off every word from sounding them out and associating the sounds with what ingredients she knew she needed! 

Now for the fresh blueberries!  We learned how to FOLD the blueberries in the batter to help them keep thier shape, rather than stirring.  This time we made sure we greased the muffin pan REALLY WELL so that the muffins wouldn't stick!

Yummy!  Can't wait to see what she names them!  In the mean time, we had them for our afternoon snack, and it was Kylie's genious idea to have a picnic on her blanket outside!  She spread it out, Ashley put her beautiful muffins in the middle, the children gathered around them, she told them the recipe and how she made them, and then........

we enjoyed homemade blueberry muffins!

Ricky wanted to make a salad!  We asked him what we needed to make a salad, and he said, "tomatoes, eggs, dressing and salad!"  ;0) 

We first took the time to look at our ingredients, and when we put the lettuce on the table he said, "that is the salad!"  Ashley told him it was lettuce, and we talked about how when you put all of the ingredients together you MAKE a salad.

When we got that straight, we started to make our list.  Carter and Ricky each made a list for our salad.  It was going to have lettuce, tomatoes, eggs and ranch salad dressing.

Chopping the ingredients was an experience!  First we tried to smoosh the tomatoes with the knifes, but we learned the technique of moving the knife back and forth to make small pieces.  We even used the Little Wonders organic tomatoes we grew in our garden for the salad!

We added our lettuce, and then the eggs.....

We each practiced the technique of tossing the salad, and we were ready to serve it at lunch!  Each table at lunch had a bowl of Ricky and Carter's Salad to try.  The children loved it, and it looks like we might be incorporating this recipe into our weekly lunch menu!

Our cook book is in our room in a black binder for us to add to as we continue.  We would really like to encourage all of our parents to invite your children to cook with you at home.  This is a great opportunity to measure, to spell and read, to learn cooking techniques, and so much more.  Have your children help you write grocery list for snacks or dinner, they can go with you to the store and read the lists or lables with you, we are practicing recognizing the fractions on the measuring cups and spoons, we count how many eggs, raisins, etc go into each recipe.  We are even realizing where our food is coming from.  Today we had a conversation about meat.

The children could not believe that they eat cows, pigs, and chickens!  It was so funny to hear them!  Some of them said, "ooooo gross, that makes me feel gross, but I like hamburgers and hotdogs!"

And that lead to, "Why do they say dinosaurs eat meat?  What is meat?"

We talked about how meat was an animal. 

Then they asked, what about the salad? 

The salad is fruits and vegetables, except for the eggs.  Where did the eggs come from?

One of the children said, "a snake!" ;0)

Then we heard, "Rooster and chicken". 

So we talked about how the chicken laid the eggs, but we took the eggs out of the nest.  If we left the eggs in the nest they would have turned into baby chickens, but we took it and cooked it before it could turn into the baby.

From here we even started talking about mammals, amphibians, and reptiles! 

All we have to say is WOW!  So much from cooking! 

We have even remodled our sand area and turned it into a "kitchen" so that the children can continue to be inspired!

Please jump in, send us your recipes and let us know if you have any ideas, materials or questions with this project!

Rainbow Zebra Evolution

He or She doesn't have a name yet, but we know the species! ;0)  The rainbow zebra lives in the Wonderland Room at Little Wonders!  And we cannot wait to hear the stories of what a Rainbow Zebra can do!  The children love talking about how it is not like a "real" zebra, but how they can use their "imagination" to make it how ever they want!

Ashley and Kiersten searched our class to find the perfect eyes.  They found two big marbles, rhinestones, and paint to create these awesome eyes!  They each took a cardboard circle, colored it and glued colored sand all over to make the ears.  Tirza thought it should have a pink mane, and she started directing where the pink feathers she chose should go.  Some of the boys in our class convinced her to put some other color feathers on the mane ;0)

Every day, we add a little more to the zebra.  Its tummy is actually getting bigger, we seem to be focusing on that area the most.  Hmmmm I wonder what rainbow zebras eat!

It looks like we might have a mouth soon.  We have tried two different approaches to the mouth so far, and we have not been happy with the outcome.  We are so proud of our work!  Just look at his face ;0)  Stay tuned to see how our work progresses. 

From a Bridge to a Rainbow Zebra!

We were inspired by our next door neighbors to make a bridge using poles and tape!  We went to work cutting, tugging, and wrapping! ;0)

Finally, we made a "bridge"!  We loved to hide under it, just like the troll in the Three Billy Goats Gruff book!  The children would take turns going under the bridge, and recite parts from the book.  "Trip, trap, trip, trap!  Who's that trampin' over my bridge?"

As the days went by and we continued to add tape to our bridge, it started not to look like a bridge anymore!  Mateo and Kyle said it looked like a horse.  "Maybe we should make it a horse!", said Trevor.

Mateo said, "We should make it into a zebra!"

So the children worked on it and at one point they only requested black tape.  They thought the zebra should be black with white stripes.

It was a totally black zebra, when we got a toy zebra from the class next door and Bishop said, "hey guys!  It is white see!  It is white with black lines on it!"

So, then we spent the next two days covering the entire zebra white, to put black stripes on it. 

Kylie grabbed the pink tape, and all of a sudden it turned into a "RAINBOW ZEBRA"!  The children were all excited about the thought of a rainbow zebra!  We cannot wait to see the rest of the details they will put on the zebra, and the stories that will come from their imaginations of what a rainbow zebra can do!

And of course no rainbow zebra would be complete without a rainbow tail!

The rainbow zebra has had so much work to it, that it was having trouble standing up on its own.  We called our "wood working expert", Hendrix's dad to come help us!  He has been talking to the children about our plans for building our real bridge in the back, so here was an opportunity to introduce the chilren to some new tools........

He brought in a saw and some other electrical tools.  The children watched, asked questions, and engaged in conversations with him about the steps he was taking to build the platform for the rainbow zebra.

They worked together to saw 4 pieces of wood that measured 6 inches each.  (our children are the measuring experts after all ;0)  )

"Hey!  It is starting to look like a table!", said Mateo. 

Kaelynn said, "This is so much fun!"

We placed each 6 inch pole into each of the rainbow zebra's legs, and......................

Tah Dah!  Our Rainbow Zebra is standing strong on its own! 

Thank you Mr. Preston for all of your help and all of the fun our children had with you!

We are so proud of the creativity that has evolved from this project.  We believe in the importance of creativity, allowing the children to experiment and test their hypothesis, and allowing them to direct their learning. 

Please take a few minutes of your time to click on the following link to listen to Sir Ken Robinson speak on the importance of creativity

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html