Cooking Week 6

Cooking Investigation: Week of October 29^th, 2012

With the short week because of the upcoming holiday this was a good week to revisit our pasta making adventure, as well as talk about some new ideas about what to make next.  As we flipped through the pictures of our pasta making event the children made comments about the pasta making machine, as well as comments about Grandma.  The children were very excited to work with Ms. Camardese’s grandma making such a wonderful dish.  Having a new face in the classroom is always exciting, especially when someone is willing to share their knowledge and expertise.  They were also very excited about using the pasta machine again.  Turning the crank, problem solving how to make materials move through the rollers and figuring out how to work together proved to be a challenge, but once the children understood the workings of the machine pasta making was a breeze.  When looking through the pictures Ella saw one of her and said, “I cooking.  I making pasta. I mixing, look it Ella.”  The children were very excited to see their images on the computer screen as well as talk about the events which unfolded.  We discussed the process and talked about what happened first (making the dough) and then what happened next (rolling the pasta).  We also spent some time working with the pasta making machine.  The children tried to roll anything and everything through the rollers.  They now had the hang of how the machine worked.  As we revisited we continue to introduce new vocabulary.  The children are beginning to use these words during their play, as well as imitating some of the actions we have done while cooking (rolling, kneading, etc.).  Revisiting helps the children remember their actions, and think about how to recreate them.

Next week we plan to revisit some of our ingredient investigations, as well as plan for our upcoming curriculum night.  We hope to create a dish and show off our cooking skills to the families who visit our classroom.  We will continue to plan for future recipes as well as investigate new ingredients.  We are continuing to strengthen our community bond as well, by wor king together, eating together and planning together.

Cooking Week 5

Cooking Investigation: Week of October 22^nd, 2012

This was a very exciting week for us.  We had the opportunity to explore a pasta maker and make our own homemade pasta!  The children have been talking about making pasta for some time now.  Ms. Camardese would ask the children, “What are you making?” and the response was often “pasta”.  For the first few days we explored with the pasta maker.  The children seemed very interested in exploring how this device worked.  They tried turning the crank, feeding materials through the rollers and adjusting the dials.  Each child wanted a turn to “make it go round and round”.  To help the children understand this was a tool for cooking, we watched videos on our Ipad to see how other chefs used this tool. 

  

After a few days of rolling play dough through the rollers (do not worry it was washed thoroughly before using) we made pasta dough and attempted out first batch of homemade pasta.  Ms. Camardese has made pasta before but she called on the expertise of her grandma to assist with the pasta making.  The children were very excited for “making pasta with grandma”.  As group we made the dough, using flour and eggs.  Ella was very excited to try to crack the eggs.  After the dough was done we let it set for a period of time, then it was time to make pasta.  We took the pasta maker to the big kitchen, set up our work space and began rolling.  The children assisted with the rolling and even attempted cutting the dough with plastic knives.  During the whole event the children kept asking, “Now we eat it?”  When our exploration was done, Grandma finished up the batch of pasta and Ms. Camardese boiled it.  The children were lucky enough to have homemade pasta for snack.  To say it was a hit was an understatement.  The children were ecstatic to try the pasta, something they worked so hard to make with their own two hands.  

Next week we plan to revisit this event, talking about the pasta making experience and planning for future recipes.  The pasta seemed to be a big hit; we may work on adding a different course to our menu.  Some of the children have discussed making salads, others have discussed making desserts.  We will continue to search for some healthy dishes to test out in our classroom!

Sound Learning Group - Week 7

Tuesday November 6, 2012

This week we focused on the location of sound in more detail.  We did so by exploring with tuning forks.  By hitting the tuning fork and placing it in the water, the water splashes because of the vibration.  Some of the children did not notice this effect at first.  Their main focus at the beginning of the activity was to play in the water.  When I showed them the tuning fork in the water they began to try and make noise with the tuning fork in the water either through hitting the tuning forks together underwater or hitting the tuning fork against the bottom of the tub.  The children attempted to mimic the motion of the water.  Some simply splashed the water around, some placed the tuning fork in the table and splashed the water, and others moved the tuning fork around in the water.  When I asked the children to make noise with the tuning fork they hit the tuning forks together or tried to hit it against their leg to make the vibration.  They understood the idea of how to produce noise and that the tuning fork was the one responsible for the water splashing.  However they have yet to make the connection between the vibration of the tuning fork and the splashing of the water.  

 

               

To extend on this idea we plan to explore more with instruments but move to how sound travels.  I plan to create an activity in which we make telephones out of plastic cups to explore with this concept.  The children will make predictions and explain their reasoning about how sound travels.

Scenery Learning Group - Week 7

Ant Tunnels!

Week of Nov 5^th – 9^th, 2012

This week I wanted to try out a different direction in our learning group.  While exploring the safari animal prints the children often enjoy tracing the pattern with their fingers.  I wanted to extend this idea more.  I printed scenery of an ant farm and talked to the children about how ants create tunnels underground.  We found plastic ants and acted out making the tunnels.  The children really enjoyed tracing the tunnels with their ants on the wall.   They talked a lot about where the ant was going and often we would have a “crash” when two ants tried to cross paths!

A few days later we worked on making our own ant tunnels on paper.  We used markers to represent the tunnels underground and then used an ant stamp to place ants in our tunnels!  They really enjoyed putting a lot of ants in their tunnels!  They talked about the holes and where the tunnels were going.  They were very interested in the ant stamp… touching its legs and head.

The children are very interested in acting out the animals we have been using.  I want to change gears and start working without dollhouse people…perhaps creating a house scene or city scene.  I want to see how they adjust their pretend skills from animals to people.  Will they act out familiar scenes? Will they interact with each other more?  If I project our classroom will they act out school life?