What's on your Shelves ?

[OhTheThinks.....]

Hi all, now that our little ones are all in school and you probably have gotten a chance to visit, lets share what we have seen, maybe even give some ideas to our teachers.
DD's class is going strong on Botany right now, they have nature trail hikes and the botany cabinet and tree puzzles out. The kids are really into flower arranging work in the practical life area. Looking at getting someone trained in Ikebana to do a presentation, that would be cool.
So what's happening in your schools?

[Lillianna]

We also have flower arranging. We "recycle" the flower petals (dried in a basket) to use for the sweeping activity. We also have "washing vases" set out.
For food prep, we have slicing apples, grating cinnamon, squeezing lemons, pretzel making and making apple tarts. We also make our own granola and there is a late-afternoon light dinner option "making pasta and beans".
In art we have seed collage and making play-dough in addition to the usual painting, rubbings, stencils, cutting activities and crayons.

[fireflies~for~me]

They have a stuffed bat in a large viewing tube...it is waaay cool! I guess it was taxidermied. And then there is a model next to it that the children can remove all the body parts to learn about it.

Bats are such amazing creatures (mammals

I'm so glad Sam can see one up close!

[fluffernutter]

Oooh, Pretzels?! What a great idea! I think I'm going to steal that. They would LOVE that.

Do you have a recipe for the dough? Do you make it, or let them do it?

[Lillianna]

Hi! I bumped up the thread with the pretzel recipe for fluffernutter.

fireflies~The bats sound cool and gross all at the same time! (I have never been into rodents although my sister had a rat, my gf had ferrets and skunks,chinchillas, etc) but flying rodents (are they really mammals??) really grosses me out. I guess bats are supposedly really good pollinators so I do feel thankful for them and try to respect them. Taxidermy kind of grosses me out too. Our natural history museum has a huge lending library with all kinds of little ecosystems and "stuffed" animals. What is the name for an animal that has been taxidermed anyway?

OhTheThinks, have you had the ikebana presentation?

[OhTheThinks.....]

I took ikebana and a flower design course about a year ago and would love to bring it to the classroom. We have put out flower arranging work and now have gone into intro to Botany area. Looking forward to late winter/spring when we can plant our wildflower garden and actually pick the flowers to use in flower designs. I do believe the kiddos would love to give it a try. All of the kiddos enjoy the flower arranging work in various vases so this may be cool to do in the spring.

[Lillianna]

Ikebana would be great to add to flower arranging! Please tell me more, I don't know much about it. Isn't there something about only using 3 pieces in the design; flower/leaf/stem combos? What a great point of consciousness!
Ikebana could be extended throughout the classroom with cultural stories, puzzle maps, cultural folders and art as well. Is Ikebana Japanese? We have a "frog" (the shallow vase with 'needles') but don't know how to use it or what to call the 'parts'. They do make nice arrangements though.

We do language lessons with the young ones -three period lesson with parts of the flower. We also extend the flower arranging into dissecting and labeling parts of the flower for the older children who are writing, esp. with lillies, gladiolus, amarylis, etc. (glue or tape each part to their paper and label the pieces) The botany cabinet has been a hotbead of activity too - with all the wonderful fall leaves that we have been observing on our weekly nature walk (we also go outdoors 2x a day). Yeah nature!
We are planting a new garden this year too, our reconstruction is finally wrapping up! We used to have black-eyed susans, daisies, lillies, strawberries and sweet peas. What are you going to plant OhTheThinks???

[Riley Mo]

My DD loves the Bob books at her school. They also have a research library that she enjoys..she is 6. When she was younger she liked to do the banana slicing, cracking peanuts and making juice. One thing I really like is the scented oils/water?? for the littler ones. Very neat.

[OhTheThinks.....]

We planted a "cold weather" garden recently, with broccoli, other veggies and a hibicus plant.
Good for you guys on the Botany cabinet, ours did not seem to become the "hot bed" of activity, even when we focused on leaves, but the other works did. Maybe next year or this spring it will be "rediscovered".
Flower arranging, I did not forget, I am trying to locate my notes and books to give you a reference and such. But yes, you are correct, you can do so much with Ikebana from basic flower design, to cultural aspect, to the peace curriculum, to handling plants with respect and care, etc etc. And if you start with just some fresh flowers and some floral foam you can start there. Frogs are great and hold up stems in interesting designs. It was a good extension to cutting work and cleaning stems and cutting to length.
We are in the mist also of new building construction and everything has been moved UGH so wonderful but so hard to find things when you readily need them for reference.

[OhTheThinks.....]

We too are getting to add all the "fall harvest" type food prep activities and such, such as shelling corn, apple coreing/slicing, nut cracking. May even try to have the children bake their own "mini pie".

[Lillianna]

Originally Posted by OhTheThinks.....

May even try to have the children bake their own "mini pie".

Here is the recipe we use for Apple Pie:
This makes one small tart sized pie.

1/3 cup flour
Sprinkle of salt
1 tablespoon oil
5 teaspoons icy cold water
Sliced apples
1 pat of butter
Sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar

1. Wash hands.
2. Mix flour, sprinkle of salt and oil in a bowl.
3. Add icy cold water.
4. Knead with hands and form into a ball.
5. Sprinkle table with flour and roll out dough.
6. Using tart pan, cut out 2 pastry shells.
7. Line bottom of tart pan with 1 pastry shell.
8. Fill with apples, 1 pat of butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
9. Top with second pastry shell.
10. Bake at 375 for 20 min. or until brown and bubbly.

I have recipes for (child-sized) pita, sugar cookies, banana muffins and granola if anyone is interested.

[KathinJapan]

My daughter will start Montessori preschool in April, it is the start of the school year here in Japan. Ikebana is indeed Japanese, there are many different *schools* some use more flowers and some are very sparse, some very regimented as to the angles of the branches/stems and some are more free form. I really don`t know that much about it but part of the beauty is the use of space, how the flowers are arranged, but also the empty space that is not used... does that make sense?? In Japan you see flowers or branches in vases everywhere, I mean like in the public toilets off the highway! Some arrangements are huge, others are just one branch or flower in a tiny vase. I will be posting more in this forum in the months to come.
BTW I went to M school and am excited I found a place for my daughter to go!
Warmly,
Kathryn

[OhTheThinks.....]

I have recipes for (child-sized) pita, sugar cookies, banana muffins and granola if anyone is interested.[/QUOTE]


YEAH I am truly interested in your recipes, we have access to a small oven and the kiddos would love it !!
Thanks in advance !

[Lillianna]

Originally Posted by KathinJapan

My daughter will start Montessori preschool in April, it is the start of the school year here in Japan. Ikebana is indeed Japanese, there are many different *schools* some use more flowers and some are very sparse, some very regimented as to the angles of the branches/stems and some are more free form. I really don`t know that much about it but part of the beauty is the use of space, how the flowers are arranged, but also the empty space that is not used... does that make sense?? In Japan you see flowers or branches in vases everywhere, I mean like in the public toilets off the highway! Some arrangements are huge, others are just one branch or flower in a tiny vase. I will be posting more in this forum in the months to come.
BTW I went to M school and am excited I found a place for my daughter to go!
Warmly,
Kathryn

very interesting! about the school year starting in April...what is the most common school year (9 mths?) are there holidays taken? which ones?
just curious. It's neat to learn about the traditions in other countries.
Happy for you and your dd, maybe you can tell us more about how the Japanese Montessori school sets up their ikebana presentations...we'll be looking forward to hearing more from you!

Originally Posted by OhTheThinks.....

YEAH I am truly interested in your recipes, we have access to a small oven and the kiddos would love it !!
Thanks in advance !

OK I will post one at a time when I get the chance. Let me know if there is one in particular you want. Most of these recipes are "adult" versions divided by 4 with some adjustments after trial. It's set out on the shelf like the other practical life materials, all items on a tray or basket ready to use. Pita is for a one person baking activity. We do banana bread and granola in groups of 2 or 3.

Pita

1/2 cup flour
1 tsp yeast
1/4 tsp sugar
1/6 cup hot water
cornmeal

1. wash hands
2. preheat oven to 500 degrees
3. sprinkle baking tray with cornmeal
4. mix flour, yeast, sugar and hot water
5. divide dough into 2 pieces and pat into round circles
6. place circles on baking tray
7. let rise 10 minutes
8. bake for 10 min.
9. cool for 5 min.

[KathinJapan]

The school year in Japan goes year round. About 250 days of school per year.
There is a long summer holiday, winter holiday and then the spring holiday is the between grades holiday. I live in the north so the summer holiday is about a month and the winter holiday is the same. In the south the summer holiday is longer as most schools don`t have A/C.

the pita bread looks great. DD is napping now but I plan on making bran muffins when she wakes up, she loves to bake and cook!
Kathryn