Applesauce and more

 I blogged on Thursday about many of the things we've been learning this week, but could not leave out our grand finale - making applesauce!

I asked our families to please send in one apple this week, and we made two graphs about it; which day they brought the apple to school...

...and what color apple they brought.

The kiddos were very involved in the graphing process, one child even insisted that her parents go buy a yellow apple, so it would not have zero!

On Friday, we made our applesauce.  I called the children to work on it one or two at a time, and of course we started (and ended) with washing our hands.

I showed them how to use the vegetable peelers, holding the apples with one hand, placing the blade of the peeler flat on the apple, and pushing it away from themselves, then showed them how to use a knife too.

They worked really hard to peel and cut their apples, and then put the pieces into a large pot, ready for me to cook.

You can really see the concentration and determination on their faces as they worked on this new skill.

This child let me help me him peel an apple, but once it was peeled, grabbed the pieces and sat in a quiet spot to eat them.  Apples taste delicious raw too!

I did the cooking, then served up warm, fresh, cinnamon applesauce for the kiddos for snack.

 Lots of thumbs up from the children!  My favorite thing said about the applesauce?  "Can we have seconds on applesauce?"  (Yes!) and then a few minutes later, "Can we have thirds?"  Oh yes!

One more special surprise on Friday was an invitation to pick tomatoes at my friends' home again.  With so many new children here, most of the children who got to go and pick this time had not been to do it before, and were tickled with the new experience.

Kid quotes from this visit, "Can I eat one?" and of course, "Can I eat another one?" and even better, "Hey! I actually LIKE tomatoes!"

I like tomatoes too, and I really love seeing children connect with their food, learning to prepare it, and to appreciate healthy and delicious vegetables!  The attitudes and preferences they learn now will be with them for a lifetime - yeah for tomatoes!