Rest time routines

If you are a parent, you probably have some kind of bedtime routine with your child.  I hope it involves snuggling up to read some favorite stories, and I bet it includes a bath, teeth brushing, and  a goodnight kiss.  We create these routines with our children both for their sake and for ours: children do best with routines.

It makes sense if you think about it.  There are so many things children don't know: What will be for dinner?  Where are we going? Why? Who? What?  A routine lets them know what is coming next, and gives some structure to their days.  It lets them prepare themselves for what is next.

Teaching 3-5 year olds, we needed a rest/nap time each afternoon.  What started out as a pretty simple routine - use the restroom, read some books, then lay down on our nap mats - later became a much more satisfying routine that worked beautifully.

See?

About 10 years ago I read an article in Exchange magazine about "pillow talk".  I'd always had some quiet one-one time with my boys at bedtime, and we had some of our best conversations in the quiet of a darkened room at the end of the day.  To help them find peaceful sleep, we had "happy thoughts" each night.  Each boy would tell me 3 good things about their day.  This sounded a whole lot like "pillow talk".

A few years later, I was trying to figure out ways to calm a child who took forever to close eyes and sleep (and then couldn't be woken for hours!), and saw an article about the soothing scent of lavender.  If you've deal with a child like this, you know you'll try just about anything!  I bought a bottle of lavender scented lotion, and started offering that to everyone at rest time too.

Anyway, here's the routine that evolved. 

First: everyone used the rest room, and picked one book to read.  Yes, everyone.  With 12 students in the class we had to limit the books to fairly short ones, and occasionally we had to do fewer, but most days we had 12 stories!  I'd read the more exciting ones first, and save the calmer, slower, or musical books for last.  It's really nice to end with a song!

Next: everyone went to their mats.  I closed the blinds both to make it a little darker, and to eliminate all the exciting things to be seen outside.

Then: I turned on quiet, calm music, grabbed that lavender lotion, and went from child to child, offering hand lotion and asking for happy thoughts.  Almost everyone had something nice to tell me each day, and it often started, "Mommy and daddy and brother and...."  As they talked they'd rub the lotion into their hands, and we'd have a few special moments, just the two of us in a room full of friends.  Having an adult's undivided attention, even for 30 seconds, is a powerful and often coveted thing in a preschool classroom!  I'd end our minute together by offering a kiss on the forehead.

When everyone had been tucked in, the room was dark and smelled of lavender, and sweet music played, I'd sit on the couch with a book until they fell asleep.  Yes, some children would invent reasons to wiggle, talk, or need the bathroom again (twice!).  No, it didn't always go as planned.  But almost every day we managed to get 12 children to sleep for at least part of the rest time. 

Maybe some elements of our routine  will help you to calm your kiddos and find some peaceful moments in your day.  I hope so!

How to make a pumpkin pie (and teach math, language arts and life skills)

You probably already know I love to cook with children.  Yes, it can be messy.  Yes, it's a challenge to manage everyone when your hands are in batter, or eggs, or... well, nothing at all.  Still, it's a fantastic experience for the kiddos, and can cover a LOT of academics while seeming to be only a prelude to eating.  Cooking is fun!

Cooking, by it's very nature, involves reading (the recipe),
measuring (ingredients),

counting (eggs, spoons of spice),

personal hygiene (hand washing, averting your sneezes),
environmentalism (recycle those empty cans, compost the peelings) 
and self help skills (clean up your messes).
Don't forget cool things like learning to use the can opener,
or watching how a bread machine works.

To take that learning just a little further, we often wrote class experience stories, such as our annual "How To Make a Pumpkin Pie" book.  As we enjoyed our cooking experiences, I would take pictures, and when all was said and done, we'd sit down together as a class and brainstorm all the things we had done.  Everyone would tell me the things they remembered, and I'd write them on a chart, then we'd put them in order from first to last.  I would type up the sequence of events the children had generated, and print photos of each activity along with the words.  Slipping everything into page protectors and then a bradded folder made for a quick and sturdy book.   I always put those books in our classroom library, because it's fun to go back and revisit the experience, and it's fun to look at pictures of you and your friends doing fun things - so the kiddos were motivated to read these class books over and over again.

Another perk to making our class experience books was looking back on previous years, seeing our big brothers and sisters doing the same activities when they were little, or seeing friends who had graduated to "big kid school".

In case you've never made a pumpkin pie before, here's how it's done:

Wash your hands.

 Crack two eggs into a bowl.

Add 3/4 cup sugar, 

 

1 teaspoon cinnamon, 

1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon ginger and 1/4 teaspoon cloves.

Stir it all up!

Add a can of evaporated milk,

...and stir up some more.

Add one can of pumpkin, or the equivalent of home made cooked pumpkin if you are an overachiever.

While one friend is stirring, other friends hold the bowl steady. We all get turns stirring!

When it is really well mixed, pour it into 2 uncooked pie crusts.  The canned pumpkin recipe says to use one deepdish pie crust, but we've always found there to be too much mix to fit.  While the filling is delicious baked in a pyrex bowl without any crust, I liked to use 2 pie shells, so each child had a pie of their own.

Bake at 425* for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350* for 40-50 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack, then serve or refrigerate.

Each year at Thanksgiving, each child made their own pumpkin pie to take home to their family Thanksgiving feast.  Can you imagine the pride these children felt when their families served food they had made?

Yes, it can be messy.  Yes, it's a challenge to manage everyone when your hands are in batter, or eggs, or... well, nothing at all.

Wishing you a Thanksgiving full of pie, children and laughter!

Thankful for the memories

I'm an imperfect person - aren't we all?! - but I am so grateful for one small thing I definitely did right.  I recorded some of the marvelous things the boys said when they were little, and I am ever so thankful!

For Thanksgiving 2001 I cut out lots and lots of paper leaves, and even added a touch of watercolor paint to them, to record what not only my own children, but also my daycare kiddos, were thankful for.  I thought these leaves would be just right to decorate the Thanksgiving table with, and I still dig them out for the holiday meal.

It's a small thing, but so often the small things turn out to be the big things.  The boys were 2 and 7 years old at the time, and thankful for the cutest things: each other, puzzles and games, playing in the leaves, and "for our army men that died in war saving us."  These faded scraps of construction paper encapsulate my memories of yesteryear, and the innocence of childhood.

A couple of years later I repeated this project, but used precut foam leaves.  Again, these are treasures beyond measure.

My (then) 8 year old was thankful for his alarm clock!  Ha!  At 20, I don't think he cares for it in quite the same way... well... for that matter, now he uses his cell phone.  Wow, some things really do change.  My (then) 5 year old has outgrown Zoobooks and markers, but we are all still thankful for friends, food, and Star Wars.  :-)

We are all older, and the things we are thankful for are different, but I'm going to break out this activity again, and this time I'm going to join in and make a note of the things I'm thankful for too.  Family, friends, work that I love, and memories of small boys who have grown into fantastic young men.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Big Pumpkin

I have to share the neatest felt board that I think I've ever seen:

It's the whole crew from Erica Silverman's Big Pumpkin!  This fantastic story time prop was created by Ms. Sandra at my local library - brilliant!

This felt set would be amazing to me under any circumstances, but it's especially so since Big Pumpkin is one of my favorite Halloween books - and has been a hit with my students for about 20 years.  (It was published in 1992, and I believe I got the book and tape for it in about 1994.)  The very best part of it, to me, is the tape recording of the story.  While you may not ever find (or want!) a cassette recording of the story, you and your students can still enjoy the music by checking out the book on YouTube.


So how might you extend the story, and have some hands on fun with your children?  How about letting the children mix some red and yellow paint to make a big orange pumpkin?

I had my kiddos cut out a pumpkin shape and use black paper scraps to make their own jack-o-lanterns.

You could paint their knuckles orange, and help them make a fist print pumpkin....

We added torn tissue paper grass for our pumpkins to sit in, and when everything was dry the children drew on the faces with a black marker.

Of course, the very BEST thing to do with a big pumpkin, is just what the witch did in the story - make it into pumpkin pie!

I bet you know what to do with the pie!  Delicious!

I wrote a short poem and book about pumpkins for young readers, you can see it in my TeachersPayTeachers store.

Want even more pumpkin ideas?  I've blogged about our pumpkin adventures before, check those posts out here.

Wishing you a lovely fall, full of pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin scents, and great big pumpkins!

The Halloween Fairy

We all know about the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny, and Santa Claus, but not everyone knows about the Halloween fairy!  I was introduced to her by my oldest son's preschool teacher, Ms. Michelle, about 18 years ago.

The Halloween fairy comes late at night on October 31st, after all the candy has been collected, the costumes removed, and excited but exhausted children are in bed.  If you want her to stop at your house, you need to choose some candy to keep, and some to put out for her.  Just as the tooth fairy exchanges a lost tooth for a special treat, the Halloween fairy leaves healthy alternatives when she takes away the excess candy.  Our fairy was great about leaving us mangoes, kiwi fruit, pineapple... she knew just exactly what our favorite fruits were!  My boys weren't too impressed with the hard candies- or for that matter the non-chocolate candies - in their Halloween loot stashes, so those always went out for the fairy.  When they were very little, they chose 10 pieces of candy to keep, and put the rest out.  (We also only went to a few houses.)  Later we kept more, and eventually, just like the tooth fairy, the boys outgrew the Halloween fairy.

I should tell you right now, my sons have very different opinions about the Halloween fairy now!  At almost 20 (how can that be?!) my oldest thinks the Halloween fairy was an injustice and scam that I perpetrated upon him, albeit with good intention.  His younger brother prefers to remember the mango and pineapple, and thinks it was a pretty good deal.  They are both very healthy eaters, and prefer fresh fruits and veggies over junk (most of the time), so no matter what they think, I have to believe the Halloween fairy did her work well. 

On a cautionary note, a friend once asked me what the Halloween fairy does with the candy she collects.  The sad truth, as I told my friend, is that mostly she stores it on her thighs.  :-)  Some got shared in various ways, but... well... butt.

So how does this work?  For our family, it meant taking out the candy the kids were keeping, then putting the rest back in their sack and leaving it outside the back door, or in the garage.  I've heard she's a pretty resourceful fairy, so she'll probably cooperate with whatever set up works best for your family.  She has also been know to bring small toys, like the spider web shaped bubble blower wand she had one year.  I think her main mission is to promote healthier choices than hoarding a stash of Halloween candy and gorging on it for most of November.

Wishing you a delicious, but also healthy, Halloween!
Paula

Trick or Treat, Smell my Feet!

I often talk about hands-on activities... this week we're going for a feet-on project instead!  Going through some old photos, I found this cute art and writing activity, which is super fun for a classbook or a bulletin board.
 





We used Halloween colored paper and helped each child make a white ghosty footprint on it.  While the footprint dried, each child simply wrote one thing they'd like to eat.
 



When everything was dry, the kiddos added ghostly details and glued it all together.
 
Happy Halloween!

How to Roast a Pumpkin... and what to do with it

It is no secret that I LOVE pumpkins.  I've blogged about them many times, and cooked with them many more than that.  My students have helped me choose pumpkins at the market, taken photos with them, done art and sensory activities with them, cooked them, made muffins, pies, bread with them, grown them, roasted the seeds, learned about their life cycle, and over the last 10 years, eaten hundreds of pounds of pumpkin.  I REALLY like pumpkins!

What a surprise to realize that a lot of people don't know how easy it is to cook your own pumpkins, or how much sense it makes financially.  Today I want to show you!

Step 1: Procure pumpkin.  I got this beauty at my local Farmers' Market last Sunday.

Step 2: Cut it in half.  I learned the hard way that trying to peel a pumpkin is worse than herding cats.  Trust me, the flesh will come out much easier after it is baked!

Step 3: Remove the stringy bits and seeds.  I like to keep the seeds for roasting - they are delicious, and you are already going to have the oven going - you may as well have a yummy salty snack while you are waiting for the rest of the pumpkin to cook.  Which reminds me, turn on the oven to 350*.

Put the prepared pumpkin halves in an oven safe container that has sides - most pumpkins will release a fair amount of juice while cooking.  Here are my pumpkin seeds washed, and soaking in salted water.  You can leave them soaking for a few hours before cooking, or if you are impatient, skip the soaking.  Use spray oil on a cookie sheet so they don't stick, sprinkle them with salt, and put them in the oven.

I was really surprised that this particular batch took 30 minutes to cook through - thinner seeds may take as little as 10 minutes.  The seeds of every pumpkin are different, so you need to check on your roasting seeds every 10 minutes or so, and pull them out when you are satisfied with them.  This is the darkest I've ever roasted them (on purpose) and they were really good!

Let these cool a little, and then pop some in your mouth - you can eat them whole, even the seed coat.  If you have some left, let them cool completely and then store in a sealed container.  We didn't have any left. 

Here's the cooked pumpkin - this particular one was very dense, and cooked for 100 minutes.  I tested with a fork every 15 minutes after the first hour.  The pumpkin is done when the fork goes in easily - you want the flesh to be nice and soft.

Scrape the soft flesh right out of the skin with a spoon, and put it in a blender or food processor.  You may need to add a little of the juice that has separated from the pumpkin, depending on your processor.  If it is still hot when you do it, please be extra careful, only fill the blender/processor half way, leave a small opening for steam to escape, and lay a towel over the top of it before you blend.  You do not want to be splashed by hot pumpkin!  Pour the pureed flesh into storage containers.

I used plastic containers that lunch meat was packaged in, they're a handy dandy 2 cups size, and stack nicely to refrigerate or freeze.  I let them cool on top of ice packs on my counter until they are cool enough to go in the refrigerator.   That's all there is to it!

Your pumpkin puree will be a thinner consistency than what you get from a can of pumpkin, because you've retained all the juices.  You may need to adjust your recipes accordingly. 

This particular pumpkin cooked up to a lovely golden yellow - again, each type of pumpkin is different.  Experiment to find which variety you like best, and which ones have the nicest seeds.  I ended up with 8 cups of cooked pumpkin, as this was a medium sized pumpkin.  I've had large pumpkins yield over 25 cups before - so I freeze what I don't need immediately.  Use it within 6 months.

So why bother eating pumpkin anyway?  It seems like a lot of work, spending 2 hours in the kitchen to roast and process it, is it worth it?  I think so!  The cost per cup is much less than if you bought a can at the grocery store, and it is fresher.  You may even know the farmer that grew your pumpkin.  (I'm taking the grower some of the muffins on Sunday, and maybe getting another pumpkin.) 

Nutritionally, pumpkin is phenomenal!  According to SELFNutritionData, each cup of pumpkin has 3 grams of fiber, 2 grams of protein, 19% of your daily vitamin C needs, and 245% of your daily vitamin A!

My favorite way to eat pumpkin is in my pumpkin gingerbread muffins.  I started, long ago, with a recipe I found on-line, and have tweaked and changed it until it's truly my own recipe.  I have people beg me for these.  Warning - they are hard to resist!

Pumpkin gingerbread muffins
ingredients:
2  cups sugar                    1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce           4 eggs         
***3 cups pumpkin puree (homemade)
2 tsp ground ginger           1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon                  1 tsp cloves
2 cups white flour              1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda              1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

***If using canned pumpkin, add 2/3 cup of water.

directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees  F.  Grease 2 muffin pans (recipe makes 60 mini muffin, or 30 regular).
In a large mixing bowl combine sugar, oil and eggs, beat until smooth.  Add water, pumpkin, and spices, stir.
In another bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Add dry ingredients to the pumpkin mix and combine.  Pour into muffin tins and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes (12 minutes for mini muffins).
Even although this makes a huge batch, they remain incredibly moist and fresh for about 4 days - if you can resist that long.  They also freeze well. 

Happy fall everyone!