Unicorns

Children love to pretend.  Let's be honest, a lot of adults like to pretend too, we just show it in different ways.  Movies and books with a little magic or fantasy are popular because pretending is... well... fun!


Which brings me to unicorns.  Yes, they're pretend, but unlike dragons, I've found children seldom are confused about that.  Over the years a lot of children I've taught have thought that dragons were real, a kind of dinosaur perhaps, extinct now, but still real.  That hasn't been the case with unicorns, the children know them as a lovely pretend.

 A few years ago I created a unicorn sensory play box, filling it with some popular flying pony toys, a plastic unicorn toy, white pompons (clouds), sparkly pompons (they must be magical!), rainbow colored foam stars, a painted rainbow, and some colored cups for scooping and sorting the colored bits. Between the soft texture of the pompons and the bright rainbow colors, the children were always drawn to play in our unicorn box.

I have a much loved, favorite unicorn book too, The Midnight Unicorn.

  This book is by Neil Reid, and the pages have embossed, shiny highlights, which adds another dimension to the reading experience for the children.  

 After we read the book, the children make their own unicorns to ride on, just like the girl in the story.  Ours are cardboard, with a paint stirrer handle - a modified hobby horse.  The teachers precut and assemble the unicorns, and the children choose the color of their mane (2 strands of yarn, folded in half then looped through holes), add facial features (one eye and one nostril on each side, a REALLY hard concept for most children), and decorate their unicorns.

The best part is riding them around.  Sometimes we keep them inside, but sometimes we play with them on the playground, or even take them for a ride (a neighborhood walk). 

I've also seen an awesome paper mache unicorn, which would be amazing to make with your own children, but isn't practical for a classroom.  I don't think I could make these unicorn poop cookies with many groups of children, but boy, would I like to!  I am going to make some for my own teenaged boys - because some things never stop being funny.

We listen to The Unicorn Song, I like this particular version because there are pictures to go along with the lyrics, and at this age, that's important to the kiddos.  With older children you might prefer one of the versions that shows the lyrics on screen, but this one works for us.  :-)

The children love to make our footprint unicorns too.  I found a foot print horse idea on funhandprintartblog.com/ , and added the unicorn horn and rainbow background.  First we paint our feet white, and print them onto colored paper (it makes them stand out better).

 Once dry, the children add the mane and horn...

...create a rainbow background by ordering 1" wide strips of tissue paper, and assemble it.  Ta-da!

Recently I posted a unicorn reading center to my TeachersPayTeachers store:

 

I wish I had made it before I retired, because I know my kiddos would have loved working with it, After all, who doesn't like to pretend?  The good news is, I'll be seeing some of my kiddos soon... guess what I think I'll take them?  I may even make the unicorn poop cookies!

I hope your day is magical!

Paula

Post Script.  I decided to take colored sugar cookie dough  with me when I visited the kiddos, so that we could make unicorn poop cookies together.  "Kids" from 4 - 16 got in on the action, and so did the parents.  What a blast!  We all had fun fashioning the "poop", and they tasted amazing! 

While they were baking we did the Unicorn sentence picture match activity.  My former student, now a kindergartener, did an awesome job with the game, and was talking about showing it to her friends. 

As a teacher, I can't think of a nicer compliment!

Ice Cream!

I'm not sure what got me thinking about ice cream today - really, does there need to be a reason?  Almost everyone likes ice cream, and when we like things, we're more inclined to learn about them.  Today I'm going to share some of the ways I've harnessed a love of ice cream to get kiddos learning.

Disclaimer: Looking at pictures of ice cream may cause you to crave and or eat it.  I cannot be held responsible for my own ice cream eating, let alone yours! 

Every  summer we make ice cream with the children.  We read a recipe, gather ingredients, follow directions, and measure ingredients. (Keep reading for my favorite recipe!)

 By the time the ice cream maker is done, the children are well and truly ready to taste it!  In the meantime, we graph which flavor we think we like the best, or if we think we will like a particular flavor.

This is a great time to compare numbers: greater than, less than or equal.  Real life learning!

 Sometimes we eat it in cones, sometimes in a bowl.  We usually read one of our favorite ice cream books at story time or while we're eating too.

 Some years we've made a book about our ice cream experiences.  I've made a simple class book about it, which is available at  TeachersPayTeachers if you are interested.  

Another fun way to extend the learning for young children is to have them cook up a batch of dough and pretend.  I grabbed bowls, cups, spoons, etc. from my toy kitchen, added dough and kiddos, and we made all kinds of delicious concoctions.  As they played and pretended, the children cooperated, worked their finger muscles (important for writing skills), spoke and listened to each other about what they were doing, and more.  Child's play is how kiddos learn, and as you can see, they were all very engaged with what they were doing.

 When we work on our letter Ii, ice cream is a sure way to help them connect the long i sound with a concrete object. I especially like pictures of ice cream with a cherry on top - I tell the children it's like the dot on top of the letter i, which helps them remember too.

Another fun way to get "hands on" is with ice cream puffy paint.  I found the idea on pinterest, from http://www.gettingmessywithmsjessi.com/search/label/ice%20cream.  It's just a mixture of shaving cream, white glue, and tempera paint.  The kiddos mix it up, then paint the ice cream on top of their cone.  When it dries, it is still textured, and feels beautifully soft and silky.  (We painted it with our hands too, for more sensory fun!)

Some years I like to do a taste test with the children, giving them several flavors to try.  Of course, we graph which we think we will like best, and then which one they actually prefer.  The children are often surprised to discover a new favorite!

There are so many ways to engage our students in learning, and I have to admit, I'm not above using ice cream or other food to reach them.  Here's another ice cream themed game I've made, for students who are ready to learn to tell time.

There are lots more brilliant ideas about engaging students with food, I've gathered some of them on my Food and Nutrition Pinterest board - I hope you'll check it out!

As promised, here's my favorite recipe!  It was hand written on the back of an envelope by one of my daycare mommies years ago, so I can't tell you who wrote it, but I can absolutely tell you we love it!

In your ice cream machine, put 2 or 3 cans of sweetened condensed milk, 1 or 2 cans of evaporated milk, 1 teaspoon of vanilla flavoring, fruit or chocolate chips as you prefer, and then top off to the fill line with milk.  Churn until done, then EAT!

I'd love to hear how you engage your students too.  In the meantime, I'm off to find some ice cream!