Friday Flashback (on Saturday:)

Wow, that was a busy week.  On Monday, we received Magic Juice from a Leprechaun.  Unfortunately, the teachers didn't heed the warning and our feet turned green!

Read more about the Magic Juice here.

On Tuesday, we finished our story about the leprechauns that learned "elf control."  We reenacted the bubble challenge (with the wild leprechauns to illustrate our book).  We also celebrated the last day of day of winter with an indoor snowball fight.

Trixie and Trixter, the main characters
in our story.

Look at that "elf control" ... simply watching the bubble fall to the floor.

Our class book with photograph illustrations. 

Read more about our indoor snowball fight here. 

On Wednesday we celebrated the first day of Spring with a long walk (well more of a run and roll) and a visit to the fish pond.

 On Thursday we completed our castle easter baskets.

Easter Basket "how-to" here.

On Friday we dyed eggs.

And...This week we also found time for some fairy tale sequencing, guided drawings and retelling.

The 3 Little Pigs Sequencing.

Guided drawings of pigs.

Retelling the 3 Billy Goats Gruff.

WHEW! I am ready for spring break! What did you do this week?  Link up with Amanda from Teaching Maddeness.

Fairy Tale Castles

Once upon a time, in a far away kingdom....

I LOVE the castles we made last week during our fairy tale unit.  Our castles were inspired by the ones done by Patty from Deep Space Sparkle. I began by having the children draw a castle using cray-pas.  The drawings were directed using directions similar to those found Fairy Dust Teaching.    I then encouraged the children to add lots of patterns with the cray-pas.  When they were done with the details, they used liquid watercolors to paint the castles.  They loved the way their patterns showed through the watercolors.

I then cut out the castles and created a giant kingdom.  We used finger prints (dipped into slightly mixed black and white paint) to make our cobblestone path. I always love collections of the children's art and this bright bulletin board really showcases their personalities:)

I LOVE Blocks

My very favorite preschool toy is wooden blocks.  As I described here, I usually rotate the toys in my classroom every month.  There are only 2 things that never leave my classroom...basic art supplies (paper, scissors, markers, crayons and glue) and our wooden blocks.  I love the way wooden blocks bring the kids in my class together.  This week the kids worked together to create this amazing castle.

Look at the cool details:)

The kids were so delighted that their building eventually used every block we have.  I was thrilled by how respectful they were of each other's contributions and how patient they were if parts accidentally were knocked down.

The next day, the blocks were used to make a long road that wound around our room.

The best part about this road is we didn't have cars in the room this month so they were  originally using imaginary cars.

The kids were so excited when I went and got the cars.

What toy is essential in your classroom?

    

Magic Leprechaun Juice

Last year when we walked into our classroom on the Monday after St. Patrick's day we found tiny green footprints that went from our window to the white board (they almost looked like they were made by stamping green paint with a pencil eraser).  

On the whiteboard was a tiny note from a leprechaun named Patrick O'Malley McGinnis.  Patrick told us that he has hidden a special treat for us.  The kids searched the room and found a bottle of Magic Juice (it kind of looked like lemonade with green food coloring). The label on the Magic Juice said "FOR CHILDREN ONLY" and  "Warning: If an adult drinks this, his or her feet will turn green."

Well, my assistant and I were really curious about whether the drink could change our feet color and finally  succumbed to the children's chants of "drink it, drink it" and each took a tiny sip.  The kids were absolutely delighted when we took off our socks and shoes and found that the Magic Juice had worked and our feet had actually turned green!! (or maybe it was the food coloring we had put on our feet with a paper towel earlier in the morning :)

Click here for the bottle label and letter from Patrick.
I have been doing this for several years (you would think I might learn to follow directions:)  I  can't find the website where I first found this.  Please let me know if you came up with this very clever and fun idea.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Blogs by States Linky Party

Diane from Fifth in the Middle is hosting a Blogs by States linky party.  This is a great way to meet other bloggy friends that live nearby, so I'm joining in the fun.  Are there any other bloggers from the Philadelphia area?

Green Eggs and Ham

We had lots of Dr. Seuss fun this week.  I was very proud of my kidlets.  Most were willing to try our Green Eggs and Ham today (and a majority discovered that they do LIKE Green Eggs and Ham).  I made a simple and yummy egg and ham casserole.  This was the recipe:

Green Eggs and Ham Casserole

5 slices of bread cut into 1/4" cubes

4-5 slices of ham cut into small pieces

5 eggs

2 cups milk

green food coloring

6 oz grated cheddar cheese

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp dry mustard

Arrange bread in bottom of greased 8x8 pan. Add ham and cheese. Mix milk, eggs, salt, dry mustard and food coloring. Pour over casserole. Refrigerate overnight.  Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees. The recipe can be doubled but I've found that a small taste is enough for most of my little ones.

It really looks and tastes better than this picture shows.
 I only had neon green food coloring and forgot to
take a photo until the end of the day.  

Of course, we graphed whether we liked the green eggs and ham.  We also made Cat in the Hats with rhyming hats and took silly pictures with the free "Cat Cam" app on my iphone.  We had lots of good fun!