Homeschool PreK Week 17

I was excited at the prospect of being efficient with this week's lessons. Since I already had some baking to do to prepare for Christmas, why not let Rust in on the action because there is SO MUCH learning happening in the kitchen? He was actually pretty helpful as we weren't starting from zero because he (and all his siblings) help quite a bit in the kitchen already. 

It was my first time making gingerbread though and Rust was there for each step. We were laughing about smelling each of the spices and deciding which smelled the worst (molasses) and which we liked (cinnamon, obviously). Rust loved using the sprinkles and taste testing all of our creations (so did Red!) We learned a lot and got some Christmas preparation tasks knocked off the list. A win for everyone! 

Unit: Winter

Lesson: Cookies!

Books we read:
May I Please Have a Cookie by Jennifer E Morris
Bake, Mice, Bake by Eric Seltzer
I'll Wait Mr. Panda by Steve Antony
If You Give a Dog a Donut by Laura Numeroff
Billie's Yummy Bakery Adventure by Sally Rippin
Pinkalicious by Victoria Kann

Cookies/Desserts we made:
Spritz cookies
Chocolate dipped pretzels
Gingerbread

Language Arts:
Following directions: coloring cupcakes according to a list
Sequencing: putting sugar cookie tasks in order
mini book creation: Cookies, Cookies
highlighting all the letter "C" in mini book

Math:
Classifying & Sorting: ingredients vs. baking tools
Counting 1-10 using ten frames
Recognizing shapes and colors: to create cookies in card game
Counting cups and spoonful's of ingredients to make dough

Family and Consumer Science: 
smelling new smells: ginger, cloves, molasses
turning "stinky molasses" into yummy gingerbread! 
adding food color to dough for spritz cookies
how flour helps keep dough from sticking to hands/table
using oven mitts for hot pans
discussion: why we shouldn't eat a ton of raw cookie dough (because of the egg)
waiting to frost cookies until they are completely cool (and using a wire cookie rack)
solid chocolate melts to semi-liquid chocolate when heated up and then hardens again when cooled

Art: 
Christmas Cookie coloring page

Motor Skills: 
appropriate pressure and motions using a rolling pin
using a spatula to carefully transfer cookie dough to pan or cooling rack
steadying a bowl with one hand while stirring with the other
using a cookie press
using a hand mixer

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And then we had the perfect cross-over opportunity to lead into next week's lesson focus: kindness. 

I have quite a few students who are volunteer firefighters and they had posted a fundraiser they were holding to raise money for basketball hoops at the station. I ordered a cookie platter and pick up was on Saturday. We all went over to pick up the cookies and my students and the rest of the firefighters were so generous and sweet with our visit. We got a firehouse tour and got to see the trucks - and even got a ride in the truck! It was such an awesome experience and the kids were enthralled and had a million questions for the heroes. 

You wanna talk about kindness, well, there's no better place to start than people from the community who volunteer at the fire department. The people who run towards the fire while everyone else runs away. I am so proud of my students and so grateful that my kids had a chance to visit and be inspired by them. And we got a beautiful cookie platter to take home too! It was a great, great day!