Dear Parents,
We cooked every day this week preparing for our tiny feast. On Monday we examined raw cranberries. The children guessed they were grapes, cherries, or pomegranates. They said they felt hard and some wondered if there were seeds inside. We broke one open to see. We took turns helping put them in a bowl, wash them, add water, and a little bit of sugar. Then everyone had turns to stir. We put them on our hot plate to cook. The children knew that when we plugged it in it would get hot. The class watched the berries change as we added heat. They noticed that the cranberries got softer and that the water turned red. We set them to cool and went outside to play.
We took turns using our hole punch and strong hands to add green stems to our apples. We sang Way Down Yonder By the Apple Tree, every day, to get ready to hang our apples on the tree with our families.
We counted our sweet potatoes as we took turns washing them. One potato, two potato...there were six potatoes. The class said they felt hard and wet. We took turns going down to the kitchen to watch the potatoes boil on the stove top. We skinned the hot potatoes, and everyone added dry and wet ingredients: brown sugar, cinnamon, a little milk, and some of the butter we made last week. We took turns using an electric hand mixer and then (almost) everyone wanted a taste. Yum! One person told us that he had a mixer at home that turns by itself.
We made a chart last week naming two positive and two negative feelings. The children said mad and sad feel bad, happy and excited feel good. We gave each feeling a color: happy was red, mad was black, sad was blue, and excited was yellow. The children told us about times when they felt these feelings. They felt sad when they fell down, had to leave the beach or the pool, lost a pirate hat, or when someone’s mama left. Friends felt happy and excited about playing with toys, seeing mama or babysitters after school, and going to the beach.
We’ve been reading many feeling books about how to deal with our feelings: When Sophie Gets Angry, Steps and Stones, Get Happy, When You're Mad/Happy/Shy and You Know It, and Sometimes I Feel Awful.
Our feast was delicious! Thanks to everyone for sharing your recipes.
Have a thankful weekend,
Therese