Pancakes!

The blue room made pancakes today. I know what you are thinking; we used bisquick or a prepared mix. Well you would be wrong! We made pancakes from scratch. This recipe comes from Fanny Farmer and is actually called Griddlecakes. Teacher Debbie, her husband, and grandchildren love them. They are one of our favorite dinners with eggs and fruit. We used science techniques to measure acurately. We learned how to crack eggs (we only wasted one egg, oops). We even beat the eggs up, um, I mean beat them using an old fashion egg beater. That was really cool! The batter smelled yummy and when they were cooking we could not believe how good they smelled. But the best part was eating them with butter and maple syrup. Teacher Debbie said we could have only 2 because she did not want us to ruin our lunches. :0)

Griddlecakes

The amount of milk you use will determine how thick these

griddle cakes or pancakes are. Start with the smaller amount

suggested and add more if the batter seems too thick. Try to

have the milk at room temperature before mixing and take care

not to overbeat: a few lumps in the batter will do no harm.

You can make lighter, fluffier griddlecakes by seperating

egg, beating the white, and folding it in last. Serve with maple

syrup or honey.

1/2-3/4 cup milk 2 teaspoons baking powder

2 Tablespoons melted butter 2 Tablespoons sugar or

1 egg 1 Tablespoons of malted barley

1 cup white flour or 1/2 cup white 1/2 teaspoon salt

flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

or 1 cup whole wheat flour +

1/4 cup milk

Michaelangelo Painting

The Blue Room had a fun time painting upside down last Wednesday. Nikita's mom, Supriya, came in and shared with us about Michaelangelo. She showed us pictures of the Sistine Chapel and explained how he had to hang upside down on ropes to paint. We also got to see a picture of Michaelangelo and learned he lived a long time ago. That is why the children painted under their desks. Their masterpieces came out amazing! They are hanging in the classroom for all to admire.

The Valentine party in the blue room was a blast thanks to the wonderful parents who supplied, well, everything! The children began decorating the room early in the week with garland, hearts and window stickers. They also started making valentines for Moms and Dads with traced and cut out hearts and lots of stickers. On Friday more decorations arrived and children who had not participated in the decorating earlier in the week were able to get their "hand prints" on the project. Soon 24 milar balloons arrived and the party took on a 3rd dimension as the kids cried out in glee. Games were made up on the spot as children dragged the balloons around the classroom amazed as they trailed behind them. They enjoyed making their valentine bags using stickers, hearts, and doilies. The most fun was had in playing "Mailman" and passing the valentines to each persons mail bag. The pizza was delicious and so were the peas and carrots. The heart shaped cake with oodles of whip cream and blueberries were pleasing to most all. It is safe to say a good time was had by all. Thank you parents for your generous help and gifts to the classroom!

Gardening

The preschoolers have been planting in the garden like crazy. Starting in November the class began planting bulbs out in front of the school. Over two weeks we planted over 170 flower bulbs! We should be seeing the results "pop" up soon.

On January 11th we began planting our spring garden. First we planted a strawberry hanging basket and a row of sweet peas. The sweat peas are already 6" high! About a week later the children dug 6" holes for potatoes. They dropped their seed potato carefully into each hole and buried them. Next we planted tomatoes and eggplant which are growing in the classroom to give them a headstart. Carrots were planted in front of the potatoes. The children worked hard to dig up the ground and mix in sand.

They are learning so many new things about measuring, like how far apart the seeds must go or how deep they must be planted. They are seeing the different varieties of seeds, feeling the textures of dirt, sand, seeds. water and sun on our skin. We are painting in the garden. We have even made signs for our garden. Stop by and visit soon.

Valentines Day Party Rescheduled

Dear Purple Room Parents,

I have had something come up, and will not be able to be in class on Friday the 11th, so I am postponing the Valentine's Day party until the next Friday, February 18th. Thank you so much everyone.

Kate

Mud Days

Mud Day every Tuesday and Friday. Bring an extra set of clothes and we will get changed before we come home. It will be so much mud… I mean fun!

Purple room!

Dear Preschool Families,

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!

I am pleased to inform you that we are about to open our fourth classroom (the Purple room) as an additional Preschool classroom. This will be an extension/expansion of the current preschool program in the Blue room. We are striving to make the Purple room operational as early as next week.

Teacher Kate will lead the Purple room and Teacher Debbie will lead the Blue room with an Assistant. We want both the rooms to be multi age classrooms; however to start with, the Purple room will have young 3’s with a smaller class size. The Blue room will have most of our 4 year and older children.

Teacher Kate will be setting up the Purple classroom this week and we plan to make it operational sometimes next week. Please be patient with us while we make this important expansion. Our curriculum and practices will stay the same, the only thing that will change is the respective class sizes, and they will become smaller than what they are today in the Blue room alone.

We will discuss this change individually & interactively with Preschool classroom families as we move forward. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Many thanks,

Richa