Green Eggs and Ham - Try New Food Challenge

Today's Seuss activity (in celebration of his birthday March 2nd) was based on Green Eggs and Ham.  I've seen tons of wonderful Green Eggs recipes and art projects all over the web to go along with this book.  However, I decided to take the opportunity to do something that would focus more on the message of the book - don't assume you won't like new things until you try them.  What a great opportunity to encourage (i.e. trick) my picky eater, E, into trying new foods!

First, I wanted to teach the girls about the biases we all carry.  I put their (white vanilla-flavored) yogurt into three bowls and added a little food coloring to each so they were different colors:

Then I told them they had to taste each one and tell me which tasted the best.  E took a taste of each color yogurt and declared that the yellow one was definitely the most delicious!  L tasted them all and looked puzzled.. I asked her which one tasted the best, and she replied that they all taste the same (silly Mommy!).  Then she chose pink, because it was her favorite color.  I explained that she was correct and they were all the same, but sometimes we judge things by other factors such as external color instead of seeing what they really are.  Then we took the opportunity to do some color mixing:

The main event (for breakfast, when the girls were good and hungry) was a chance to try different foods.  I made a platter with a variety of food - some that they eat on a regular basis, and others that I'd like them to try (vegetables, meatballs, etc..):

I read Green Eggs and Ham to them, and we discussed how the main character was reluctant to try new food, but actually liked it once he gave it a try.  Then the girls took turns putting on the blindfold and opening their mouths, as I gave them different foods to try.  They were amazingly good at guessing what the food was (I've seen Reality TV cooking contests where the chefs did much worse in this challenge).

Now I mentioned that E is a picky eater.  She is not your typical picky eater - she loves olives, goat cheese, hummus, and salami, but with spit out birthday cake!  Oh, and whenever I give her chicken nuggets, she uses them to lick the ketchup off her plate but will never take a bite (whoever told me that if you present the same food to a child 10 times they will eventually accept it, has never met my E).  So I thought this would be a wonderful way to get her to try (and hopefully like) some new foods.  She let me put foods in her mouth that she never eats, but all the vegetables came right back out.  She even spit out the chicken nugget!  I guess she's just a girl who knows what she likes and what she doesn't.  L discovered that she likes cooked red peppers (but not raw green ones), celery, lettuce, and craisins.  The veggie-fritters were not a big hit either.  After the girls tasted everything, I let them finish up the food sampler platter:

The girls polished off the plate pretty well in addition to some extra apples, oranges, and olives by popular request.

Thank you, Dr. Seuss for helping my kids try new foods!

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Simple Yertle the Turtle Activity

In celebration of Dr. Seuss's Birthday on March 2nd, I'm going to try to integrate at least one Seuss-themed activity into our play every day this week.  We started with Yertle the Turtle.

The story is about a ruling turtle who (literally) steps on the backs of his subjects to elevate his status until one of the proletariats overthrows him (like my puns?).  This activity was so ridiculously simple to set up that I finished preparing it before the girls were done chugging their cups of milk.  All you have to do is cut out a bunch of turtles from green (or blue) construction paper and label them with numbers (or letters).

The girls had to glue the turtles in a stack in the correct order.  Then they drew in eyes for the turtles as well as water for them to swim in.

Simple, educational, Seuss-inspired fun!

Foiled Again!

We've been playing around with aluminum foil as a medium lately.  I still haven't quite pinpointed that perfect kids' project with foil yet, but I'd like to share three of our experiments nonetheless.

We tried some coin-rubbings (with foil) last weekend (tape coins on paper, tape foil on top, use rolling pin and fingers to create circular impressions) :

The girls enjoyed seeing the circles appear in the foil.

There's a Montessori activity which involves poking holes in a paper with a pin.  I'm not quite comfortable letting the girls play with sharp thumbtacks yet, so I tried creating a similar experience with foil and cocktail forks / plastic toothpicks.  I taped the foil to one of those mats that you use to line kitchen or bathroom shelves, which allowed the girls to 'draw' on the foil and poke holes in it without ripping it to shreds:

We basically just played around using different 'tools' to make patterns in the foil.  Then we used markers to draw lines and shapes that we traced with tiny holes.  The effect was pretty neat and the girls enjoyed looking at the light peek through the holes in the foil.

Finally, who doesn't like a little 'bling' in their wardrobe?  We tore up our foil masterpiece (above) and wrapped the pieces around pipecleaners to make shiny bracelets:

I'll have to scan Pinterest for more ideas for playing with aluminum foil.



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Number Olympics

L and E are 31 months old.  I always like combining physical activity with learning (like jumping over sight words, making an obstacle course in our living room, etc..), and I've had the idea of integrating math skills with Olympic-style activities for quite some time.

So yesterday after I completed my own record-setting endurance event (a 2-hour nap with Baby H!), the twins and I had a little bit of Olympic fun.  It almost turned into a reenactment of the first Greek Olympics (in the nude!), but I managed to keep the girls dressed long enough to take some pictures.

Our first event was the long jump:

This was the first time the girls had used a tape measure.  They helped me read the numbers, and we used ordinal/math words: "L's first jump was 10 inches, and her third jump was 22 inches.  This was her longest jump", etc.. (and yes, my 31 month old can jump almost 2 feet!).

We followed this with the high jump.  We've jumped over the broom before, but this time we added some number concepts to the game by increasing the height by one Duplo block at a time.  The girls counted the blocks and made sure we had the same number on each side.   Then we sang a variation of Barney the Dinosaur's "Number Limbo" song (substituting "limbo" with "high jump", "under" with "over", etc..).

A little more bragging - the girls both jumped over a height of 4 duplo blocks!  When we got to 5, they decided it would be easier to go under, which was a fun challenge too.

Next it was time for some track & field running events.  The girls took turns running around the living room, while the other one operated the timer:

We practiced hitting the correct buttons for Stop and Go, read the numbers on the display, and counted the laps.  I was most impressed by how the twins took turns very nicely with the highly-coveted stopwatch.

The shotput (beanbag) throw provided more number practice:

 The girls read the digits with ease (the only ones they mix up are 6 and 9), and were able to tell me which numbers were greater.

The most creative event I came up with was Weight Lifting.  I put out 24 blocks and asked the girls to put 12  in each pail.  Then we weighed them to see if they were the same:

 After getting both sides to weigh the same, I taped the buckets to the broomstick and the girls did some weight lifting:

Their Dad had taught them to grunt and huff-and-puff while they lift weights (for extra drama), so it was hilarious!

Our Olympic afternoon ended with some rythmic gymnastics:

We had so much fun.  I'm planning on building on this and doing an entire Olympic week this summer for the 2012 Summer Olympics!

Smiles

It was a busy day at work today.  I had to sit at my computer all day getting things done and attending long teleconferences while listening to the twins run around the house giggling and playing (and not being able to join them!)  Then the photo above made me smile, and I remembered how incredibly lucky I am to have three amazing little kiddos.  I'm looking forward to a fun relaxing weekend with the little ones.

Impressionist Fingerprint Art

Today we made some impressionist-inspired art using our fingers.  The supplies we used included contact paper, ink pads, painter's tape, coloring sheets, and white paper.  It's a simple concept, but the results were wonderful (especially if you have kids who like coloring in the lines).

First I put the coloring pages on the girls' table, and then placed the contact paper on top - sticky side UP.  L helped me put blue painter's tape all around (basically taping the contact paper to the table, with the coloring page underneath).  After that, I gave the girls one color of ink at a time and told them to color the picture using the tips of their fingers:

L was very good about coloring in the lines.  I did help her by asking her which section she wanted to do next and what color it should be, as well as lend the use of my fingerprints to help her finish.  Meanwhile E decided to be a little more creative:

 Her baby chick (toy) wanted to use his feet on her artwork as well.  Once the girls were done, we removed the painter's tape and stuck the contact paper on top of a sheet of white paper so we could see the final masterpieces:

The masterpiece above was made by E and Baby Chick.

This was L's artwork (with a little help from Mommy).

I made the artwork above when I was trying out this technique to see if it would work 

before presenting the activity to the girls (Mommies like to play too!)

I've seen coloring books of famous artwork, which would probably turn out gorgeous using this 'impressionist fingerprint' technique for older kids or even adults.  Mandalas could be beautiful this way too.  This is absolutely an activity we'll be repeating in the future.

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Jamberry Jam: Montessori Style Cooking

Just like our art experiences, when I have Cooking Day for the kids, I try to focus more on the process than the final result.  Yesterday after I read the girls Jamberry by Bruce Degen, L asked if we could make jam.  After looking at jam recipes online, I realized I don't have pecitin powder, which seems to be a key ingredient in all of them, so we improvised.  We dragged out the process and used lots of Montessori Practical Life and fine motor skills until I came up with something to actually make with the berries.

The first activity was plucking the leaves from the strawberries:

Next, the girls transferred blueberries into their containers:

A pouring activity followed - the girls emptied the large water cup into their bowls without a spill:

The girls' favorite part was washing the berries with their hands:

I realized that I'd never done any filtering or straining/draining with the girls, so they got to use a colander for the first time:

Next, the plastic knives came out and we cut the strawberries into smaller pieces (I'm happy to say no fingers were harmed in this exercise by my knife-wielding toddlers):

Then the majority of the cut strawberries were eaten by L.  This preparation process took a long time, and by now I'd devised a plan for making "jam".  The girls helped me add 1 cup of water and 1/4 cup of blue jell-o powder to the berries, and then watched as I boiled and stirred the mixture.

The result was basically a berry compote with a bit of jelly consistency.  Both girls tried it at dinner (even picky E).  Unfortunately the jello added a texture that they were not used to and even L who eats everything tried it and then told me it was 'weird'.  Now there's a tupperware container full of "jam" that my husband and I will have to finish.  Oh well - it's the process that counts, right?

Update:  after some time chilling in the fridge, the jam turned out delicious!   I ate it all by myself over the course of three days in yogurt parfait - YUM!