Farms to Feast

Farms feed the world.  They are, quite simply, fundamental to our existence.  For some of the children at Harmony's House, farms are also the place that they live.  We have been exploring farming for several weeks this fall in a variety of ways.  This post will explain how the ideas about farming and food culminate in celebrating the harvest at Thanksgiving.

In September, we visited a small farm of one of our families to meet, care for, and understand where food like milk, meat, and eggs come from.

Some farms have only animals, only food, or both.  In October, we "worked" in a Farmer's Market in our House Area.  

The children would come to the market to buy produce that they could "take home" and make supper with.

When they ran out of food, they would go shopping again.  Eventually the food at the store ran out.  The children solved this problem by "calling the farmer" to make a delivery to the store.  

Whoever was pretending to be the farmer would have to check if the hens were laying, if the pumpkins were ripe, and when they'd be able to make a delivery.  We learned that farmers were important people because the stores would run out of food without them!

Now, in November we are preparing for Thanksgiving.  Most people in the U.S. celebrate Thanksgiving by sharing a feast with family and/or friends, just as pilgrims did centuries ago to express gratitude for a plentiful harvest.

The children are demonstrating their knowledge of farming that they have developed during September and October by working with farm animals and barns.  Farmers must take good care of the animals to have enough milk, butter, and eggs for all of the baking that happens during November and December.

They know that turkeys live on farms, and try to "catch a turkey" with these clever scissors in the Explore Table.  Turkey farmers are very busy this time of year getting ready for Thanksgiving!

They create their own miniature farms, deliver hay and water to the animals, and use the tractors to work in the fields with the plants.  It's time to harvest all the corn, apples, pumpkins, potatoes, and squash.

Finally, they use the grain, eggs, and butter from farms to run the Cookie Bakery.

Some friends work the mixers to make cookie dough.  Some bake the cookie dough on sheets.

Some friends work to frost the cookies, and box them up for sale.

This year, for the children at Harmony's House, Thanksgiving will mean being thankful to farmers who bring the meat, produce, and grains to our table for a feast!

Pipes Project

Friend "Sandwich" engaged with these pieces of pipe for quite awhile today.  After identifying these new toys in the Toy and Puzzle Area during Greeting Time, he knew exactly what he wanted to do when it was Work Time!  His plan was to go and work with pipes.  He figured out how to connect them on his own.

We talked about how pipes bring water to our homes, like the kitchen sink, bathtubs, toilets, and even the garden hoses.

We used these pictures during Recall Time to invite Friend "Sandwich" to tell his friends about his work.  After completing his pipes project, he said, "Ta-da!  Come take a picture!"  During Recall Time he told us about how this pipe system is for the sprinklers.

Cool engineering brain right?!

Careers- What will you be?

Old stuff rocks.  It does!  Look what the school friends have been doing with obsolete technology: old modems, flip phones, random cords, computer fans, keyboards, and more.  They set up their own office space, "built" computers, made connections, sent out "bills," and made follow-up calls requesting payments!  Toddler "K's" dad was the inspiration for these new parts and doo-dads in the Toy and Puzzle Area.  Some people grow up to fix computers, or help people make connections with phones, computers, and the Internet.  

Friend "S" said that she wants to be a baker when she grows up.  To explore this career a little bit, we baked blueberry muffins for Small Group and then ate them at Snack Time later!

Some friends didn't mind doing the eggs and other friends did NOT want to get their hands slimy!  We split up the jobs: pouring in water and oil, cracking eggs, adding muffin mix, and putting muffin liners in the tray.  They were super yummy!

The "House Area" is more than a house...

Although this center is referred to as the "House Area," it is so much more than a place to play "house."  Simply, this is the area where most socio-dramatic play happens.  This means that sometimes the House Area can be a post office, a fire station, or even a grocery store.  Changes this month included reducing the kitchen set up to a smaller furniture piece, in order to add in a baby nursery.  With the monthly focus being on different jobs people have in our community, it was important for children to interact with ideas of being doctors or nurses, bakers or chefs, veterinarians, or child-care providers.

Read to them

It's true.  Reading to infants, toddlers, and preschoolers is one of the best ways to prepare them for learning to read in elementary school.  The young children learn that language has rhythm, alliteration, and rhyme.  Language conveys ideas and emotions.  Language tells stories and can be illustrated with pictures.  Language is symbolic (in our language, via a letter alphabet).

At Harmony's House, the Book Area is kept fresh with new literature.  This week, I added books about Valentine's Day and all kinds of community helpers from construction workers, to teachers, to firefighters and veterinarians.