We had so much fun "cooking" last week that I decided we should do it again this week.....and maybe every week! We reviewed the letter "p" and the sound it makes. Then we made our own personal pizzas!
Before we started cooking we read the story " The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza". She discovered that her friends didn't want to help make the pizza but they did want to help eat it. Then when it was time to do the dishes and clean up they all decided they needed to pitch in and do their part.

We read this story for two reasons. First, we were going to make pizzas just like the Little Red Hen and second, we talked about being helpful and doing our share of the work. Even though these kids are young and their hands are small, they can do many things. We talked about families and how everyone in a family has a job to do. We traced our hands and cut them out. We glued them onto a sheet of paper titled "My Helping Hands" and then they told me what their hands can do to help out. They listed jobs like picking up toys, getting dressed, helping with younger siblings. We read a story called "We Help Mommy" and discussed what kind of "work" they can do around their houses.

We learned a new song today that was sung to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb". Each time we sang it we inserted a different child's name. They each loved hearing us sing a song with his/her name in it. We also inserted a line in the song that told what each child liked to do with his/her family. I hope you all get a chance to sing the song your child brought home and insert your own ideas!
When my sons were very young we bought them a VHS tape called "Kids For Character". It is a wonderful video that talks about being a good person. I think there are seven different short stories on the tape that each last ten minutes or so. We watched one of the stories today (while our pizza was cooling off) called "Caring". It was about a boy who yelled at his friend for breaking their limbo stick and ruining the game. The boy who gets angry ends up feeling just as sad at the one who gets yelled at. They sing songs in each story that teach a lesson. I tied this in by talking about feelings and how families and friends need to care about each other. Your children LOVED this short story and wanted to watch it again! We just watched it one time but I told them that maybe we can watch one short story each week. They talk about trustworthiness, fairness, etc. These children are still learning and it is so difficult not to be selfish when you are so young but I truly believe that they "get it". It is obvious to me that they care about each other......even when they don't want to share......

Then we headed outside and struggled to walk against the wind as we made our way to the swings!