Sunshine's Book Club

We had our first book club for Sunshine today. 

We did The Little Red Hen book.

After kids showed up at our house we all sat on a blanket and just chatted for a little while. There were six kids total. Some of the kids don't know me very well so I tried to make them feel comfortable. I asked each kid their favorite food and their favorite animal. C- actually didn't share her favorite animal with us she only gave us clues. See if you can guess: a desert animal that is like a snake but with legs, it keeps it's tail close to the ground. I guessed several different animals until I came up with the Gila Monster. I don't think any of the other kids knew that animal. Some kids had sooo much to tell me. Then we read the original golden book version. As we read we chatted a little about the story. "Did her friends help her? Why not? Would you help? Do you think it is important to work? Do you think that she should have shared? Do you like this book?"

After the book I asked more questions and each child participated in the discussion. Seriously I was impressed. It was like a real book club. They told me what they thought, etc. Some of the questions I asked were:

1. What do you help with at your house?

I help clean up my room

I help clean the bathroom

I help with laundry

I help get clothes on to get ready to go

I help make food

I clean up my toys

2. What do you need help to do?

I need help cleaning my room

I need help fixing my computer games

I need help cleaning the bathroom

I need help making a sandwich

I need help cleaning

3. What can you do all by yourself?

I can clean my room by myself

I can take my shirt off by myself

I can climb on the playground roof by myself

I can put a DVD on my movie in my room by myself

I can ride my bike myself

I can make my own sandwiches

4. Do you think that everybody needs to help and work to get good things?

Yes

Yeah

Yay

5. Do you think that the Little Red Hen should have shared?

Yeah

Yay

Yes

No

Then we read another version, "The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza" She still doesn't get any help, but she shares the pizza and then the friends do the dishes.

6. Do you like the original version or the pizza version better?

Pizza 

Pizza

Pizza

Then we had a chain reaction and everybody had to go potty. As they were taking turns the "others" played under our blanket. Then they would scare the person coming back from the potty. They are so funny. This is also why your girls might have dried grass or leaves in their pre-maturely messed up hair. Sorry that is our picnic blanket and needs to be cleaned, I guess.

Here are all the kiddos in their aprons. Aren't they cute?

Here we are exploring the wheat. We threshed it. 

If I was better at food storage and had a wheat grinder I maybe would have been able to show them how the flour comes from the wheat but at least we talked about it.

Then I gave them each a spoonful of flour to touch and look at. And then I brought the dough that Sunshine and I had made previously. It had risen beautifully. Yeah. I told the kids to punch it. They loved that part. Each kid then got their own section of dough to knead. Then I told them to break into roll size balls. A- made a tiny little roll that he was excited about. I wish I would have gotten a picture of them all covered in flour.

Then we took off the aprons, wiped the flour off of them, put paint shirts on, and painted the aprons. I thought that it would be cool to use the wheat at the design so I tried putting paint on the wheat and then pressing it  onto the apron but that didn't really work so I just got out the paint brushes. C-is the only one that continued to paint with the wheat. I told her that her apron was very abstract and she thought that was very cool.

This picture didn't come out great but you get the idea. M-really took her time and made an actual picture everybody else did more modern throw the paint on kind of stuff. It was great. They all wanted me to add their initial except for D. She said that she could do it herself because she is a big girl. So cute.

Then we acted out the story with paper masks. It was cute. The duck, dog, and cat got away pretty easy on the lines, "Not I," and "I will" but the Little Red Hen I sat next too and told her the lines, "Who will help with..., I will do it myself" Sunshine really wanted to be the Little Red Hen but was pretty shy at first to say the lines. She is so funny because I know that she can do more than she acts like she can. Here is my Little Red Hen.

Then we barely got the snack out when parents started showing up. The rolls actually turned out pretty good for seriously my first time ever doing rolls. Real rolls. Most kids just wanted to eat them plain without butter or jam. Sunshine of course wanted tons of jam. I didn't get any pictures of the kids eating up their little red hen bread. But for the most part I think that they liked it.

B said "Mom, did you know that bread comes from that (wheat)?

I had so much fun with the kids today. I started getting a bit nervous that two full hours with six three-four year olds would be a lot. I mean I was trained as a high school teacher and even primary seems like a lot of time on Sundays but the time just few. We went from one thing to the next so fast I was running the whole time. All the kids behaved great and I hope enjoyed themselves too. Maybe they even learned something.

Thanks Blair for watching my Duckie. When she got home she was so worn out that she fell asleep eating her lunch. I've had kids fall asleep in a high chair but never a regular chair before. Also look at those eye lashes. We will start a book club for Duckie and A soon. Maybe a bit less school like though.