I think this is my most favorite book I read to my Kinder. kids each year!  I know it so well that I can read it to them without looking at the words.  It is one of those books where the words keep running through my head over and over and over again!  🙂  Here is a link to have a look at it: There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie.  I have 3 copies of this book because I love it so much, I’m afraid I will wear it out!  Does anyone know if they make a Big Book version of this story?

We began our day by reading this story.  First we took a picture walk through the pages then I read it aloud.  Due to the fact that this is a “little book”, I showed the pictures to the children on my visual presenter rather than making them squint at the pictures while sitting on the floor.  I am able to zoom in on important details to the story as well this way.

We also started a new Predictable Chart titled, “There was an old lady who swallowed a…”.  The Kinder. kids had such a fun time coming up with words to finish this sentence. I can’t wait to see the illustrations that go with these sentences look like!  Some one mentioned that the old lady could swallow the earth/world, so I pulled out my copy of There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Trout.  Same idea as all the others, but on a fish/water theme!  It’s cute, but some times hard to read because of the tounge twisters and alliteration used in the words.

We also (a little off topic) baked the bread that we were supposed to make last week (I forgot the vegetable oil at home!) and we also made our own butter out of whipping cream–yum!

During our Science time, we planted milkweed seeds and placed them into our classroom greenhouse.  Our idea is to get them big enough that by the time Spring comes we can plant them out in our Nature Center.  I was a little puzzled a first as to how to get light to them, I couldn’t find anywhere in the classroom where there was both light and a safe, out of the way zone!  I finally came across a clip on lamp that I put a low watt, energy saving bulb into, and feel pretty good about leaving it on all the time.  I also set a large tub of water in the greenhouse to make sure that it got humid inside.  I was a little dismayed that the greenhouse did not come with instructions on assembly or how to grow things–like help with a good light source or how to install one without the risk of fire hazard would be good things to know!  I will see how it has done in the morning–I was pretty leery of leaving it on and having the plastic cover melt, but I think since it’s low watt, it will be fine!  I also had greenhouses made from crates and aluminum foil last year and for growing Wisconsin Fast Plants, the light had to be on 24 hours, and I never had any problems! 🙂  I’ll let you know!

Sorry no pictures today–I took some at school, but they were mainly of the covers of books and nothing too exciting!  I will take lots the next few days to show you the neat Little Old Lady story props we will be making!  They are too cute!

Kristen 🙂