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| Baking shortbread cookies |
Over the course of twenty-six posts, I will introduce my own simple lessons for the letters of the alphabet. I will provide enough ideas and suggestions for a week's worth of activities.
For the letter B we focused on baking.
Coloring Pages
Super Coloring's Baker Coloring Page
First-School Preschool Activities and Craft's Baker Coloring Page
DLTK's Coloring Pages' Chef Coloring Pages
Baking Projects
Letter B as a Baker Craft
SchoolhouseTeachers.com's ABC: What Will I Be offers a great lesson on B is for Baker.
Baking Cookies
Getting into the kitchen and baking cookies with your preschooler is a wonderful way to share family time and incorporate education into your day. Your child can help gather ingredients, read the recipe, measure ingredients, and prepare the cookies for the oven.
Safety first! Please keep in mind that the oven is very hot and your child should be supervised at all times near an oven. Do NOT allow them to handle items going in and out of the oven. Use your due diligence to prevent injuries. Allow trays and cookies to cool after baking before allowing children to touch them again.I have to admit that I love using the pre-measured cookie mixes like those sold by Betty Crocker. They make it very easy when you need to make cookies quickly for an event. We have used the following mixes with good results: Sugar Cookie Mix, Salted Caramel (which is a limited edition mix), Rainbow Chocolate Candy, and the Pumpkin Spice (which is also a limited edition mix).
This recipe calls for red and green sprinkles and M&M's but you can use other colors for the rest of the year, too.
Books
There are so many books out there teaching how to bake or cook with children. Visit the library or use one of the links below to learn about some of the books available.
Featured Shapes - Circle and Sphere
What better shapes are there than circles and spheres when you are taking about baking? So many cookie recipes ask you to roll your cookies into balls (or spheres) and then press flat (creating a circle shape).
One great way to incorporate a painting activity is with circles. Gather materials around your house that have a circular shape that could act as a stamp. For example, plastic cup, plastic lid, empty and clean yogurt container. Let your child use them as stamps with paint and a large sheet of paper.
Activities
Imagination Time: Play food
While talking about baking, allow your children to cook you a pretend dinner. In our household, we love the products from Learning Resources. They have such a variety of kits from fruit salads to healthy dinner baskets. They even have a baking set!
Visit a bakery
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| Watching older brother pick out rolls for dinner |
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| Rolls at our local bakery |
Clay Play
Use old cookie cutters and clay to let your children pretend to bake cookies. (Remind them not to put the clay in their mouths!)
Other 'B' Topics
Bees
I Heart Crafty Things' 15 Adorable Bee Crafts for Kids Included in this roundup of crafts are those that incorporate a variety of materials including paper bags, paper plates, paint, glue, craft sticks, and tissue paper among other items.
Ms. Barbara's Bees: A Preschool Study
This includes many lessons to incorporate the study of bees into your preschool or homeschool including a really cool beehive created with egg cartons.
Butterflies
Fireflies + Mudpies' Coffee Filter Butterfly Craft
This is a great craft for a warm day outside. We used to make similar butterfly crafts when I taught workshops at the zoo. Kids love seeing the marker colors spread and combine when spraying water on the filter.
Fun Learning for Kids' Butterfly Collage
I always love the idea of giving kids materials and letting them create their own art project. Here is one you can do with butterflies as the base.
Parenting Chaos' b is for Butterfly Letter of the Week Craft
This offers the lowercase letter b for the butterfly craft.
Mommies Reviews' Homeschooling Craft B is for Butterfly
Cute art craft using pasta to create a butterfly picture.
Birds - Bird Feeder
There are lots of interesting bird crafts that could accompany the letter B. And you can also make a bird feeder to hang outside allowing for some nature watching time. Please visit my Crafts - Animals Pinterest Board for more bird craft ideas.
The Resourceful Mama's Peanut Butter Toilet Paper Roll Bird Feeder
We used to make these when I taught at the zoo. They were an easy way to prepare a bird feeder with just a few supplies.
Kitchen Counter Chronicles' Cookie Cutter Bird Feeders
These bird feeders use gelatin as the 'sticking' agent instead of peanut butter. Great if you (or a loved one) have a food allergy. They also allow for creativity and experimentation, if you and your children want to try different shapes than just the heart suggested.
Resources
First-School Preschool Activities and Craft's Alphabet Letter B Baker Theme
MPM School Supplies B is for Literacy Center Craftivity
Sight and Sound Reading's Letter B Crafts
I have enjoyed the movie Clue from the first time I saw it. I did not get a chance to see it in the theaters so the only times I have seen it have been when it was shown on television or via VHS -- with all three endings combined together. I still have almost all the lines memorized. The actors and actresses in the movie are such a great ensemble cast.
I have seen almost every Harrison Ford film and while this may not be my favorite Ford movie, it is my favorite Indiana Jones movie. In fact, it is the only one I saw in the movie theater. I love the humor and history incorporated into it. Ford and Sean Connery are great together as father and son. Following along with Indiana Jones as he looks for his father and the Holy Grail, he finally finds both but must make a difficult decision.
I saw the original (and the sequel) in the movie theater. When the first one was released, our local one-screen movie theater would run movies for two showings each night. If you attended the first one, you could stay for the second showing. I remember sitting through this movie multiple times during the week that it was playing at that theater. And you always had to stay for the end for Slimer's appearance.
One of my all-time favorite Disney cartoons is Beauty and the Beast. I think because Belle is so fond of books, like me, I connected with her best of all the Disney heroines in their movies. And the music from this cartoon is fantastic. I was very excited when they included "Human Again" with the 2002 release because after seeing it on stage on Broadway. I couldn't imagine the story without that number.
I saw this movie at least four times in the theater. It combined two favorite actors (Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh) and history. I never watched the television series but I thoroughly enjoyed Kline, Branagh, and Will Smith in this big screen version. Kline playing two roles - that of the agent and president - is great. And the chemistry between the entire cast is also such that the jokes seem effortless.
If you asked me, "What is your favorite Cary Grant movie?" I think this would be the first to come to mind. While I do enjoy many of his other movies, I always watch this one at least once a year (around Halloween). Grant plays Mortimer Brewster, who discovers that his aunts are murderers shortly after marrying his girlfriend, Elaine Harper. The parts of the aunts and uncle are reprised by the actresses and actor who originally portrayed them on Broadway. The role of Jonathan Brewster, who is said to look like Boris Karloff, is played in the movie by Raymond Massey because Karloff could not leave his role of Jonathan in the stage production. To round out the cast of main characters, Peter Lorre (who happens to appear in a lot of my favorite Vincent Price movies) portrays Dr. Einstein, Jonathan's accomplice. Murder and mayhem are the theme throughout the entire movie but in a humorous way.
The novel, The Time Machine, was published in 1895 by H.G. Wells. I think I probably saw the movie The Time Machine (1960) with Rod Taylor before reading the book but both are favorites. One of the things that stands out for me is the Oscar-winning time-lapse photographic effects that illustrate the passage of time. For example, images that remain with me are the changing of the food and flowers in his workshop and the mannequin changing clothes. The portrayal of the narrator's friends by Alan Young and Sebastian Cabot also adds to the enjoyment of this particular movie.
Two of my favorites of the 1950s-1960s musicals are Doris Day and Howard Keel who star in Calamity Jane. Day portrays Calamity Jane, an American frontierswoman, and Keel portrays Wild Bill Hickock, who is remembered for being a scout, gunfighter, and frontiersman. The movie is primarily set in Deadwood, South Dakota with a few scenes in the Windy City of Chicago. Such notable songs as "I Can Do Without You," "The Black Hills of Dakota," and "Secret Love," which topped the Billboard charts at number one, help bring the story to life as we learn more about Calamity Jane and her love of Wild Bill.
I did not get to see the first release of Star Wars in the theater but the Star Wars Saga has always been a favorite. I still have almost all my original toys from Kenner and my stepson, son, and daughter now have their own growing collections of toys, books, and plushes from the originals, prequels, and sequels. While I may not enjoy some of the new movies as much as the original, they still hold a special place for me as they bring me back to my childhood and many hours of fighting battles with Luke, Leia, and Han.
