S Day: S is for Sssssssnake!

I was very grateful to have the letter S this week. It just seems so easy compared to the last couple of letters I've had. Usually, for letter day we focus on a couple of different words that start with S, but today I only wanted to use one. Snake. I like the snake word, because not only does it start with S but snakes say sssssss, which is the sound the S makes, and I thought it would be a good way to help the boys associate the letter and the sound.

We started off reading the book Snake Stew by Tami Hunt. It's about a garden snake who tries to steal some eggs from the cook and ends up in a pot of boiling water and has to figure out how to get back home. It's a cute story and has lots of fun rhymes. But what I like about it is that any time the snake says a word ending in S, the S is dragged out. For example, the snake talks about moving through the graSSsssssss. And so on. So the S's really stand out and so does the S sound.

For our next activity, I dug down deep to a song from my preschool days called Sally the Swinging Snake by Hap Palmer. It's a fun song, and while you sing, each kid gets a piece of yarn that is their very own snake, and they have to make the yarn do the actions that go along with the song. Here are the lyrics:

1. Sally The Swinging Snake
Words and Music: Hap Palmer


Chorus:
Sally the swinging snake
She does the shimmy shake
She loves to rock and roll
Feels that rhythm in her soul


Sally can you swing from side to side?
Oh my yes I can
Sally can you stretch out long and tight?
Oh my yes I can
Sally can you curl up in a ball?
Sally can you jump up high and fall?


Repeat Chorus


Sally can you crawl in a small space?
Oh my yes I can
Sally can you crawl all over the place?
Oh my yes I can
Sally can you quickly vibrate?
Sally can you make a letter shape?


Repeat Chorus

The boys had a lot of fun with their Sallys and liked making her do the different actions, I think it kept them interested in the song for a lot longer than they would have been just singing it.

After that we colored and cut out "Springy Snakes". I found the template for this activity on the San Diego Zoo website. It's really easy, all you have to do is print it out on cardstock and cut out the snake. I did one for Sponge too, to keep him occupied while the big boys colored theirs, and I think this picture of him shows the template the best.

Scientist was thrilled with his finished project, he kept running around going "Spring! Spring! Spring!" and making the snake spring up and down. I think once he's done playing with it, we'll hang it up outside so the wind can do the springing for us.

After the kids ran around with their snakes and got some wiggles out, we sat them down at the kitchen table and gave them each a different color of playdough and had them roll out playdough snakes. After they got the hang of the snakes they took it upon themselves to make other kinds of animals too, and even though most of them didn't start with S, we didn't mind letting them be creative. :)

After that we had "Chocolate Snakes" for snack. It's a no bake cookie recipe I found online. Originally, I was going to have them help me make it, but I didn't think we'd have enough time. As it turns out, I'm glad I made it by myself before hand....the recipe has a 1/2 cup of honey in it, and it was a sticky mess! If you're interested here it is:

Snake Refrigerator Cookies

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:


•1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
•1/2 Cup Powdered Milk
•1/2 Cup Honey
•1 Tbsp Cocoa
•1/2 tsp Vanilla
•1/2 Cup Chopped Nuts
•1/2 Cup Raisins
•Mini M & Ms


Preparation:

Combine the peanut butter and the powdered milk until blended. Stir in honey, cocoa, vanilla, nuts, and raisins - in that order. Roll your mixture into small snake shapes. Add 2 mini M & Ms for eyes. Attach the Mini M & Ms with peanut butter. Place the snakes on wax paper on a cookie sheet and chill in the refrigerator until very firm.

It probably wasn't the best tasting snack we've ever eaten...but the kids enjoyed it. Especially because I let them put their own eyes on.

Linked up with:

Scientist's Creamy Pasta Salad

Scientist made dinner for us again tonight. He loves to be a helper in the kitchen, and I really like when I find recipes that he can mostly do on his own with supervision. Tonight we made Creamy Pasta Salad I found the recipe for it in our May Highlights High Five Magazine. (Which we still love, and I still recommend to anyone with 2-6 year olds at home.)

Scientist's Creamy Pasta Salad

2 cups sea shell pasta
15 oz can of corn, drained
15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed (the real recipe called for chick peas, but we don't like 'em)
1 cup frozen peas
1 small package of cherry tomatoes
4 oz block of goat cheese
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

*Have an adult boil the pasta until tender, drain and keep warm.
1. Put corn, black beans, and peas in a large bowl.
2. Cut cherry tomatoes in half and put them in bowl.
3. Crumble goat cheese into bowl. Add olive oil, vinegar, and salt and pepper.
4. Add the warm pasta. Stir until goat cheese has melted into a creamy sauce.
Delicious warm or cold!

I'll admit, I wasn't a big fan of the semi-warm pasta salad, so I dumped our salad back into the pan the noodles cooked in and heated it until it was hot all the way through. This helped the goat cheese melt better too. It made a very tasty dinner! I was impressed. We were in such a hurry to eat that I didn't get a picture of the final product. The only downside was that after all that work, Scientist wasn't a big fan of the meal. But we'll definitely have it again. It would be good with pieces of cooked chicken cut up in it too, I think.

I linked up with:

Sweethearts

Tonight we tried a recipe that I came across in the February issue of The Friend magazine that I've been wanting to try for a long time.

The Friend named them Sweethearts, probably for Valentines day, and made them red and heart shaped, but you could probably use about any color of Jell-O you wanted and use any shape of cookie cutter.

Ours didn't turn out as neatly, I don't know if we didn't let them set long enough, or what, but we had a hard time getting them out of the pan in one piece. We tried some star shaped ones, but after a few of those didn't work, we just cut the rest into squares. They were pretty tasty though.

Pancakes

Scientist loves to cook! He jumps on any opportunity he gets to help out when we are cooking. It occurred to me the other day that cooking is educational. I know, I'm a little slow. :)

But after thinking about it, I really do think that cooking can be a good learning experience for all ages. My initial thought was the math involved. Scientist is still pretty young to be doing fractions, but he can count the number of cups, teaspoons, eggs, etc. that are going into a recipe. As I listened to my husband helping him make pancakes the other day, I really liked what I was hearing.

Aaron: Scientist, I need a teaspoon and a tablespoon can you get them out of the drawer please.
Scientist: Here Dad
Aaron: Ok, look at them, which one is the big one? Yup, good job, ok I need you to use the big one, that's the tablespoon, and get one tablespoon of sugar and dump it in.

That's just a small example, but the whole time they cooked, they were talking and interacting and Aaron was asking Scientist questions to make him think, and Scientist was loving it.

And so I've decided that every so often when I come across a recipe that would be a good one to make with a toddler, I will include it on our blog. Today's recipe is for pancakes, one of our family's favorite dinners.

Melt in Your Mouth Pancakes

2 cups Bisquick mix
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla

(Toddler can do this step) Stir all ingredients together until well blended. (Adult should do this step) Pour slightly less than 1/4 cupfuls onto hot greased griddle, cook until edges are dry, flip over and cook until golden.