Spring Break - Day 2

When I first started this blog this is exactly what I envisioned – a daily post about what we did each and EVERY day. I don’t know what made me think I had that much ‘extra’ time. So after 173 posts in 1 ½ years I know this ‘daily journal’ of our spring break adventures may not continue through to the end of the week but so far….

Our second day of spring break was very busy.  As the children finished their morning snack I got stuff ready;

I introduced the ingredients one at a time without telling the children what each was.  The first container was initially identified as ‘sugar’ until a taste test proved it was “ewww, salt”.  They were more cautious for the second container;

It didn’t take them long to determine that it was flour – because it was whole wheat flour, the beige colour had them a little confused at first.  They eagerly investigated the third ingredient…what could it be?

No one had any idea – when I told them that it was ‘cornmeal’ there was a lot of interest and discussion about where it comes from and what it is used for (tomorrow’s cornbread for example).  The ingredient in the big bin was instantly identified;

“COFFEE!” they yelled in unison – the scent must have given it away – and really it was old coffee grounds.  I won’t admit how little time long it took me to save up that much.
So, what were we making?

‘Home Made Sand’ thanks to the handout from my full day workshop with the Ooey Gooey Lady.
We combined the ingredients and mixed them up;

And then we played;

But the day wasn’t over yet.  Later we had a discussion about ‘creativity’ and ‘originality’ vs copying and following directions.  Then we went for a walk in the rain – to the dollar store.  I instructed them to each choose any two items that they wanted to use for artwork of their design.

This is what they picked;

This is what they did;

And this is what they made;