A True Taste Test

The Touch and Feel was full of lemons this morning.  How are lemons a sensory activity, you might ask.....well, just give them to children and let their imaginations run wild!  There was lemon hockey (of which I wasn't a big fan) and lemon telephones and lemon cooking.  We had magnifying glasses and we used all sorts of descriptive words to talk about the lemons.  They were yellow and bumpy and hard and cold.  We smelled them and looked at the insides.  The kids were really excited about the "something special" were would be using the lemons for later in the day!

Before we went outside to the playground, we finished up an activity that we started yesterday.  We had already recorded each child saying "I love preschool" and we used only our ears to guess which friend's voice it was.  Sometimes we knew right away and sometimes we had to listen several times.  The kids were so excited to see their own videos!  They were like classroom celebrities!  We all cheered for each video.  The kids were high fiving and hugging each other for doing a great job!  It was a fun way to get the day started!

I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child.  In this story, a child named Lola is a fussy eater. A VERY fussy eater. Now I know that you guys don't know anything about that, but Lola won't eat anything without some encouragement!  She won't eat her carrots (until big brother Charlie reveals that they are really orange twiglets from Jupiter). She won't eat her mashed potatoes (until Charlie explains they are cloud fluff from the pointiest peak of Mount Fuji). There are many, many things Lola absolutely will not eat, including—and especially—tomatoes.



We made a long list of things that we don't like to eat.  Those things were kinda hard to think of so we all needed a little teacher help!  The list had broccoli and peanut butter and fish and corn and tomatoes.  The list of things we like to eat was much LONGER!!  Ice cream and popsicles and pancakes and cake and chips and cookies!  Clearly, we have some sweet-eating children at preschool!  Strategically......lemons made the list of things we don't like and lemonade made the list of things that we do!  That made for an easy transition to science....

Science today was a big hit! We were trying to figure out what ingredient in lemonade made the lemons not taste sour anymore!  Every kid had their ingredients..... a lemon, a cup of water, and some sugar.  We all agreed that the lemons were sour and the sugar was sweet!   I would have never imagined that the children would eat lemons they way they did!  It was amazing!  We all took turns squeezing lemons and mixing in sugar to make the lemonade.  Everyone got a refreshing cup of Speech Garden Preschool-made lemonade!  It was GREAT!!  Some kids even asked for seconds!!  They loved it.....I'm not sure a science lesson has ever had them all so engaged!  Every lesson should have a sweet reward at the end!