Gingerbread Building

Gingerbread Houses!

We were excited to have two visitors in the Cardinal's class this morning. Xander's Mom and Grandmother came in with some wonderful gingerbread activities. First, Xander's Grandmother read us a fun story about a gingerbread baby looking for friendship.

 Then, Xander's mom, Tori, demonstrated what we would be building. Since we have been observing houses and other buildings for the past few weeks, the Cardinals had no problem helping to put together gingerbread houses with icing as "cement". While we waited for our "cement" to set, we decorated our very own gingerbread men. The Cardinals enjoyed using the different candies to create faces and clothes for our cookies, and we're excited to share these cookies with our families tonight. When we were finished with our cookies, we decorated our gingerbread houses which had mostly dried, and we were sure to add all the parts of a house we had observed during our walks to Jenkintown.

Books Abound About Building!

After working on our gingerbread creations, we ran around outside for a while, enjoying the fresh air and the company of some of the other classes. Coming inside, we read two books, Harry's House, and Thunder Gets a House. Both were fun stories that we all very much enjoyed and we are beginning to add to our thoughts on structures, houses and what a building is! classes.

Our classroom library is continually growing as we discover more wonderful books related to our study of Building.  Our Lower School librarian Gwen searched our school library and gathered several beautiful books about different kinds of buildings, castles and homes all around the world for the children to look at and keep for a few weeks in our classroom library. We have used these books in many different ways to invite children to further explore and extend their understanding of buildings.  Our book selection also includes books about tools and materials that one uses to build which has led to thoughtful discussions about actual construction and the mechanics of how one really builds a building that provides shelter. We have looked at books about houses and homes for animals as well as fun story books with themes that relate to houses and homes that are merely wonderful, appropriate Early Childhood read alouds. Please stop in and browse through our book collection.  Many of our friends in the other Early Childhood classes have also shared books with us from their libraries that they thought we would enjoy looking at as it relates to our study.  The deeper connection to language and literacy that we are now seeing emerge in our classroom is most exciting! We are passionate about creating an environment where children have the opportunity to appreciate, explore and develop a true love of books  and literacy.  We are amazed at the direction that many of our discussions go towards and we are constantly reminded that the initial interest often was often sparked by a picture or story heard from a book in our classroom. One of our goals is to create a comprehensive books list of all of the books that we have explored in our study of Building.  We will share the list when it is completed.