Sunday, February 3, 2013

Kinderboys - Construction workers and Carpenters

Our class with the Kinderboys was really fun this week. We started by reviewing the meaning of a community. This book was very helpful in doing that.



Letter C in this book covers community AND construction worker.  So it's a perfect lead in.

We colored a picture http://www.oncoloring.com/construction-coloring-pages_2.html
while I read and discussed two different books with them



and



From there I let the boys take turns dressing up as a construction worker.  We talked about the use for each part of their gear and tools.  I asked each boy to name one thing a construction worker or carpenter does when they came up for their turn.  The hats are something we already had at home.  We live in earthquake territory, so I keep hard hats, gloves, and flashlights under everyone's bed.  I should have thick soled slippers under there too...but somehow those never stay put!    The vests I ordered on amazon







They were anxious to use some of those tools!  So I used an idea that I got from this book


I prepared a board for each boy that looked like this.  You can see that I left only ONE nail for them to hammer in, which was perfect.  Any more than that would have taken way too long.
The boys who were waiting their turn to hammer were sanding their boards with those blocks that have grit on all sides.  Much easier than using sand paper. They loved feeling the change in the wood.  A great time to talk about texture.

Here's a finished project
From there we referenced back to the books we had read and pointed out the drawings that architects prepare for buildings before construction can start.

My brother happens to be a civil engineer. So I asked him to send me some of his old plans so I could show them to the boys.

Then I gave each boy 3 blocks, some black paper and some chalk. THeir task was to draw plans for an building they could make with their blocks.  We then shared our plans and our buildings with the group.
Then we settled down for a story of Thea House that Jack Built.  I gave each boy one of the items or characters from the story and let them add it to the house as we went along.



The little house is my 2yo's toy.  She loves it. So it was hard for her to see the boys using it. But her agony was only momentary.  I put some barely in a plastic baggie for the "malt" and I used animals from my older girls' farm set. There was no cat, so I printed a free Google image and stapled it to some craft foam.

I was going to give the boys malted milk with snack. But time was short so we stuck with home made mini banana muffins and sliced oranges.The boys gobbled them RIGHT up. 

Here's the recipe. I keep it taped inside of my spice cupboard because it's one of my favorites. It's the one my mom always used and I think she got it from her friend Pam.

Pam's Banana Bread
1/4 cup crisco (I always just use vegetable oil)
1 cup sugar
3 large or 4 small mashed bananas
1 egg
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda


I think I baked them at 350. And since they were mini muffins it didn't take long. Just keep an eye (and your nose) on them.   This recipe made 24 mini muffins and one mini loaf.  Each mini cup held one scoop of batter using this scooper


                            



I should  add that I had planned to let the boys go out to the garage and saw a log that I got  from my backyard, but we ran short on time. I let my own son do this when class was over and it was by far his favorite part!  He worked hard at it and did it all by himself after some initial instruction.



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