Tomatoes...

On Friday we learned all about tomatoes and ended our Mother Goose unit on "Growing Gardens."  This has been such a fun month that has been rich with hands-on experiments and learning adventures!

 We started the morning with homemade monkey bread!  Friday was my son's 8th birthday and this is his all time favorite breakfast treat!  It is like a giant caramel roll cake! It is sinful, but oh so delicious!  We all get pretty excited around here whenever we have a birthday to celebrate!

 Right after breakfast the kids worked on their scrapbook page for the month.  This is a fun way for them to review the concepts we have learned about during the month.  I love that we are creating a keepsake that illustrates an entire year's worth of learning!

 9 tomatoes made with fingertips...

 I have been talking to the kids a lot lately about adding more details to their people drawings.  I was very impressed with what I saw them draw today!

 The scrapbook also gives the kids a sneak peak into what we will be learning about during the following month.  Next month's theme is "Alphabet House!"

Mother Goose provided us with this "Veggie Soup" cooking project idea.  The kids helped me read the pictures on the card, and then we headed upstairs to cook!  I love that the card includes a picture of washing hands.  The kids always make sure to do this!

 Check out these super psyched chefs!!!

 I had the kids make a super yummy recipe of "Italian Tomato Soup with Cheese Tortellini!"  It is like a soupier version of chili with veggies, ground beef, and tortellini.  I have made this soup many times, and originally got the recipe off of the blog "Jamie Cooks It Up!"  You can get the recipe here.  I keep everything the same, except double the ground beef (2 pounds, instead of 1).

First we blended the cans of Italian stewed tomatoes in the blender...

 I browned the meat the night before.  I had one helper add the ground beef to the pot.

 Kidney beans...

 Tomato sauce, tomato paste, and one can Campbell's tomato soup...

 Italian seasoning...

 Water and beef base for beef broth...

 Salt and pepper shakers!

 The kids helped me cut up zucchini, green peppers, green beans, and carrots (I steamed the carrots ahead of time so that they were more tender).

 I gave each child a small plate with veggies and a plastic knife...

 They loved doing this!

 I'll admit though, a lot of the food dropped on the floor as they were cutting.  That was okay though, I planned for this! :)

 Of course, the kids had to do a little taste testing!

 We put everything in the pot and then each child gave it a stir and blew a kiss.  I told the kids blowing kisses in the food will mean we cooked it with love!  Cooking has always been a labor of love in my eyes.

 I also prepared the cheese tortellini the night before.  The soup slowly cooked on the stove.  I added the tortellini 30 minutes before it was ready to serve.

While the soup cooked, I read the book "Stone Soup" to the kids."

 Mother Goose provided us with these supplies for a "Stone Soup" craft.

The back of each pot had a shorter version of the story on it.

The kids cut apart their vegetables and then cut them up into small pieces (just like we did when we were cooking).

They glued their pieces and the alphabet pasta on their pot.  They had fun imagining they were cooking real soup.

"Who wants soup???"

"Brenda, I am a REAL LIFE BAKER!"  I explained the difference between a baker and a chef. Lol!

Next, I set the kids up with this coloring activity from their literacy workbook. 

My wonderful husband watched the kiddos for 30 minutes while I sneaked off real quick to have lunch with my super sweet 8 year old at his school!  He taught his soon to be Kindergartener brother how to get food through the lunch line! I absolutely LOVE special moments like these!  I get giddy every time I get to go to my son's school!

When I came back home I put our stuffed breadsticks that I had prepared earlier in the oven.  This is a super easy and yummy dinner idea!  We make these quite frequently around here.  I normally serve them with pizza sauce and we call them "Homemade pizza rolls."  Today I thought they would pair well with our tomato soup.

Cut pizza crust with a pizza cutter.  Wrap 12 sticks of string cheese with the dough.  Place in greased 9x12 baking dish.  Brush with olive oil, and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning. You can prep this in the morning like I do, and then stick it in the oven when you need to.

Bake at 350 degrees for roughly 25-30 minutes.  They are so good!

   Our soup was complete the same time as our breadsticks.

While our soup cooled a bit, I read this book to the kids.  It was PERFECT for what we were learning about, and it motivated the kids to try new foods!

 

For lunch we are out tomato soup, salad with cucumbers and grape tomatoes, fresh mangoes, and our stuffed breadsticks. 

  The kids were eager to try their soup because they cooked it!

The soup, salad, and breadsticks were well liked by many of the kids.  Of course the kids loved the super cheesy breadsticks the most!

Dipping their breadsticks in the tomato soup was a great idea!

After lunch the kids played a game from their math workbook.  They cut apart these cards and turned them face down on the floor.  They tried to flip over all the produce foods before they got the mole.  These types of games are a favorite amongst the kids.

Next, I explained that tomatoes grow on a vine.   I gave the kids a TON of vine pieces (from a bulletin board set), and had them build a vine with them.  The kids were so excited about this.  First they looked for all the straight pieces and built a straight path...

They quickly realized they had to change their plans when they were left with all the corner pieces.  It was so much fun to see their bright minds at work!

They thought a part of their vine looked like the number 9!  They shouted, "We are learning about the number 9!!!"

Their vine went half way down the hallway and then they ran out of pieces.  They were super bummed that it could not reach our music and movement room.  Then they all agreed they could walk along the vine and pretend to fly to the music and movement room!

This activity was so similar to building train or car tracks, so I was not at all surprised when I saw all the kids reach for our car bucket right away.

After I gave the kids a chance to play on the vine they built, I gathered them around to show them a little learning game I had to review the concepts we learned about this month.  Mother Goose provided us with a cube that showed our letters, numbers, shape, and color we learned about this month.  I placed all of our hands-on letters, and numbers on the vine, along with our color bird and diamond/rhombus shape.  Each child took a turn rolling the cube.  They identified what they rolled and then pretended to pick the same thing off of the vine.

Then we sang, "Tomatoes Grow on Vines" to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell."

"Tomatoes grow on vines.

Tomatoes grow on vines.

Up, up, up they go

Tomatoes grow on vines!"

I read this wonderful book before nap to conclude our unit on gardening.  This book is highly recommended!  The illustrations are beautiful, and the story inspired all of us to garden in some small way.  If we all pitch in, our world can become a beautiful and healthier place to live!

  In the afternoon I showed the kids a book I put together with all of our daily topic posters.  This time I included a project on the backside of each page of something we completed that day.  The kids and I enjoyed reading this and reminiscing about all the things we learned about throughout the month of May.  Thank you Mother Goose Time for all the project supplies, and activity ideas!

This birthday boy requested ice cream cones for his birthday!

Those are some pretty happy kids!  All of them LOVE ice cream!

 

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!