Strawberry Surprise

I often say that I get my most creative ideas 15 minutes before school starts. This usually follows with running around like crazy, trying to find supplies for the "perfect" project I just thought of (and hoping I actually have the supplies to do it.)

Monday, my first student arrived with a surprise to share with the class. She had gone strawberry picking at an indoor nursery and brought us a box of ENORMOUS strawberries to eat. I immediately decided we should not only have a special activity to eat the strawberries, we should make a whole special day of it!

Our February Food & Fitness box from Mother Goose Time had just arrived, so I pulled out the teacher guide to see what day was "fruit day" (Day 3), found the day 3 bag and VOILA, fun fruit day commenced! No scrambling like a mad woman required.

How perfect that the art project was painting the seeds on a gigantic strawberry??!! We used the real thing as our visual inspiration at the art table. They wanted some sparkle, so I mixed regular paint with green glitter watercolor. It was great to watch them problem solve how to draw the leafy stem, and then cut it out without cutting it into a bunch of tiny pieces.

The strawberry heart sorting game was really fun. Even the baby doll from dramatic play wanted to get in on the action.

I caught a candid moment of several of the boys discussing which of the fruits pictured on the daily topic poster was their favorite.

The literacy center turned into dramatic play when they decided to have a picnic and use the cards as "recipes" for making juice and other treats. (I wouldn't personally recommend the jellyfish sandwich...)

There was a spontaneous dance off on the carpet to the Funky Fruit song, and EVERYBODY wanted to dance to the Banana Boogie. I keep a felt 3 pocket storage pouch on the wall by the CD player that hold all our MGT music, so it's easily accessible whenever I get a specific request for a song.

Eating the ENORMOUS strawberries was the main event, so we made a party of it. (any designated occasion + fancy napkins = Preschool Party)

We capped off the day by reading a Strawberry Shortcake story that, surprisingly enough, related both fruit AND winter (which we are technically still talking about) themes.

Mother Goose Time made for a super, and stress-free (for the teacher), Strawberry Surprise Day!