Preschool Co-Op: Post Office Theme
I taught our preschool co-op this morning and our lesson's theme was mail. I'll share more about our preschool co-op in another post later,but first here's my lesson from today...
Storytime
Most of the good mail related children's books had been checked out at our library, so I ended up reading one of the few left.
The Giant Hug, by Sandra Horning is a cute story about a little pig that sends a hug to his Granny through the mail. It takes you on a hug-filled journey through the postal service all the way to his Granny. It's a little long and wordy for younger toddlers but my son loved it and stayed focused the whole time. I saw a suggestion on Bright Hub for another book, The Jolly Postman, that also looks good.
Post Office Role Play
This was the favorite activity of the day hands down! The kids are just getting to the age where pretend play and role playing is fun for them and they loved taking turns sending mail, receiving mail and being the mailman. It's such an easy and inexpensive setup, I wish I would have made it sooner! For the mailbox, I used a giant cereal box from Sam's Club.
I cut out a slot in the front and spray painted it blue with some leftover paint I had in the garage. 
I cut out the M-A-I-L letters from index cards and used double-sided tape to attach them to the front.
I made letters out of foam sheets. I think foam sheets are my new favorite craft supply. I love that they're indestructable, easy to cut into shapes and can be written on.
I made stamps out of the foam sheets too and used sticky velcro to attach them - that way the kids can practice putting on the stamps too.I found a foam visor to be our mailman's "hat".
I drew the USPS symbol on some white foam with a washable blue marker. Washable markers and foam sheets don't go well together, unless you're trying to make a stamp. The blue was coming off all over my hands so I laminated it with some clear packing tape. That did the trick. I used a clothespin to attach it to the visor so we could use our visor for other roles later.I set up our post office station with some extra mail supplies {boxes, padded envelopes, etc.} and whoever was playing mailman got to use my wooden dough tamper as a pretend stamp on each envelope.
The kids had so much fun taking the mail to the post office, stamping it, putting it in the big blue mailbox, loading it into the mail truck {the cozy coupe}, driving it to the recipient's "house", and placing it in the chalkboard mailbox. 
After preschool was over, Boo played post office until naptime. The Noodle {our nearly one year old} had fun helping put the foam letters in the mailbox and driving around too. Such fun!Mailing Letters
We talked about who we send letters to {friends and family} and why we send letters {to say hi or say "I love you"}. The kids made letters for each other using crayons, stamps and stickers.
They each licked and sealed the envelopes and put the stamps on. We marched out to the mailbox, took turns putting them in the mail, and put the flag up for the mailman. 
They're excited to check their mailboxes at home in the next few days as they wait for their letters.Letter Name Game
We also played a name game.
I wrote each child's name on an envelope. I put the letters from their names on post-its stuck to an easel. They had to search for each of the letters in their name and put them in their envelope.
Bible CraftWe talked about how God's word, the bible, is his love letter to us. Instead of putting his letter in a mailbox, He puts it in our heart.
I printed out several verses about God's love for us. The kids cut along the dotted lines between each verse to make their "letters" from God. They stuffed them into a construction paper heart envelope. At home, they can read through the verses with their mommy about how much God loves them. I got inspiration for this craft here.Mailbox Sorting Activity
I used our chalkboard mailboxes for a letter and number sorting activity. I wrote "ABC" on one mailbox to designate it as the Letter Mailbox and "123" on the other for the Number Mailbox.
I made index cards with each letter of the alphabet and numbers 1 through 10. We scattered all of the cards face up on the floor and the kids took turns picking a card, calling out the letter/number on the card, and placing it in the correct mailbox. This was a great activity for letter and number recognition and the kids stayed interested the entire time. What a fun day at preschool learning about the mail!
Because of a change in our preschool schedule, we'll be posting about Muffin Tin Monday on Tuesday from now on. When I told my son it was Monday today he shouted, "Yay! Muffin Tin Monday!" I said, "Yay! We're going to do it tomorrow instead. Hooray for Muffin Tin TUESday!" He was bummed and I'm sure it's going to take at least a month to re-program him to expect our muffin tin meal on Tuesday instead of Monday.
My Nana faithfully makes one every time we visit New Zealand. She typically makes them early in the morning and sets it out on the counter until tea {dinner}. When we were little, my cousins and I would sneak into the kitchen and break off nibbles throughout the day. Nana was onto us and soon started hiding her pavs under the bed in her room. Sneaky Nana.
We focused on faces by creating a pizza face, fruit faces {with apples, grapes and peaches}, cookie faces, and a handful of goldfish....they have smiley faces on them already.
It is for our Jacob devotional during Advent and symbolizes Jacob's dream. I love how big it is and the rustic gold look. Instead of hanging it, I'm just going to tuck it in the branches of our tree.
We're using it for our Gideon devotional. It is the closest representation of what I imagine their clay pots looked like. I'm going to put a small votive candle inside of it.
I've had a hard time finding a good nativity ornament for our final devotional during Advent: the birth of Christ. Most of the ones I'd come across were kind of ornate or gaudy. I love this one.
I painted them with some chalkboard paint I already had and wrote their names on the sides.
Now they each have a special place to receive small treats and notes from us. We put the little flag up when there is something inside and read the notes aloud when they open them. I have a little shoebox under their beds where we keep the opened notes to look back on later.
Here he is after "wiping" the unsightly bogies from his nose using Photoshop.
This final shot is after running the Perfect Portrait action from 
Here's a comparison.
The final is a bit red/orange and I'll likely tweak it later. Regardless, it's improved from the original. I like the way his eyes stand out in the edited version.
A few weeks ago, we thinned our sprouting arugula and decided to use the excess in our burgers instead of just trashing it. 
Try this burger if you haven't already. It is amazing and is without a doubt our favorite.
And the green pepper airplane was probably Boo's fave.
Be sure to use San Marzano variety tomatoes. Trust me, they make all the difference.
Start by heating 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add half of a large onion, chopped.
Cook until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add 2 cloves of crushed garlic and half of a 7 oz. jar of roasted red peppers. I chop the peppers first and often add half of the oil from the jar too. Saute for 2 minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic.
Add the tomatoes, breaking them up in the pot with the back of a wooden spoon. Add 2 cups of chicken stock and 3 tablespoons of fresh basil. Cover and simmer on low/medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Puree with a hand blender. Mine is an inexpensive Toastmaster one and I love it. It works wonderfully and I use it for all sorts of things, including the indulgent afternoon milkshake-made-in-a-cup every once in a while. Shhh...don't tell anyone.
After pureeing the soup, add 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper and 2 1/2 tablespoons of sugar. Simmer another 10 minutes. Just before serving, stir in 1/2 cup of cream.
Note: This soup freezes wonderfully. Just omit the cream at the end and add it in after it's thawed and reheated.
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