Greetings, Mariposa families!
As our scientific study of animals’ homes progressed, we began to incorporate fictional stories of animals nesting in their homes in winter. Books like Bear’s Winter Party and Mole in a Black and White Hole enchanted the Mariposa children with their illustrations of cozy burrows decorated with treasures from the natural world. In the art area, we added a burrow-drawing work where Mariposa children could draw and decorate their own little burrow. We noticed children drawing stoves, tables, beds and all sorts of cozy decor in their mice burrows. We brought out forest animals and a tea set, and Mariposa friends told stories of forest tea parties in small groups.
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Excited about fantasy woodland communities, we began reading Little Witch Hazel: A Year in the Forest by Phoebe Wahl, which follows a miniature witch as she goes about the forest healing injured creatures. We were inspired to turn our dramatic play area into a Little Witch Hazel playscape. We started by creating a mural depicting scenes and landmarks from Little Witch Hazel. It was fun to collaborate and add our own ideas to a group creation. We each cut out and decorated our own construction paper mushroom to add to the mural.
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We decided to add a cash register, homemade lavender play dough, and some baking tools to create a magical forest bakery – a kind of store that might exist in Hazel’s forest world. As our play evolved, we added forest animals, cookbooks, a flower cake, and a tea set to enrich the world we were creating.
We thought it might be fun to make pastries to sell in the bakery. We decided to use salt dough to create durable, realistic pretend pastries. We worked on making croissants by taking a ball of salt dough, rolling it flat with a rolling pin, cutting out the shape of a triangle, rolling the triangle up, and bending it into a C-shape. Through this one activity, Mariposa friends enjoyed sensory exploration and practiced fine motor skills, geometry, and following multi-step routines. We also got a mini science lesson: salt is a preservative, so when we add a lot of salt to our dough, it prevents mold from growing so that we can play with our croissants for a long time. We also noticed how adding water to our dough made it sticky and pliable, and adding flour made it stiff and breakable. In fact, we’ve started incorporating baking skills into the practical life shelf, beginning with measuring and leveling dry ingredients.
We baked our “croissants ” and painted them with watercolors, and we’ve added them to our forest bakery!
Other fun around the classroom:
