Oatmeal for Breakfast

When we celebrated "Read Across America" in kindergarten our kids came in their jammies and were thrilled to see me dressed the same way, down to my slippers.It was a day full of fun and learning but the best part was making oatmeal in our classroom.  This related to our unit on Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. With some creative thinking we came up with the idea of using our own coffee pot to make hot water. I had the kids line up as I poured the water into their cup of oatmeal and then had them stir carefully. We offered toppings such as honey (that's what a bear would want), brown sugar, and raisins. This was a big hit!





It's a simple set-up and oatmeal needs very little heat to cook.
Just be sure to add enough water to make it creamy.



 

The students helped me make a bubble map using their senses to describe the oatmeal.
We practiced the following linguistic pattern:
Oatmeal is ________.

  The  children got into small groups and graphed their answer to the question: Do you like oatmeal? A green strip was for yes and purple was for no. We let them do this independently after modeling.

I will have them fill out a form like this on Monday.

So You Think You Know the Story of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears...Think Again

I have been reading many different versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears  in class this week. The children always listen with great interest and enthusiasm as I present each version of the story. They never get tired of hearing it and many love the predictability of each one. Each story has unique vocabulary and this provides a wonderful opportunity to compare and contrast different versions. Here are a few of my favorites:

This is a much more modern version of the story and you will notice that Goldilocks does not have curly hair. I wonder if she decided to straighten her hair? You will love the illustrations and the rich vocabulary in this story.

Now come the less traditional tales that you might not know about:

I adore this version. Papa Bear never gets around to fixing Baby Bear's chair (sounds like my husband) so the bear family goes shopping for a new chair for him. This provides you with an amazing opportunity to talk about describing words and to have children draw a picture of a chair they would love to have. The story ends with a twist and a gift from Goldilocks!

This is a little more sophisticated but hilarious. Read it ahead of time so you can simplify it for young children. It reminds all of us not to do things we might regret later. You can have rich conversations using this book but you may need to read it over several days.

 Jan Brett changes the setting for this version and for those of you who did Artic animals with your little ones, this is the perfect version for making connections to that learning.Goldilocks is an Inuit girl .The illustrations are gorgeous and typical of Jan Brett's wonderful work. I have not read this to my class yet but it is certainly on my list.