Baked Cotton Balls and Thanksgiving games and activities

Twice a month, I teach the 4 and 5 year olds at Blue Rock's co-op. There are 18 kids and I'm constantly looking for fun ways to teach them. Yesterday I decided to have a Thanksgiving theme. We fed a turkey while practicing our reading, practiced manners, and thought of ways to be thankful. I made some baked cotton balls to feed the turkey. Here's how to make baked cotton balls.

Baked Cotton Balls

1 cup flour

1 cup water

food coloring

Line a cookie sheet with foil and preheat the oven to 300 degrees. In a bowl, mix the flour and water. Adjust water and flour as needed to make a smooth paste. Then separate into bowls and add food coloring to each dish and mix until desired color. We made 3 colors, Blue Rock wanted to make orange, blue, and purple. Dip each cotton ball one at a time in the mixture. Place cotton balls on the cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for 40 minutes. Once cooled, you can write on them with a sharpie if you want. I wrote thanksgiving foods and let the kids read the foods if they could read, if not they could name a food they liked or I'd read the word for them. Then they got to feed the turkey. 

Blue Rock loved helping me make these and enjoyed feeding the turkey. Princess even had fun feeding the turkey. The kids liked it at the co-op as well. To make the turkey, I took an empty gallon milk jug and cut the top off, added felt for the face, and taped paper for details. I taped everything to it. I was thankful that it lasted through the co-op.

For the manners game, I printed off these pictures and taped them to plates. I would start and ask the child next to me if he/she would like some of what was pictured on the plate. They would say "yes, please," or "no thank you." Then they would ask the person next to them and so on. I have to find the link to where I found the pictures. 

I also had a thankful bag. Inside was some different items. We'd pull one item out at a time and ask the kids why we would be thankful for the item. I had a Bible, flower with a ladybug on it, empty water bottle, pumpkin, and socks. After we went through these items they got to draw a picture of things they were thankful for. 

Halloween, Brother's Wedding, Life

I don't seem to ever have enough time to blog anymore. So when I do, I try and combine a few things in one. Princess enjoyed a fun 1st Halloween. I didn't purchase her an official costume but had a cute tiger suit she wore along with a Halloween onesie. My husband needed to make a trip out to see his parents who live 13 hours away. Since a 26 hour round trip car ride would be too much for a baby, he and  Blue Rock went together and had a fun guys trip.  Blue Rock dressed up as a dragon this year and I was told he wore his costume for a few minutes and knocked on one door. He told me when they got home that he wants to stay home for Halloween next year so he can go trick-or-treating with his friends in the neighborhood. They did have a good time, though. I wish Princess and I could have gone but I am so glad they both go to go and visit his parents. They are precious people!

While they were away, I invited a good friend of mine over for dinner and to watch a fun and silly Halloween movie. My cousin had come over earlier and she and her new baby stayed as well. We ate pizza, passed out candy to all the cute kids in the neighborhood, and watched a movie after I got Princess to bed. It was a fun girls night in. 

Before Halloween, I had taken the kids to Boo at the Zoo twice! Once with my sister and once with Collin. We also had a pumpkin carving party at our house and attended one. So we did several Halloween things before Halloween. I was sad that Blue Rock missed the two Halloween parties with our homeschool friends but I know he enjoyed seeing his grandparents. 

My younger brother just got married. His wedding was last weekend. In the car, on the way to the wedding,  Blue Rock threw up! We had to turn around and I helped him get undressed while my husband cleaned the car. I decided that Princess and I would go ahead and attend since my other siblings were unable to make it. It was a beautiful wedding and they are a sweet couple. I'm so happy that all of my siblings are happily married. Blue Rock never had a fever and seems better. I'm thinking it might have been something he ate. 

My sweet niece was just released from the NICU last week. She spent the first 7.5 months of her life there. She's still on oxygen and has a feeding tube but she's home. They have to really limit contact with her so I haven't seen her out of the NICU yet. I hope to soon.

I took the kids to see the play, Snow White a few weeks ago. This was Princess's first play. She fell asleep toward the end. Blue Rock enjoyed it. We're loving the cooler weather and have gone to the park with friends and are enjoying being outside. Our co-op group is growing and I'll post a picture of most of the people. That was the one day we had to miss this year because of the play we went to. 

Here are lots of pictures from the past few weeks!

My cousin and her baby. First time for the baby cousins to meet!

Opa and Princess

 

She loved her baby cousin

 

First Halloween

She kept crawling away so I put the bowl of candy in front of her

She ate none!

She loves walking

Our Jack-o-lantern pizza for our girls night in!

Blue Rock with his granddad

When the guys got back, the kids were so happy to see each other!

My grandmother, Dad, and daughter

Blue Rock helping me make a 6 different kind of apple pie

It was delicious

He does this quite often and I finally got a picture

Princess loves the piano

Picking out a bow for the wedding

Waiting for the bride

My parents

Princess's first wedding to attend, she's waiting for her new aunt

First look at his beautiful bride

Here comes the bride!

Lovely couple

My husband did great on the pumpkin snowman

Boo at the Zoo with my sister

Love my kiddos!

She LOVES animals

Gracie's first train ride

At Snow White