Alphabet Activities: Letter Z

After skipping around the alphabet a bit, Munch and I decided to work on the letter Z today. She had a tougher time writing this letter than most of her other letters, and many of her z's ended up looking more like 2's. Oh well, at least she's got THAT number down! After doing her z collage (we glued on rick-rack for "zig-zags"), Munch cut out stripes of black paper and glued them onto a white zebra body-I helped her cut around its legs and ears, then she attached it to some paper and drew some grass at the bottom. It turned out pretty cute-For our cooking project, we made zucchini muffins.I usually use a Better Homes and Gardens recipe, but have always found it WAY too sweet. Instead, today we tried a recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil and the results were really wonderful- light and delicately fragrant. I put Munch to work on grating the zucchini. She found it to be hard work-We mixed in about 3/4-1 cup of chopped walnuts and about 1/2 cup of chopped chocolate chips (the 60% cacao bittersweet Ghirardelli chips are my favorite of the grocery store brands- I roughly chopped them because I didn't want TOO big a chunk of chocolate in the muffins). They were very well received-

Zucchini Muffins, makes 2 dozen muffins
3 c. flour
3 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1 c. olive oil
1 3/4 c. sugar
2 c. grated zucchini
2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. chopped walnuts
1/2 c. chopped chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 12-cup tins with muffin papers (I also give the pan a spritz of non-stick spray around the edges of the muffin cups). In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, beat the eggs at medium-low speed for a few seconds. Add the olive oil, sugar, grated zucchini, and vanilla. Mix to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the zucchini mixture and mix just until combined. Stir in the chopped walnuts and chocolate. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Bake about 25 minutes or until the tops are dry and lightly golden.

New Year's Eve Interview 2009

Saw this idea on a few other blogs and thought it would be a a nice way to remember Munch at this age. On my printed copy, I added a picture box for her to draw a self-portrait.

Munch
Age: 3 years, 11 months
Grade: Preschool

Favorites:
Color: Pink
Animal: Dolphin
Restaurant: In N’ Out
Number: 100
Vegetable: Green beans
Book: Santa’s Suit
Game: Hide & Seek
Toy: Balls
Food: Macaroni and cheese
Place: Skateboard store
Candy: Starburst
Best friend: Delanie

What makes you happy?
Ice cream and cake. Frosting too.

What do you love best about your family?
Daddy sometimes hugs me and kisses me.
Mommy loves me so much.
Ginger I love because I hug her so much.
Cricket is so nice.

What is the smartest thing you know how to do?
Criss-cross applesauce.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A teacher.

What will you get to do once you turn four?
Sometimes four-year olds get to eat candy. I want to learn how to jump up all the way to the sky.

If you could be in charge for the day, what would you do?
Set the dinner table.

What are some of your wishes for this year?
Somebody wishes I come to their house, and that’s it.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Pals

Munch's Updated Workspace

I had a difficult time this Christmas when people asked what they could get for Munch. She's REALLY into drawing, coloring, and writing right now and I ended up getting her lots of art supplies- coloring books, fat & bright colored pencils, some fun, decorated tape-isn't it cute? I always felt so badly for her because our main work space is a train table with lid. I'd find her sitting on top of it, hunched over the picture she was working on. So she really needed a proper table. Luckily, her grandparents agreed to get her one. I spent a few days looking, but many were either too short (she'd outgrow it too fast) or had such a small work space that we couldn't comfortably work together as we usually do. I finally found one on amazon from a school supply company.It's a great size that should carry her through the next several years, at least until first grade. It's still small enough for a tea party with her stuffed friends and big enough for her to cover it and make a fort. We had the darnedest time getting an undamaged one because of the way it was packaged (barely) but I finally got the table set up for her, rearranged her work area, and now she has everything she needs for creating some fun things!Munch's work space is in a nice, bright corner. Under the windows is an old chest/bench in which I keep the paints. The tall bookcase holds puzzles, games, crayons, markers, paper, stickers, and other supplies on the lower shelves where she can reach them. The upper shelves hold workbooks and craft supplies that she needs to ask me for (rubber stamps, pompoms, sticky foam shapes, glitter glue) for more involved or messy projects. The low book case holds more paper, beads, play-doh and dough tools, trays for containing the messes, foam dough (I LOVE this stuff-so easy to clean and no sticky residue!), her fish, and a little iPod and speaker. Tucked into the corners are a tall lamp and a new mini vacuum, the Dirt Devil Kurv, that she knows to use at clean up time. I'll just add a hook to hang her mini dustpan and sweeper and we'll be all set!

Alphabet Activities- Letter R

Munch and I had "R Day" a couple of weeks back...or is it a couple of MONTHS now? We did the usual routine of making the letter with wood pieces and practicing writing it, but the fun part was making the rainbow cookies. The cookies themselves tasted just okay and I might tweak the dough in the future, but the best part was how sturdy it was and its texture lent itself well to lots of handling. This activity was particularly fun because Munch and I could revisit primary colors and color mixing as well. I got the recipe from the DLTK's Sites: Growing Together, which has been my resource for a lot of the great alphabet activities Munch and I have done together. The original recipe calls for forming the dough into one large rainbow, from which kids can break off pieces, but I like our smaller rainbows better.

Rainbow Cookies
1 c. sugar
1 c. butter, softened
2 c. flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
food coloring- red, blue, and yellow

In a mixer, beat together the sugar and butter. Scrape down the bowl before adding the egg and vanilla. Mix well to combine. Add the flour and mix well. Turn the dough out onto a board and divide dough into three balls. Add a different food coloring (red, yellow, blue) to each ball until dough is desired color. I kneaded in the food coloring before handing it off to Munch to finish just to be sure the color didn't ooze out and stain the work area.Divide each ball of dough into three smaller balls (I actually broke each ball of dough in half to start, then one half in half again, if that makes sense since I knew I would be combining colors). Leave the large dough ball its original color and use the remaining smaller two to mix with the other primary colors. Here's Munch kneading red and blue- it made the strangest grey-ish purple so added more coloring to it to make it more vibrant- it ended up fine once I baked it, not grey at all.Next we took each of our six colors and flattened it into a long rectangle.Then we stacked/layered the colored rectangles, beginning with purple at the bottom-I sliced the dough thinly, about 1/3-inch or so, then passed them to Munch to shape into a rainbow curve.After putting them on a parchment-lined baking sheet, we baked the cookies at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes, until they just began to turn golden at the edges. This batch is all ready for the oven!