The children were at it again as we poured and stirred our way into salad dressing!  This easy recipe makes a yummy dip for veggies or can be used for salad.          Creamy Feta Dressing & Dip (yields 1.5 cups):

–5 oz. feta cheese

-1/4 cup milk or buttermilk

-1/2 cup sour cream

-1/2 cup mayonaise

-2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

-2 cloves garlic, finely minced

-1 teaspoon of chopped, fresh dill (1/4 tsp. dried)

-1 teaspoon dried oregano

-salt and pepper to taste

Mash the feta and milk together until you get the consistency of cottage cheese.  Next, add the remaining ingredients and blend well.  Let sit, covered, in the refrigerator to blend  flavors.

We started off our week on a healthy note!  These little chefs really got into the cooking mode while chopping and mixing a delicious Aussie Rice Salad.  It wouldn’t be complete without sampling a little taste of our ingredients along the way.  Using fresh red peppers, onions, cilantro, corn and peas, the children were able to add more or less of what they liked.  This is a recommended recipe to all!

Aussie Rice Salad

-3 cups jasmine rice, cooked

-1/2 cup peas

-1 onion, chopped

-1 small can corn

-1 red pepper, diced

-bacon bits

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon mayonaise

1 tablespoon allspice

1 tablespoon fresh cilantro or coriander

With our mitten activity today, the children were eager to not only sort and graph our mittens, but talk about giving the mittens to boys and girls who need them.  With so many mittens, the children did an excellent job of sorting them by color and graphing each one by categories: Does it have a design on it?  Stripes?  Is it a solid color?  After sorting the mittens, we then decided which category had the most, and which has the least.  We then took the category that had the most (the design category) and counted how many there were.  We are so proud of how excited and eager the children were to donate to the children of First Step Home.  A big thank you to all of you who brought in your generous mitten donations and for helping us teach your children such a valuable lesson!

Walking through the door this morning, the children were talking about how they have mittens to give other kids who can’t buy there own.  It is so heartwarming to hear three and four year old talking about the importance of giving to others.  We started our mitten activity by reading The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.  As we distributed mittens, the boys and girls sorted them by color.  After that, we sorted them into three categories: stripes, solid color and design.  Using an oversized graph, the children were graphing whizzes!  To finish our graph, the children identified the category with the largest amount of mittens (the design category), and ordered the mittens from numbers one to eleven.  We tried on a few different types of mittens, but we all decided it would be best to give to those in need!  Thank you very much for all of your generous donations and for helping us teach your child the importance of giving back.  We had mitten success!

At Creative Tots, the weather took a turn for the….tasty?!  The Arctic blast hasn’t stopped us from cookin’ up some yummy, seasonal snacks!  In Ms. Lori’s group, the boys and girls made and edible glacier.  Using Jell-O, wafers and Cool Whip, the children built the layers of their glacier while learning what a glacier is.  In Ms. Leslie’s group, the children made snowman biscuits.  We build the snowman by connecting three biscuits using toothpicks, drizzling on some honey to be sure that our “snow” (powdered sugar) stays put.  Next, we put on the finishing touches using raisins and pretzel sticks.  Miss Katelyn, our special helper and Ms. Manda’s daughter, taught the children about kayaks while making a celery kayak.  Using cream cheese, the children put raisins to represent the seat and pretzel sticks to represent the paddle(s).  In Ms. Courtney’s group, the boys and girls made snowflake sandwiches.  Folding and cutting tortillas was extra special!  Building a sandwich is easy, yummy and healthy!  The children enjoyed making (and snacking!) on our storm of food!

Studying Greenland this month means learning about different animals in the cold, Arctic habitat.  Today, Ms. Krista, and a few of her zoo friends, came to see us!  We learned about how turtles hibernate beneath the ground during the winter.  We also got to see and touch a chinchilla!  Chinchillas live on the top of cold, snowy mountains, and use their incredibly soft, warm fur to keep them cozy from the cold.  We wish these cute little guys could stay with us all month long!

Because we cannot go outside, we worked on our gross motor skills inside!

Gross Motor skills are important for major body movement such as walking, maintaining balance, coordination, jumping and reaching and throwing.

During weather we have learned that Christmas Trees are actually Evergreen Trees until……

Christmas Time!

Join us this Friday, Febuary 12th for our annual celebration of Valentine’s Day with Creative Tots Special Person’s night.  Each preschooler is encouraged to invite one person that is very special to them to help celebrate this special day.  We will make a craft, share some fun together with friends and make a valentines day card.  The kids are always excited to see the chocolate fountain make an appearance and quickly realize that even the best snacks taste better covered in cocoa.