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Carolynn's Corner - May 2012


   We have retired our farm "environment", but I am happy to report that most of us will be visiting Peterson's Farm on May 19.  In addition to several animals, there is a wonderful (glass) beehive.  I have begun to introduce bee education to the children.

Our current topic of interest is gardening - planting; insects; life cycle of tadpole to frog and caterpillar to butterfly. This is my favorite time of the year.  In the front garden we planted tomatoes, green beans, chard, onions.  There is still plenty of kale and arugula.  Zucchini is on the way. In the back we have strawberries, blueberries and Maybe tomorrow there will be a cherry tomatoe.  I have several volunteer tomato plants in the front garden.  You are welcome to take one home if you like.

Our dramatic play is currently a pizza shop, complete with chef's costume, pizza pie with separate toppings and a cash register.  Our next endeavor will be an herb store.  I am hereby  asking for your cooperation.  This is my plan - to have the children identify 4 herbs (basil, oregano, sage and rosemary) by sight and smell.  They will then snip several stems (daily?); learn to tie bundles; and sell them to you for 3 for $1.00.  All proceeds go to directly to the children.  Probably only the older (and/or interested)
children will be participating.  If your child does not already have a bank, would you get or make one.? A simple box with a slot, decorated by your child would be wonderful.



These are samples of the herbs in our back garden, which the children will be selling.

A day in the life (of us).......
  • Yesterday we learned about spiders. I explained that most spiders are "nice"  (We will be reading A Very Busy Spider and Miss Spider's Tea Party), but there are also several types of spiders that are to be avoided.   I have a deceased scorpion in a jar, which is not actually a spider but is to be avoided.  I brought my laptop in to show the children black widdows, brown recluses, wolf spiders and tarantulas.

  • We buried kitchen scraps in the garden.  I bypassed the compost box and turn scraps directly into the garden.  They breakdown quickly and encourage big fat worms - which is what the children are really interested in.  Although they do enjoy digging holes.

  • I learned that aphids are the tadpoles favorite meal.  And fortunately (or unfortunately) the kale is now hosting a colony of aphids.  The children went out to find aphids for the tadpoles.  It's true, the tadpoles are quite busy.  The children also found lots of clover for the chikens while we were out there.

  • We will soon be reading several books about sunflowers, so I showed the children our sunflower plants.
The following is a list of books that we will be enjoying:
The Beeman, by Laurie Drebs and Valeria Cis

Little Bunny's Melon Patch, Harriet Ziefert
We Planted a Tree, Liane Muldrow
Wiggling Worms at Work, Wendy Pfeffer
The Vegetables We Eat, Gail Gibbons
Spider Spider, Kate Banks
The Snail's Spell, Joanne Ryder
Ten Seeds, Ruth Brown
The Very Busy Spider, Eric Carl         (story with props)
The Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carl,               "
Sam Plants a Sunflower                                 "


How can I get in with the big boys?




The very busy boys. (Alex and Aldrin)


Chef Elli - working at the pizza shop


Doctor Sophia (trying to heal the puppy)


Just too cute!


Ava is always ready to help the children (especially Aldrin)


Jakob feeding the horse.

Jango is practicing his patience.


LeeAnn is praticing size discrimination.


We're going to a party, party...


I found a great wood carving of Little red Riding Hood, so I told the story.


Some of our seedlings; others are now in the ground.  Wish us well!


Have you seen the TV show, The Sun Always Shines in Philadelphia?
Well, the sun always shines in Petaluma also!

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