These pop1cles are filled with good stuff like fruit ad yogurt.  Put the kids to work making these nutritious treats and cool off!  They’re easy––the hardest part is waiting for them to freeze!

Ingredients

1 cup plain yogurt

1  cup fresh or frozen blueberries or strawberries

1 to 2 tablespoons honey

4  small paper cups

Aluminum foil

4 popsicle sticks

Place the yogurt, fruit and honey in a blender and blend to desired consistency.  Pour mixture in paper cups and cover the tops with foil.  Cut a small slit in the foil and place a popsicle through it.   Place in the freezer for 4 or 5 hours.  When ready to eat, just peel the paper off.  Refreshing! 

Water balloons have changed over the years.  I remember when we would fill a dishpan with the squirmy multi-colored quivering balloons and haul them out on the playground for a rousing game of dodge that red (or purple or orange) thing flying through the air straight toward you.  It was simple then, you just placed the neck of the balloon around a faucet, watched the water flow in fattening it into a nice squishy plastic bulb. Then you removed it from the faucet and tied it off.  It didn’t take long to fill up a dishpan full of them and they were good for guaranteed fun in the sun.

But things have changed.  Faucets come in all shapes and sizes and the necks of balloons no longer fit over them.  Now you need a little gadget in order to get the water in, and recently I’ve had a couple of mishaps.  First I bought a package of sturdy looking balloons (helium quality) not realizing just how sturdy they were.   They weren’t difficult to fill, and what a lovely heaving mass of fun awaited the swim-suited children.  Each child picked a balloon.  ”I want pink.”  ”I want a green one.”  No problem, plenty for everyone.  ”Okay, lets make two lines facing each other.  On the count of three we’ll all heave together and toss the balloons at the feet of the person across from you.  Everyone got that?  Here we go, one, two, three!”  And with that, the balloons were hurled––as far as four-year-olds can hurl.  They bounced up and down a few times, jiggled a few times and then just rolled onto the awaiting feet.  But, we did have fun trying to get them to break.  We kicked them, sat on them, pinched them, stepped on them.  But, alas, they were unbreakable.

My next mishap was when I picked up a package of 175 balloons.  A gadget was included so the faucet size wouldn’t be a problem.  They weren’t helium quality so they would burst open when they hit a target without being tortured.  But there was a problem.  They were about an inch long.  Filling them with water was easy.  It took about two seconds.  Tying them off, not so easy.  That was impossible.

It was a bit disappointing, so we had to figure out what to do next.  We filled the balloons up, the kids launched them.  They picked them up, we filled them, they launched them again.  They had races with the balloon rockets to see which ones would land in the designated dishpan and which ones would fly all the way to the sandbox.  What I learned from this activity was that even though water balloons have changed over the years, kids haven’t.  They just want to have fun!

*  Balloons offer a great teachable moment about safety and adults should always be present when kids are playing with them.  

––They pose a choking problem if not properly supervised.  When kids try to blow them up, they can suck them down their throat.  Even bits of balloons are hazardous.

––Balloons also pose an environmental problem.  They must always be picked up and thrown in the trash.  They’re hazardous if birds or animals try to eat them.

After reading the book, let the children create their own collage flowers with bits of tissue paper and glue.

detachable seed-embedded paper housed on the

inside front cover. Readers can plant the entire

piece of paper and watch as their very own tiny

seeds grow into beautiful wildflowers.

There are so many good ideas concerning appropriate ways to celebrate Earth Day with young children.  I discovered that NASA through a 2-year study recommends at least 1 houseplant for every 100 square feet of indoor space.  What a simple way to cleanse the air and rid it of many pollutants.

Eco- Fact:  We spend over 90% of our time indoors.  From home to car to work or school to car to home.  Not me.  I do everything I can outside.   Yep, I’m writing this outside.

I recommend this website for their Adopt A Plant for Your Classroom project and for some great lesson plans even though you’ll have to adapt them for younger children: greeneducationfoundation.org/greenthumbchallenge.  Have a fun day!

They forwarded a list of “The 5 Best Toys of All Time,” published, of all places, in the high-tech Wiredmagazine.

This is the list:

1. Stick
2. Box
3. String
4. Cardboard Tubes
5. Dirt

Roger Neugebauer, publisher of Exchange Magazine, said he and Bonnie looked over the list and would substitute Ball for Cardboard Tubes.  That was my sentiment, exactly.

I spent time recently with some little hikers in our beautiful Colorado mountains.  Hiking seemed to cut it for a while but then one little kid picked up a stick and started trailing it behind him.  A little girl found another stick and before long every pint-sized hiker had a stick.  Karate chopping bushes looked like fun, then came the flying sticks to see how far they would go, and then, writing in the dirt.  Oh, and poking.  It’s a blast to poke sticks into holes.

A number of years ago when I was in Haiti where many children have absolutely no toys, I observed the same thing.  Kids improvised.  A tin can became a ball,  a piece of string was tied and untied around sticks and rocks to make pull toys.  And dirt.  Always close by it provided a canvas for writing and a medium for sculpting.

You could develop an enlightening teacher training session by providing 5 “toys” and letting the staff see what they could come up with to amuse and entertain.  Child’s play, you gotta love it!  What do you think?

Check out www.readacrossamerica.org for some good ideas on how to celebrate like creating posters of favorite books, dressing up as favorite characters, or  reading favorite books.

Preschool Health and Safety Matters

This book answers your questions on everything from emergency preparedness and food safety to transportation and playground maintenance.   The chapter on child abuse and neglect, one of the most sensitive subjects when caring for children, answers many questions and provides a number of pertinent resources.

The appendix is packed with posters, forms, and checklists you can use on a daily basis.   Early childhood educators are charged with keeping kids safe, promoting their well-being, and teaching them lifelong healthy   habits––a huge responsibility.  In a perfect world, this book would sit on the shelf of every program for young children.

It’s published by Gryphon House: www.gryphonhouse.com

Whole Wheat Brownie Bites

¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/8 tsp. salt

½ cup soy milk

¼ cup agave nectar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

½ cup bittersweet chocolate, broken into chunks

1 large banana, peeled and mashed

¼ tsp. canola oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.  Mix well; set aside.  Combine the soy milk, agave nectar, and vanilla in a small saucepan.  Heat over medium heat until warm.  Add the chocolate; cook and stir until melted.  Stir in the banana; whisk until well blended.  Remove from heat; whisk in the dry ingredients.  Grease a 9-inch square glass baking dish with the canola oil.  Spread the mixture into the dish.  Bake for 20 minutes or until set.  Transfer dish to a wire rack; cool completely.  Cut into squares.

Reprinted with permission from Free Press, You Raising Your Child:  The Owner’s Manual from First Breath to First Grade by Michael L. Roizen, MD, and Mehmet C. Oz, MD

Here are some other ideas:

Choose a color and ask children to pick up everything that is yellow or red or green.

How about setting a timer and seeing how many things can be picked up before the timer goes off?

Sprinkle all the kids with magic dust that turns them into swirling pick-up machines.

Ask children to pick up all of the things with wheels or all of the things that stack.

In your best robot voice say, “Please-pick-up-the-puzzle-pieces.  Now-pick-up-the-books-and-place-them-on-the-book-shelf.”

Let parking attendants park cars and trucks.

Making pickup time into a game makes the transition easier for kids and teachers!

I can never choose a favorite Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. quote, but this one ranks high on the list,

and it’s appeared a few times in Parent Pages over the past 23 years.

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

I bought this notecard when visiting The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia many years ago.