Kids Love Kinpira!

Kinpira is a Japanese dish made with stir fried burdock root and carrots in a sweet and salty sauce.

Prepare the burdock root by creating 'pencil shavings' with a child safe peeler.

Gently heat 1 TBS toasted sesame oil, add sliced carrots and sliced burdock (we had some pre-sliced and some kid-peeled burdock).  Then add a pinch of sea salt, 1 tsp shoyu and 1 tsp honey.

Stir fry until the veggies get browned and crispy.  Kinpira is a great dish to eat in the winter. Kinpira is warming and strengthening for active little bodies!

Herb Fairies

​We have been learning about the healing properties of burdock with the Herb Fairies this month.

Did you know burdock tea can help with sore throats and runny noses?  

We brewed some tea with fresh stevia leaves from the garden and our burdock shavings.

The kids were thrilled to take charge of their own health and share a cup of simple burdock tea.  The verdict was:

"Smells weird but tastes great!"

In Holistic Health and Traditional Chinese Medicine, the season of Winter corresponds to the Water Element - so we were inspired to learn about all different aspects of water this season.

Creatures of the Sea

We have been learning about some awesome sea creatures by reading these great books!

Sea Horse and Sea Turtle Watercolors

Play-dough Octopus

Did you know that if an octopus loses one of it's tentacles it can grow back a new one?  The kids had a blast counting out the tentacles and 're-growing' any lost ones!

Paper Mache Ocean

Mama Marika brought in a fun paper mache and fish puppet project! 

Shell Sculptures

We explored different shells with terracotta clay - pressing prints, modeling our own shells out of clay, creating sea creatures and other unique creations!

We explored shells on the light table and discovered some interesting barnacles!

We compared the flat shells with the curved shells and learned how the curved shapes create echoes of sound waves that sound like the ocean - pretty magical!

Microscopic Freshwater Plankton

Mr Ben collected some freshwater on the surface of a nearby pond and we observed some tiny living creatures with the microscope.

With the assistance of our very powerful microscope the kids were able to identify the brain, spinal cord, digestive system, and beating heart of the plankton. 

Emotions in the Ocean

The kids loved "Pout Pout Fish" by Deborah Diesen. It was definitely the favorite book of the month with a positive message: the fish had a great realization that the parts of him that make him feel sad and gloomy were also the parts of him that turned him into a kissing fish and could spread cheer everywhere!

Movement and Mindfulness

The following exercises were adapted from "Move With Me - Foundations for Health, Academic Success, and Social-Emotional Intelligence".

Check out this link for an awesome resource!

Fish Breath

Take a deep breath through your nose, now push it all out through the mouth with bloop bloop bloop bloooooop.  And again, deep breath in, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloooooop as you puff out your cheeks with the breath.

When we bring awareness to our breath, we can facilitate the abundant intake of oxygen to the brain and body, relaxing and restoring our system.

Ocean Wisdom

Place one hand on your belly button, place the other hand in the middle of your chest.  Inhale fully and then as you exhale slowly and smoothly, move just your eyes from right to left. Imagine you are looking out at the horizon of a beautiful ocean as you move your eyes side to side.

​The movement facilitates improved eye teaming skills and cross-motor coordination.

And as always one of our favorite activities is to make up our own yoga poses!

​Check out our "Swimming Pink Octopus" and "Dancing Jellyfish"!

Rosemary Potatoes

We harvested some of our Yukon Gold Potatoes and Rosemary in the garden and made a scrumptious snack!

Compost Tea is one of our secrets for our lush and bounitful gardens!

Flower Press Art

We pressed some fresh violas and created some beautiful flower collages!

Watercolor Straws

We created some interesting watercolors using eyedroppers, diluted watercolors, and straws.  We compared different sizes of straws and made a hypothesis as to which size would blow the paint the furthest.

Elisabeth, founder of Shine Your Light Yoga, has been helping out regularly in the classroom and sharing some awesome yoga classes!

Check out her site for more info about her classes and upcoming Spring break camp here:

http://shineyourlightyoga.com/

Namaste Y'all!