Banana Mash

This recipe is adapted from 'Cooking is Cool' by Marianne Dambra.  The kids love all the mashing and it's nice to enjoy a no-bake pie in the summertime!

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas
4oz cream cheese, softened
2 TBS honey (add more if you want a sweeter pie)
4 TBS butter, softened
2 TBS cocoa powder
1/2 cup shredded coconut flakes
2 cups crispy rice cereal
1 graham cracker pie crust

Step 1
Mash 2 ripe bananas with a fork.



Step 2
Add cream cheese, honey, and butter to smashed bananas.  Continue mashing with a fork.




Step 3
Stir in cocoa powder and coconut, and mix until well blended.



Step 4
Mix in crispy rice cereal.



Step 5
Pour mixture into pie crust.  Use a rubber spatula to spread it evenly.



Step 6
Slice remaining banana into circles, and place them on top of the pie.  Ask a friend or big sister to help if you need it!



Step 7
Chill or freeze for thirty minutes

Drawing With Scissors

Following the children's love of cutting and pasting these past few weeks, we learned about Henri Matisse and his paper cutout style of art.  We viewed several pieces of his work and explained that Matisse cut directly into the paper, using his scissors as a pencil. Matisse called this technique "drawing with scissors".  The cut out shapes are called "positive shapes" and the holes left in the paper are called "negative shapes". Matisse used both in his collages.  

We read 'Henri's Scissors' by Jeanette Winter to learn more about the artist's life and how he discovered a great joy in creating art with scissors after a serious illness confined him to a wheelchair.

Here we are "drawing with scissors"!

The kids also loved to use these craft punchers made by Edutoys to create more positive and negative shapes.

Then we arranged our shapes on the paper and pasted them to a different color background paper of our choice.

Here's a few examples of our original art.  We were not trying to copycat Matisse, but we were definitely inspired by his work!  We also enjoyed titling our pieces:
"I Made This Leaf", "Paper On Paper", and "Snow Rainbow".

We enjoyed creating this collaborative piece, inspired by Matisse's love of happy bright colors and flowers.

We planted these beet seeds a few months ago and now we have big beautiful beets!  We picked and cleaned some beets for our art project...

then we carved designs in our beets and made beet stamps, first using the fresh beet juice, then we used pink paint.

It was so much fun picking beets, we had plenty extra.  So we made beet and carrot salad with lemon juice, flax oil, fresh basil and a pinch of salt.

In the garden we harvested carrots, onions, cucumbers, strawberries, and basil!

The amazing Abou Sylla came by to give us a West African drumming class!

Check out these 12 ways children benefit from drumming at artdrum.com:

1. Drumming can help students grow academically; it can improve students' ability to concentrate and compliment their studies in math, science, lamguage arts, history, physical fitness and the arts. 

2. According to scientific research, drumming and playing percussion, increases the development of various regions of the brain, including the corpus callosum, motor and auditory cortexes. 

3. Playing drums and rhythms can be an optimal experience and encourages participants of all ages to achieve flow. 

4. Drumming is a healing art and therefore it can give participants of any age a better sense of well being.

5. Hand drumming (and regular participation in any form of percussion playing) increases the physical stamina of students.

6. Drumming increases body awareness & kinesthetic development; drumming helps students develop graceful coordination and self-control.

7. Playing rhythms improves listening skills and increases children's ability to focus for extended periods of time.

8. In general, the increasing of rhythmic skills - and the learning of any musical instrument - increases students' confidence.  

9. Playing rhythmic music helps students to take notice of the rhythms and beauty in nature and their surroundings.

10. Drumming in group formats, such as drum circles, bands and orchestras cultivates an appreciation for teamwork and cooperation.

11. Drum circles are great ethnic and cultural bridges; they harmoniously bring diverse people, instruments and musical styles together.

12. If parents play or take interest in the musical and learning process of their children, then drumming can be a means to forge meaningful bonds between parents and children.

Kirsche came by to teach us a new donkey pose for yoga in the garden!

Every day the kids create a new and improved obstacle course.

Finger paint made out of shaving cream is so much fun!

The kids were presented with varying shades of orange and green oil pastels to draw their own still lifes of our garden grown kabocha squash.

Summertime fun!