Seedalicious Treats

4/30/2015

These little no-bake bites were so much fun to make! Who needs a food processor when you have kid-power?

We put 1 cup of sprouted watermelon seeds, 1 cup of pumpkin seeds, 1 cup of pistachios, 1/2 cup of pecans, 1/2 cup of sesame seeds, and a 3oz bar of 88% dark chocolate in separate ziploc bags and then hammered away. We tried out different rhythms and techniques so that some of our seeds were finely ground and other pieces were still chunky.

We put all of our hammered seeds, nuts, and chocolate into a large bowl and added 1 cup of shredded coconut,1/2 cup dried mulberries and 1 tsp salt.

In a separate pan we mixed 1/4 cup coconut oil, 1/3 cup honey, and 1/2 cup almond butter. An adult quickly boiled the contents on the stove for 1 minute and poured the mixture on top of the dry ingredients.

Once cool to the touch we firmly pressed the mixture into an 8 x 8 greased pan and placed into the fridge to cool and firm for at least 2 hours. So yummy!

We began learning about birds by looking at paintings by John Audubon and working with the Birds Coloring Book. We discussed the different varieties, sizes, and colors of birds in Audubon's art...

Then we started our own Audubon inspired works of art!

We explored different bird stickers and made simple bird sketches...

We learned how Audubon liked to use watercolors for many of his paintings and made our own watercolor birds and abstract watercolor cards.

We made some birding binoculars out of toilet paper rolls with masking tape. The kids loved experimenting with the tape!

Then we used toothbrushes to paint different textures on our binoculars and added our own design elements.

The kids loved building and painting this sweet little bird feeder!

We filled our bird feeder with safflower seeds to attract more Cardinals, Blue Jays, and Doves to our yard. What's great about safflower seed is that squirrels and grackles don't like it so it keeps the feeder a little more peaceful.

We hung our feeder up in magic tree...

and waited quietly for the birds to come.

We also made some pine cone bird feeders!

Feather painting!

Feather rubbings and collages!

Flying Bird Breath: Stand up tall and strong with your arms by your sides. Imagine you are a beautiful strong bird. Prepare to fly by opening your wings out to the side, palms facing up while breathing in slowly. Continue to breathe in as you touch your palms together above your head. Slowly breathe out as you lower your wings, palms facing down. Continue to fly with your breath. Close your eyes as you fly, what do you see as you fly through the sky?

Seed sorting...

Planting seeds...

The kids are doing a beautiful job taking care of our herb garden.

Watermelons are coming!

We got our awesome blocks from Community Playthings! A huge thank you to our community and all the grandparents who contributed!!

The blocks are amazing for gross motor development and spatial intelligence, but as educators we find the best benefits are the cooperative and communication skills gained when working on their creations together.