feeling grateful for water...

 we read precious water and made a list of the different ways in which we use water- and how we take it for granted. i talked to the kids about how some countries don't have running water and how people have to walk great distances to get it. in order to help them understand how much work this requires i took the kids to a bodega and had them buy a gallon of water. afterwards i challenged them to carry it home!

they also tried balancing the water on their head- something everyone agreed was very difficult!

in the end they made it a little over half a block until they decided they had had enough...

learning about india...

i love it when the kids think of something that never occurred to me- fiona stuck a craft jewel on her forehead and viola! a bindi!

i gave each of the girls a henna tattoo...

we went to the grocery store to buy the ingredients for our spice cookies. each of the kids were assigned an ingredient to find... i suggested asking for help and they did!

the recipe called for many different spices like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and dried mustard so the girls took turns smelling and describing each.

i left the room for about 10 seconds and when i returned this is how fiona looked... busted!

 

the girls took turns having their hands traced. they noticed that by moving the hand prints around we would have a left and right hand!

we decorated the hands with our henna ink (aka black gel icing) and brought them to underwood for a picnic! 

i think talking about india made everyone miss theo more- they all wanted to write him a letter!