March 13th, 2019

3/13/2019

Smell Test
Lately the most popular area of the kitchen is the collection of spice jars from home. Often, we observe children smelling the insides of the jars, especially the jar that used to have cumin. Today after clean-up, the class sat down and had a discussion about three spices: cinnamon, allspice, and cloves.

Palmer: What’s in this one?
Grace: What’s in that one?
Melanie: I was wondering - do you have any ideas about what might be in here?
(Palmer picks one up and shakes it, making a sound… Wolf and Grace follow suit, so we begin passing them around.)
Melanie: What happens when we shake them?
Alexandra: It’s not gonna make noise… (Has cinnamon sticks that aren’t as loud)
Emilia: It rattles!
Alexandra: Mine’s not going to rattle.
Melanie: (Collects jars) What do you think is inside?
Grace: We don’t know.
Melanie: What if you could guess?
Grace: Peanut butter.
Palmer: Pumpkins.
Wolf: Spice.
Melanie: Who agrees that spice could be in here?
Alexandra: Me.
Melanie: Does anyone know the name of any spices?
Emilia: Spicy pepper.
Melanie: What else? Any other guess of what goes inside the jar?
Fletcher: Marshmallows.
Ellie: Beans.
(We begin the smell test! Fletcher gets the first container, then he passes it to his neighbor, and so on… they each react to it)
Fletcher: Cinnamon.
Grace: Cinnamon.
Ellie: Cinnamon.
Emilia: Cinnamon.
Alexandra: Cinnamon.
Wolf: Not for us to eat?
Melanie: No, this cinnamon would be too crunchy for us to eat right now. It has to be ground into powder before we can eat it.
Wolf: Want to cook it?
Melanie: We can cook it. How should we cook it?
Fletcher: In the oven!
Emilia: No, toast!
Melanie: Is there anything that cinnamon is making you think of?
Grace: Bread.

(We move onto the next spice, Allspice, starting with Alexandra, then passing it.)
Melanie: What’s that smell?
Alexandra: Chocolate.
Emilia: Chocolate.
Ellie: Chocolate.
Grace: (makes a gross-ed out face, shakes head no)
Fletcher: Beans.
Palmer: It smells like chocolate.
Wolf: Bread.
(We move on to the last spice, cloves… Brooke starts, then passes it)
Brooke: It’s not really my favorite.
Grace: Yum.
Alexandra: I don’t like it.
Wolf: Good. (He takes one single clove out and smells it)
Melanie: That one has a funny shape, too.
Palmer: Chocolate.
Fletcher: Sticks! (seeing the shape)
Grace: Chocolate.
Melanie: Do you guys think it’s reminding you of chocolate because it’s brown?
Grace: Yeah.
Melanie: (Asking the group) do we think “yum” or “yuck”?
Emilia: (Shows thumbs up sign but sideways) This is maybe.

Picnic

Grace announced that she was having a picnic! When her friends heard, they hurried over to help spread the picnic blanket. Then, they began to prepare different kinds of food and bring it over to this blanket. Palmer brought chicken nuggets, Wolf made pudding, Grace prepared pancakes and lettuce, and Emilia provided coffee, tea, and cookies.