M is for Mother

On May 4th we learned more about the letter M. They started by coloring the covers of the cookbooks for mom. You can see what's on the inside at the end of the post!

Then we got working on our other Mother's Day gift. We mashed strawberries,

measured how much we needed,

measured the sugar,

and mixed it all together. I poured in the hot pectin mixture and they mixed it in well. I put the freezer jam into tupperware containers and they were ready for mom!

We read the books Are You My Mother and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

Next, we talked about Mexico and Cinco de Mayo. We decorated marvelous maracas with stickers (white address labels and red & green price circles) to marginally resemble the Mexican flag.

Side note: I made these from large plastic Easter eggs. These conveniently had holes in the bottom and I just used a knife to make a slit between them. (I tried slicing one that didn't have the holes, but the plastic was a different kind and the whole thing shattered!)
I then pushed a plastic fork (I didn't have any spoons on hand) down through the slit and glue gunned it in place. I filled the top with rice and snapped the egg together. Using electrical tape, I sealed the thing shut.

For our snack we munched English muffins with butter and our marvelous, newly made strawberry freezer jam on them.

Right at the end, the kids enjoyed moving through the masking tape maze that I had set up in our music room (our formal living room lacks seating and has only a piano and an antique stereo for furniture :)

I knew we wouldn't have time for this craft during preschool, but afterward I had Christian color a paper plate mosquito mask. He loved using the straw "mouth" to drink "blood" red punch!

And now I have to show off my student's masterpieces:

and the pages of the cookbook:

Aren't they adorable?? You should be able to click on the pages to get a larger view.