It has been quite a while since our last blog post, but I wanted to share something the children did before the holidays. The children had been decorating our Christmas tree over and over again so we decided to decorate the trees outside. However, instead of traditional Christmas ornaments we decided to make it completely edible for all of the animals that live here at Little Munchkins. This project was really special because everybody had a part, and the children came together and made something really magnificent!
The children used thread and needles to string fresh popcorn into garland. (They may have snacked a little bit too.)
We used left over rolls from our kitchen, peanut butter, and bird seed to make "bird muffins". The children cut the rolls in half, spread the peanut butter over top, and sprinkled the seeds to top it off. Yet again the children were snacking! (Thankfully we had a big jar of peanut butter!)
We found a recipe for bird cookies online and thought we could make those into ornaments. Flour, oats, water, bird seed, and eggs in the shell made our cookie dough. The after schoolers thought they didn't sound too appetizing, but they seemed to enjoy making the "cookies" anyway. Once we had all our decorations for the trees we all went outside decorate our hedges!
Once all the decorations were put on the trees, the children were excited for birds to come and eat. There were no signs of wildlife that day (I wonder why?!?) but the next morning the trees were practically bare!! I think the educators were just as surprised as the children were. In the beginning the children thought all the goodies were just for the birds, but you could see many different tracks in the snow. I think it is safe to say our edible Christmas trees were a hit!
Do you recognize any of these tracks?