Grazy The Pig

So, Grazy the Pig came to visit us at school back in the beginning of June.  At this point in time, Grazy has More than doubled her size pictured here.  I wanted to post this, albeit late, because I felt the pictures were precious.

Grazy belongs to one of the students at school, and when her mother offered to bring her, I jumped on the opportunity.  There is nothing like hands on experience with animals, especially little piglets!  though Grazy was known to be a "squealer" I think she did wonderfully.

To think of how quickly these piglets grow is amazing, here you can see how little she was beside

these little booted legs, but now....well, lets just say Grazy is living up to her name.

Prior to the piglet coming to school we had read several books about pigs that we had gotten out of the library, but by far our favorite story was "Piggie Wig and Piggie Wee," a finger-play we all learned.  You can find this finger play in a previous post under finger-plays.

Our art project for the day was to make piglet finger puppets.

I simply cut the fingers off a pair of garden gloves I got at the dollar store.

The children then added googly eyes and used cork stickers for noses and ears.

The magic of the pigs coming to life happened right away.

I love how the children go right into stories and performance when a puppet is put on their hands.

The piglets lined up complete with there little squiggly tales which the children made using pink pipe cleaner, and wrapping them around a pen.  I then poked them through the fabric so they could stay on. 

Watermelon Mint Pops

I wanted to make a tasty, cool treat for the kids, but didn't want the sugar and the hyperactivity that comes along with the sugar.  One of my favorite refreshers for the summer is to make a watermelon, mint, and honey smoothly, and I thought that would be great for a pop for the kids.

I start by filling up the cup of my rocket blender with watermelon,

I add a couple fresh mint leaves, and a teaspoon of honey.  The mint gives it an extra cooling quality

so it is a nice add in.  Then I blend.

I added the watermelon mixture to small plastic Dixie cup and freeze for at least 1/2 hour before placing pop cycle sticks in.

I add the sticks when the pops are frozen enough to hold them up.  I then cover with plastic wrap and freeze over night.

When you are ready to enjoy them, just warm the cup with your hands, then squeeze and they release from the cups.  Enjoy!