Earth Oven Class

Today was all about cooking. We started off by mixing ingredients for bread or pizza dough, as explained by the fabulous folks at Mother Earth News. I have a PDF that I sent home with families that I will try to post here as soon as possible.

recipe and ingredients

Lily mixing up dough

ready to rise

 After that, everyone got down to bidness with constructing an earth oven. Mark had put together the plinth yesterday so that  the kids could see some results as soon as possible. He had followed the suggestions over at The Clay Oven to get us started and Brook provided guidance and picked up the fire bricks for us.

Plinth with 2 fire bricks

First the kids built the sand mound that would form the inside of the oven.

From there, we organized the kids into a chain so that the clay they had mixed could make it quickly and efficiently over to the oven location where Brook and Mark were forming the first layer of cobb.

Mixing up the cobb is messy work

Notice the wet newspaper over the top of the sand

After the first layer of cobb was applied, the kids headed in for lunch.

Lunch with this group is always fun. The kids wander around begging scraps (regardless of what awesomeness is provided for them) and play becomes a  part of eating. This half 30-60 minutes is sometimes my favorite of the day, with parents chatting, food being shared and the spirit of play all over the place. It's lovely.

After lunch, some kids worked on the second layer of cobb while other participated in a pizza garden planting project. The girls and I had cut up egg crates earlier in the day so each child could have six spots in which to poke a seed.

We planted things you would find on a pizza, in keeping with our earth oven theme. Basil, tomatoes, bell peppers, parsley, and chives all got poked into place by small fingers, a gift they would all take home.

After that, more work and play and then pick-up.

Finishing up the second layer of cobb

waiting for slip and decoration

Brilliant class. We couldn't be happier with the results!

And, of course, special thanks go out to all the parent helpers today (a record, I think), with Beth, Heidi, Brook, Joan and Julie all learning about earth ovens.

Drama!

You might remember that last year we did a Self Expression & Storytelling class as well the photos from the event. This year, Elien hosted again and stuck to the winning lesson plan from last year.

Elien writes:

Hi Everyone,

Drama class was a lot of fun with your young actors. The kids had shown great attitudes and teamwork throughout the day. We had a whopping 14 kids that day ranging from age 2 to 8. They had a great time playing "Junior Kids Charades," making up their own group skits, putting on costumes and make-up (the boys went for mohawks and lots of hair goop).

During lunch and recess kids dined on pasta, salad and other snacks, and had a fun time with water games outside and yes inside...(this was not planned). At least my house looked like they had a great time=) Sam (Nicole and Jake's Mom) took lots of pics and will be posted at a later time.

Thank you so much to Sam and Heidi for assisting with the class. Wow was your help needed! I don't know about either one of you but after everyone left, I laid on my couch and stared off in space until Ralph came home from work; at least that's how he found me.

Thanks so much for sharing your kids with me. I hope to share Noah with all of you as well =)

At the end of class, parents were invited to come see the kids perform. I haven't had a chance to see Sam's photos yet, but can share with you the pictures from the two plays. One was from the younger crowd and consisted of a storyline involving cats who have a magic wand, kids at the park and some parents who are clueless. The big kids did a show about a bully who gets scared into being nice. Below are some of my favorites from the performances.

Nicole in full make-up

Nina the cat

Anya, another kitty

Lakshmi says "meow"

Noah announcing the show

A magical Nina

Someday they'll learn to cheat out

Lily directed the big kid piece

Big kids, acting

The bully gets what's coming to him

  The parents were all so proud.

Gary with his Morgan

Proud parents

Lorien gets some snuggle time with Sam's little Jake

Overall, an awesome day for all, even if it did reduce Elien to a zombie!

Beach/Sailing Outing

For Thursday, we planned a beach day at the Bay with a small bit of instruction on sailing. Mark and I (Elaine) have a small Sunflower Snark, a single sail 11 foot long vessel just the right size for an adult and a couple kids.

The day was a bit overcast at first, but with a nice bit of wind to really make the Sunflower scoot.

Mark started with some water safety training and basic knowledge about how sailboats work. My favorite was his demonstration of the life jacket.

After that, it was a typical beach day with sand and water fun and regular trips around the bay in the boat. I don't think Mark spent more than an hour on land all day.

Taking our first explorers out for a sail.

Sajen & Lily get down to digging.

The girls enjoy the water.

Playing on the rocks.

 We headed out when the summer camps started taking over the beach, which was right about the time we were all getting tired anyway.

Torrey & Anya make the sand their bed.

Pioneer Crafts Day

Today was Pioneer Crafts day; the kids got to learn how to make cornbread in a solar oven from cornmeal they ground themselves, make butter for aforementioned cornbread, and hand dip candles made from melted wax and crayons (for color). Basket weaving had been part of the plan, but as we've learned with past classes, sometimes you have to be willing to change plans mid-stride!

The lovely and talented Beth was our hostes

With additional help from Kelli

And an assist with lemonade making and cornmeal grinding by Robert

It was a hot day but all the kids were in top form, with interest in the activities and a real desire to make, do , see, participate. We were so proud of all they did.

Here's Lily and Sajen bringing the Solar Ovens outside to set up

Grinding cornmeal for the cornbread

Making cornbread in the kitchen

Making butter from cream

BUTTER!

Chili made by Beth, cornbread & butter made by co-op kids

Candle making

Proud kids, just getting started with their candles

To see all the photos from our day, see the slideshow below!