Co-op

Today was Co-op day. I was on the schedule to teach next week, but one of the moms had a kiddo that wasn't well, and needed to switch off, so I offered to switch. I got to teach with one of the new members, Leslie. (She is an EXCELLENT teacher) Our theme this week was "A Veterinarian's Office". We made "Puppy Chow" for a snack. It was pretty authentic looking, I thought.
I was in charge of the math center. We did goldfish math (sorting, graphing, adding, and subtracting). This was my first time teaching co-op this school year, and I was impressed with the progress the kids had made since May!
At the second center the kids used Draw Write Now books to select an animal and draw it. Then they wrote about it, based on their skill level. SweetPea's skill group copied the sentences from the book. The younger ones just wrote the name of the animal, and the older ones had to make up their own sentence(s) to write about the animal they chose. Leslie's center was the Classification center. They had titles:
"Birds", "Fish", "Mammals", and "Reptiles", and had cards with either words or pictures on them that they had to sort and put under the correct headings. This came from Considering God's Creation. (I am sooo glad she chose to do that center!)
The last center was Dramatic Play. Of course this was set up as a vet's office. The kids got to be vets, customers, receptionists, etc. That was cute to watch!
At circle time we had "Puppy Chow" while we read several Vet books, and then did a Venn Diagram comparing a Veterinarian with a Pediatrician. We had some quite interesting answers, lol. We also played animal charades. I had forgotten how much I enjoy charades.
I was worn out after all that!!!
SweetPea came home and read four books (out loud!) without even being asked to do so. She wanted to do more school!

Here is the recipe for "Puppy Chow", in case anyone would like to make it:
9 cups of Kix cereal
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 cup chocolate chips
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Measure cereal into a large bowl.
Mix peanut butter, chocolate chips, butter, and vanilla in microwave safe bowl. Heat until melted, start with 30 seconds, stir, then add 10 more seconds as often as needed.
Pour melted mixture over cereal in bowl and stir until completely mixed.
Put powdered sugar in a large ziptop bag. Add mixture and shake until well coated.
Note: If your large bowl has a tight fitting lid, you could try just adding the powdered sugar, covering, and shaking, instead of putting in large ziptop bag.