A wonderful strategy for “bonding” with kids is through food. Last week I spent time baking for moms and kids for the event “Muffins for Moms”. I made carrot cake muffins to sneak in a vegetable in their diet- ha ! I used cinnamon and cloves for flavor. Right off the bat the kids identified the cinnamon. I gave them time to discern the second spice. After disclosing that it was cloves I realized most had no experience with cloves.
I strive to make sensorial experiences connect with learning. But who wants to wait until these 4th Level students are studying East India spice exchange ? So I plan to bring in my crock pot, warm up some milk spiked with whole cloves, share and discuss. It will provide a memory. The difficulty of this is how to share with one group and leave the other groups out ? Everyone is interested in food, all the time ! Back to the carrot cake ---- E.H. asked if I could provide the recipe. Sure will. And there’s another opportunity to connect with the family and help paint a picture of a likeable teacher. Carrot Cake (muffins) Prepare pans: two round 9 inch cake pans or one rectangular pan 9” x 13” by greasing bottom of pan with shortening. Or for best results use parchment paper, cut to bottom of pan size. Or you may use muffin cups and pan. Makes approximately 18 cupcake / muffins. 4 eggs 2 cups of sugar 1 ¼ cups oil Mix eggs, sugar & oil in a mixer for 2 minutes. 2 cups flour 2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt 2 tsp cinnamon ½ tsp cloves Sift flour and dry ingredients together. Add to egg mix, ¼ part at a time until fully incorporated. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl periodically. 1 tsp lemon juice (optional) 1 tsp vanilla 3 ½ cups shredded carrots ½ cup walnuts or pecans (optional) ½ cup raisins Add lemon juice & vanilla. Add shredded carrots until incorporated. Stir in nuts and raisins evenly within batter (or you may also sprinkle raisins on top of batter so they don’t clump up together in the batter). Pour batter into preparered pans and bake 50 -60 minutes. A toothpick inserted in middle should be dry. Cool in pan 5 minutes and then flip out to cool on baking rack. Enjoy ! During the first quarter we will write a narrative about facing and dealing with adversity. First, however, we are warming our chops to write with sensory details and mental images. Our first assignment was to write about a place. The phrases should help the reader really feel like he or she can see this place. Many students start with a description, yet quickly write about events. My goal in this next few weeks is to play with words and transport us all over the world as we listen to children's writing. With permission from my students, I will get back to this blog post and provide real examples. In the mean time here's a good video communicates a clear picture of our goals in just three minutes.
Greetings Parents ! September 8, 2015 This year I feel excited to take advantage of the technology opportunities for the kids and my own management. We have a computer cart that can be rolled right into the classroom and provide 30 students with computers (although I always use them in smaller group situations). We have reading and math resources that are exclusively online (no more chunky teacher's manuals). We are continuing with Power School and email so that parents have a view of your child's progress. Great, right ? Well........right now it's pretty time consuming to get a grasp on the navigation of much of this software. Also, we were locked out of Google Docs and I had to resubmit my application for the class to be enrolled. I really am ready for many of our children to be word processing and thinking about presentation through Google Docs. It is a GREAT resource. Your child can "share" their drafts with me. As a result, much of the child's work is paperless. Your child can also access it from home, the library, or Uncle Henry's house. So I felt sad when the kids told me they could not log in. So parents, bear with me. Even getting homework out with the new spelling and math program has been a challenge. I have so many goals for your child. I look forward to the weekends to persevere through many of the new programs that I want to use. Check out the links I have provided on my home page. More grade level resources will be added this year. And HOMEWORK ! ! First and foremost I will post the listing of the weekly assignments. I hope you will use this to verify the responsibilities your child has. No more tall tales !! Questions ? You can email me at [email protected] Kind regards and happy new school year. Judy Ganance |
Judy GananceWhat is important in my life? Health, family, community, teaching & learning, forest, lepidoptera, photography, knitting, cooking & technology. It is a great pleasure to explore science and sensible problem solving with our children of Parker Woods Montessori. Archives
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