George Washington's Teeth

In the kindergarten class that I've been student teaching in, we've been thinking a lot lately about the presidents since Monday was Presidents' Day. We started off by just asking ourselves, "What is a president? What does a president do? What are his responsibilities?" These are some of the things we came up with.

As you can see, they had some great thoughts and a pretty good grasp on some of the expectations of a president. One thing that made me giggle and was just such a funny kindergarten moment is when someone said they knew the name of our president right now, Barack Obama. He is such an adorable child, and afterwards he spoke up with a very concerned tone and said, "He doesn't make good choices!" Too funny! Someone's been listening in on political discussions at home! But, we used it as an opportunity to talk about how the president has to make a lot of tough decisions, and not everyone likes the decisions that he makes. It's just part of the job. Just like a part of our job is to show our children how to be respectful of the president and other people who are in charge. It was a good teachable moment.

We've also been talking about the different numbers that we can use to make ten. Usually, the social studies and science gets rushed a bit at the end of the day with me because math is such an important part of the curriculum, so I love being able to combine two core subjects into one lesson. Today, we smooshed together Presidents' Day learning with our math learning.

I started by reading George Washington's Teeth by Deborah Chandrah and Madeleine Comora. This book is great for learning about the history of America at a developmentally appropriate level, and allows for some discussion regarding number. It's also pretty funny, so the kids loved it a lot. 

Then, I showed them an example of a George Washington craft that I made, and modeled to them how I put it together and glueing his teeth on, then I asked them how many teeth were on top, and how many were on the bottom, and we created an addition equation. 

Then, I passed out their materials and let them create their own, choosing how many teeth they wanted on top and how many they wanted on the bottom, helping some of them along the way. Their final products turned out great! They were so proud of their little presidents!

I love how each of them were so different. I really like seeing the same activity done by everyone, and how they all look so personalized in the end. 

Some of our friends lost a few teeth in the process, so you can see one of them made an equation with 8 beans. 

Look at that smile!

The one in the middle didn't quite finish, but check out those colors. So creative!

Any time you can make a craft into an authentic learning activity in the classroom, I love it! You can learn with art, and that's what makes their final products so beautiful to me. 

Happy late Presidents' Day!

Andrea

Marinara Sauce and Zucchini Pizzas

Today was another no school day, so naturally I spent the entire day baking and writing lesson plans. I wanted to make a lot of different foods that I could grab throughout the week, but first I sat down with a weekly menu planner and planned out exactly what I wanted to have every day this week for my meals. I'm going to have zero time to cook this week, so I saw today as my opportunity to get it all done.

Yesterday, my mom prepared some spaghetti squash for us to have this week, so the first thing I wanted to make was some marinara sauce that we could add to it as we need it. I didn't have any fresh basil, which is really my favorite part about my usual homemade marinara sauce, so this recipe includes dried basil. Usually what I do is just grab a bundle of basil and add it to the pan as I'm sauteing the tomatoes and garlic. So I definitely advise doing that if you're going to try this recipe. I've never really measured things out for marinara sauce, but I tried to write it all down as I was going this time so I could share it.

Homemade Marinara Sauce

• 4 fresh tomatoes, diced
• 12 ounces of all natural tomato paste
• 1 cup water
• 4-5 cloves garlic
• handful of fresh basil/1 Tbsp dried basil
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• red pepper flakes to taste
• salt and pepper to taste

Spray a large pan with olive oil spray and turn on medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for about 2 minutes, moving the garlic around on the pan constantly. Add the tomatoes and the tomato paste and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring as needed. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for about 5 minutes. If it looks like the sauce is too thick, add a little bit more water. Pour all of the sauce into a food processor and process for about 1 minute, until the sauce is completely smooth. Pour into two jars and let it cool for about 20 minutes before putting the lid on the jars. Keep refrigerated.

Sometimes I change it up by adding fresh mushrooms or Parmesan cheese to the pan, just depending on what I'm using it for. This recipe is the one I use for making pizzas.

Speaking of pizza, I had a zucchini in the fridge that I needed to use soon, so I decided to make some zucchini base pizzas. I've made them before, and I used to just cut the zucchini in half, but that was too thick, so I started cutting them a little thinner, that way the zucchini wouldn't overpower the pizza taste.

Zucchini Pizzas

• 1 whole zucchini, sliced lengthwise into 4 pieces
• 1/4 cup marinara sauce
• 2 slices mozzarella cheese
• 2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese
• garlic powder
• red pepper flakes

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Put the zucchini on a greased pan and sprinkle the tops of them with garlic powder. Bake for about 20-25 minutes in the oven until slightly golden.

 

Add the sauce, cheese, Parmesan, red pepper flakes, and any other pizza toppings you want to add. I usually add some turkey pepperoni but I didn't have any today.

 Put back in the oven for 5 minutes, then increase to broil, and leave in for 2 more minutes. Let the pizzas cool for about 5 minutes before plating.

These were really yummy, and I love trying different things to try to make pizza a little healthier. Because, let's be honest, I can't go one week without pizza. I also made some mushroom soup today, as well as some clean eating chicken tenders and zucchini chips, but it's already pretty late, I have school tomorrow, and I've posted quite a bit in the last two days. So hopefully I'll get those recipes up later this week! 

Happy clean eating!

Andrea

Clean Eating Blueberry Banana Bread

I've had a bunch of bananas laying around all week, and I haven't used any of them this week, so they have ripened up pretty nicely. Perfect for baking bread! Since the wedding is about seven months away now, I have my first dress fitting coming up in the near future, so I've got to crack down on the not so healthy eating. I also read an article recently that really inspired me to try to shift from eating "kind of clean" to "clean" eating. You can read that article here. I've been really enjoying eating breads for breakfast lately, so I decided to bake some clean eating bread for me to have this week. It's quick, so I can grab it as I'm walking out the door. I can even pack some to have as my snacks at school.

Clean Eating Blueberry Banana Bread

•  2 1/3 cups oat flour
• 4 ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup applesauce, unsweetened
• 4 egg whites
• 2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 3 Tbsp plain Greek yogurt
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1 tsp vanilla

 Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix all of the dry ingredients in a food processor (I use my Ninja).

Then, add the egg whites, bananas, applesauce, Greek yogurt, and vanilla to the processor and blend until smooth. Pour into a sprayed loaf pan.

Put the pan in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. While the bread was in the oven, I calculated the calories per slice of bread, which just so happens to be roughly 105 calories if there are 12 slices! Not too shabby :)

When the 45 minutes are up, stick a toothpick in the center just to make sure it is baked all the way through, then allow to cool for about 20 minutes before trying to remove it from the pan. I've ruined too many loaves by not waiting long enough to take them out of the loaf pan. It's a real problem I have.

One word, friends: YUM!

Happy baking!

Andrea

Hearty Apple Pie for Valentine's Day

Chad and I decided this year that, with me being busy with school 90% of the time now, and with upcoming wedding expenses, that neither one of us would buy each other Valentine's gifts this year. Plus, wasn't Christmas, like, just a few weeks ago? Anyway, I decided just to ask him what he wanted me to cook for him for dinner, to which he obviously responded, "Barbecue chicken and garlic mashed potatoes," without a second of hesitation. I also wanted to make something special for dessert, so I decided to make an apple pie.

Now, I've never made any kind of pie before, in all of the five years that I have been baking. I have always been weirdly intimidated by the thought of making a pie, but I recently read Labor Day by Joyce Maynard, and in that novel, the main character learns to make pies from a (wrongly) convicted felon. The way they talked about making pies made me really hungry, and also really inspired to try to make one of my own. So, I took to Pinterest, obviously, to get some ideas. I saw a really adorable strawberry pie with heart-shaped dough cutouts baked on top over at RecipeBest.com, and I decided that I definitely wanted to use that idea in my own creation. But, being stubborn the way that I tend to be when it comes to baking, I knew that I did not want to use a store-bought pie crust. I don't know what it is about things like store-bought pie crusts and store-bought pasta sauces, but I really hate to use them. Not all of them are bad, and some of them are probably a lot better than what I can do myself, but I just enjoy so very much to be able to look at something and think to myself, "I made that."

Granted, since this was my first attempt at making a pie, there were some hiccups along the way, and my mom taught me a trick for how to not burn the edges of a pie crust that I do plan on remembering next time. I used Paula Deen's recipe for the crust, substituting lard for vegetable shortening, and then used her recipe for the filling as a guideline, and then branched out a little bit from it.

Apple Pie Filling

• 9 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced fairly thin
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
• nutmeg, to taste
• ground cloves, to taste
• egg wash
• cinnamon/sugar mix, for dusting

Before making the crust, peel, core, and slice the apples and place them in a large bowl.

On top of the apples, pour the sugars, vanilla, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg, then use your hands to coat the apples evenly with the mixture. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge until you are ready for it.

Prepare the dough, making sure to allow it to chill in the fridge before rolling them out to use in the pan. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Roll out the first disk of dough and place it in the pie pan, trimming the edges as needed. Pile in the apples, then roll out your second disk of dough to start cutting out the hearts.

Continue cutting out hearts and putting them on top of the apples until it looks like this:

Then, brush the top with the egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Bake in your oven for about 35-45 minutes. My edges burned, but my mom told me that if, before putting in the first layer of the crust, I lined the edge of the pan with aluminum foil, then removed it during the last ten minutes of baking, that the edges wouldn't burn. I'm going to have to remember that and try it next time.

Overall, it wasn't such a traumatizing experience for my first pie-baking adventure. We had it with vanilla ice cream, of course, and it was delicious! I just couldn't get over how pretty it turned out! I'll definitely be making this one again... but maybe not too soon, with the wedding being 7 months away and my first dress fitting coming up soon!

Happy baking!

Andrea

What We've Been Up To In Kindergarten

I know, I know... I said I was going to start posting more, and so naturally I stopped posting for over a month. And really I have no excuse at all, because (in case you aren't from the south and/or you live under a very large rock) I have had a total of 7 days off from student teaching this semester due to some unnaturally cold winter weather. The first round of weather struck everyone as a surprise, meaning that everyone rushed to the nearest interstate and tried to get home as quickly as possible, which resulted in lots of accidents all at once, roads blocked off for days, and people walking home and abandoning their cars.

By some miracle (if you can call it that), I ended up being sick with bronchitis the first day that all of the snow decided to fall in Alabama, so instead of being 40 minutes away in Hoover, which would have resulted in me having to stay overnight at the school or attempt to drive home and having to sleep in my car, I was 10 minutes away at the doctor's office. But that still meant being stuck for two and a half hours looking at that Red Diamond truck and literally not moving an inch. I finally resolved to driving on the shoulder and slowly weaving through a mile of parked trucks in order to make it the last mile and a half home because I was running out of gas, and I was not about to walk a mile and a half in the snow while being miserably sick with bronchitis. I have to say, my little Fiat fared pretty well in all of the snow!

Over the next four days, I didn't leave my house once, except to take Khaleesi outside so she could enjoy her first snow ever! Little did we know that in just about a week and a half she would get to enjoy it all over again.

But now the snow is all melted, and I have a little over two months left in my student teaching semester. Since I got almost two weeks off, I feel like I haven't really done much. In about another week I will have to shift to full-time teaching in the classroom, despite the fact there hasn't been much build-up to it, but I'm excited to start, and I'm ready for it. So, here are some of the few things that I have been able to do this semester so far.

We started a fairy tale unit when I first arrived, so I was able to contribute to that. The end of the unit assessment was their creation of their own fairy tales, including a good character, a bad character, something the protagonist wanted, a problem posed by the villain, and something magical to help them reach their "happily ever after". So, in each of the fairy tales we read, we discussed some of those main elements of their fairy tales. Since all of the snow has limited us so much, their fairy tales aren't quite finished yet, but we did do some other things. We read some different fairy tales, including Cinderella, and their writing extension was to finish the sentence, "If I had a fairy godmother, I would..." Their responses were fabulous!

 

After reading Cinderella, we discussed how many of the fairy tales we know and love here where we live are much different in other cultures around the world. We talked about how there is a different version of Cinderella told in every culture around the world, and we read The Rough-Face Girl by Rafe Martin. Afterward, we filled in a Venn diagram together to point out some of the differences and similarities between the two stories.

 

 When we read Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, we created a character web to describe the good character and the bad character, which helped to kick-start their thinking for when they were creating their own good characters and bad characters.

For math, I helped finish up the shapes unit by talking about 3D shapes and comparing them to 2D shapes. We started by relating some of the shapes to some things we saw in school by going on a 3D shapes hunt around the school. We also created a poster to help us remember some of the characteristics of 3D shapes, such as how many faces and corners they had, we tested to see which shapes could roll and slide down a ramp, and we also tested to see which ones could stack on top of other shapes.

 

Valentine's Day was a pretty crazy day because we had been out for three days, and it was on a Friday, and there was so much already planned for that day that we really didn't get to do very much. The math activity I had planned will probably be done on Tuesday because it really fits in with the unit they're starting next, but we were able to do about 10 minutes of math before lunch as a class by doing a vote on what kind of chocolate was everyone's favorite. We talked about which one the most number of friends liked, and which one the least number of friends liked, and about how we could tell that just by looking at the graph.

I was also pleasantly surprised at the amount of treats I got from students that day! I spent all day feeling like a walking, talking piñata. 

I have also been working with a small group to give them some additional support in high-frequency/sight words, reading strategies, and letter/sound identification. I haven't been able to do a ton with them in the past couple of weeks, but I have been able to play a few games with them and do some work with word families and CVC words. 

 

I can't remember if I mentioned this in a previous post, but I was hired by the school I'm student teaching in to be the "permanent sub" for the kindergarten and first grade extended day classroom, which means I am at the school every day from 7:00 am until 6:00 pm. It's rough, but I'm loving the experience and the children are so sweet. They needed a little bit of structure in the classroom because for several weeks they had a different sub every day, so I decided to implement Rick Morris' clip chart for promoting positive behavior. Many of the teachers at the school use it, and I have found it to be pretty effective. They are able to not only move down for making bad choices, but also to move up for making good choices and improving their behavior throughout the day. I decided to make mine be a superhero chart, obviously. :)

That's really about all I've been up to lately! Not much on the wedding front since I've been so busy with school, but I do have an appointment with the fabulous Madeline Beavers to discuss wedding hair next Saturday, and my appointment for cake tasting is during spring break, and my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

I do have a few recipes to share, so be on the look out for that! That was one benefit from being at home for so long. Cabin fever leads to baking! 

Happy teaching!

Andrea