Little Hands that Cook with Books: Turkey Casserole

 

Do you have some leftover turkey?  Here's a great recipe for your little one to make all by themselves! 

It’s turkey time at cooking class! The girls have been learning to many skills in the past 8 weeks that they were ready to create a dish all by themselves! 

Before we started cooking we read this adorable book, The Littlest Pilgrim by Brandi Dougherty.  A story about a Little Pilgrim girl who wants to help everyone in her tiny village but everyone is either too busy to hear her or thinks she’s not big enough.  At the end she finds the one skill she’s good at, making a friend.  We talked about the things that they are able to help with in the kitchen now and how they were going to make dinner tonight all by themselves. 

 

 

 

 To Make Turkey Casserole it’s super easy and kid friendly.  Here’s the recipe.

  Once they finished their casseroles we cleaned up and it was time for Pilgrims while our dishes baked. 

We made a Pilgrim inspired from Here.  The girls traced their own pieces and cut them out on their own.  Once they attached all the pieces they wrote in the middle what they were thankful for. I love how the all ended up so different from each other. 

I am very thankful for my cooking Pilgrims, it's been so much fun getting to know them.  Hope your family had a great Thanksgiving.   

 

For more Thanksgiving Crafts

Bilingual Babies- Christmas 2011 Traditions

This month is a wonderful time to blend and merge traditions of two cultures.  Often times schools will introduce Christmas around the world to their students in the form of crafts.  I would encourage you to take your child's learning a little further! The Internet and your local library are great sources for learning more about holiday traditions around the world. If you are fortunate to have family members close by or a phone call away- ask them about their family traditions! Here are some hints for Celebrating a diverse holiday from the Language Castle.

I was always curious about the Russian traditions.  They do not celebrate Christmas on December 25th, but on January 7th based on the old Julian calendar.  For many years celebrating Christmas was forbidden (More info here) For many people, New Years became the "New" Christmas complete with a tree, fireworks, gifts, and a visit from "Ded Moroz," Grandfather Frost.  New Year's today remains the largest holiday, but many Russians also celebrate Christmas. 

My husband and I laugh because although we were born many, many miles apart, my Christmas and his New Years were very similar!  Our families decorated trees ( we both have baby pictures next to the tree.)  We both gathered with our family for dinner and toasted for good health, happiness, and fortune.  Our families all baked breads, roasted meats, and made other traditional dishes.  Small gifts like books, sweets,  and clothing were also given to family members.

Our tree went up this weekend and it is a symbol of our traditions merged and is by no means meant for the cover of Martha Stewart magazine, rather an awakening of memories in our hearts.  Just as my grandmother started a tradition of giving me one ornament for Christmas each year, we have asked our parents to continue the tradition for our children.  Because of this - our tree represents who we are as a family.  There are more classic Russian ornaments such as this one from my sons' Christmas ornament last year.

And a more modern ornaments such as these from my daughter's collection that represent the different cultural dresses of some Ethnic Russian groups.  We enjoy telling our children stories from the year they received each ornament and have made sure to label and date the boxes or the ornaments themselves with a permanent marker. 

Now that our tree is up and decorated  - we have time to enjoy it!

My Bilingual Goals for the month are to

1. Cook some traditional pastries and soups - at least one each week.

2. Read 1 story a day in Russian

3. Make a felt board story for Snegorichka (Grandfather Frost's Granddaughter)

4. Teach my kids the song about the evergreen tree! More Russian songs here and here in case you were looking for some! We have the first verse mastered.

Here are the words =)  WISH ME LUCK!!!!

В лесу родилась елочка,

В лесу она росла,
Зимой и летом стройная, зеленая была.
Зимой и летом стройная, зеленая была.

Метель ей пела песенку:
"Спи, елочка, бай-бай!"
Мороз снежком укутывал: "Смотри, не замерзай!"
Мороз снежком укутывал: "Смотри, не замерзай!"

Трусишка - зайка серенький
Под елочкой скакал.
Порою волк, сердитый волк, рысцою пробегал.
Порою волк, сердитый волк, рысцою пробегал.

Чу! Снег по лесу частому
Под полозом скрипит;
Лошадка мохноногая торопится, бежит.
Лошадка мохноногая торопится, бежит.

Везет лошадка дровеньки,
А в дровнях мужичок,
Срубил он нашу елочку под самый корешок.
Срубил он нашу елочку под самый корешок.

И вот она, нарядная,
На праздник к нам пришла,
И много, много радости детишкам принесла.
И много, много радости детишкам принесла. 

Kids in the garden November updates and our first "Gift-away"

 Here is what our side yard garden bed looks like at the end of November.  We have climbing beans, herbs, strawberries, lettuce, Kale, chives, and annuals. (Keep reading for the GIFT-AWAY from GROWUMS!)

 The kids have been harvesting a couple handfuls of green beans every morning.  They just eat them raw!

 The peppers are amazingly still producing well.  We planted these green peppers early last spring and they have been flowering and fruiting since then.  I wish we would have started a harvest count!  Right now, I am just picking them, washing, dicing and freezing them for use in scrambled eggs, fajitas, and chili.

 Between the dog, the kids, the bugs, the squirrels and the birds, my first batch of broccoli was eaten before it had any chance to grow. =(  Using the materials we had available, I made some protectors!  We had some left over bamboo and I combined it with wax coated lashing thread and tool netting to make the cover above. An empty yogurt container, rubber band and tool worked for the remaining plants.  My garden may not be the prettiest right now, but I WANT my broccoli to survive!

 We put in some onion sets and will see how they do - I am usually 50 -50 on onion survival rate which is ok because it is the one vegetable I really dislike!

We were gifted a lemon tree in poor condition last winter and planted it in the ground.  I didn't think it would make it, but this morning we found the tree covered in blossom.  There may be hope!

 My little rose bush is also blooming the sweetest little pink roses - perfect for a 5 year old bouquet!

My only rule is that you ask before cutting - only because I want to make sure I know where the scissors are.  I usually say yes to cutting just about everything - even it is my favorite flower.  Sometimes it is hard for me to see these beautiful flowers removed from the yard, but that is why I garden.  If the flowers and vegetables were off limit to my kids, then the major reason I garden would disappear.  Gardening is a time commitment to my family and our environment.   She just adores cutting and arranging her own flowers and I she puts her heart into what she does.  She makes our dinner table so beautiful!  I wouldn't trade that feeling and those moments for a beautiful yard.

 And now, on to our "GIFT Away!"  Gift away?  I know the bloggy world does all these give aways with all these rules and ways to earn bonus entries.  You are more than welcome to do any of these at any time; follow us!  Join us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Educators-Spin-On-It/219242558117459 and leave us zillions of meaningful comments.  We LOVE hearing from you!!! But I am not so sure that is what I am looking for - SO, since Growums was so sweet to share this product with me (and the kids I garden with at school) AND send me an extra HERB garden for one of you, I am hosting my first ever GIFT Away!!!

One of you - our faithful readers will be receiving this Herb Garden (yes, these can be grown indoors for you snowbirds or saved for spring). This will be a gift to say THANK YOU for visiting, reading, commenting, and making us a part of your life!  Each container contains everything you will need to start your own plants.  It also has an online component for you to watch how-to videos with your children and meet the characters in your garden.  If you are not the gift recipient - don't worry, I will host more gift-aways later!  If you think these gardening containers are the CUTEST, check them out online and even consider them for you school's fundraiser this spring!

The kindergartners at my daughters school have their stir fry garden up and growing!  They LOVED watching the seed packets grow.  We will be starting our herb garden in January and maybe YOU will be able to grow one with us!  I am hoping to get this cute little package sent out this week, just in time for a stocking stuffer! Are you ready to hear who is the lucky recipient?   Sorry, I am not making it that easy =)  Stay tuned for the announcement!!!!

How to improve reading comprehension and Afterschool BlogHop

One of our readers writes:
My first grade daughter is struggling in reading, I  wanted to ask your opinion on what I can do at home. She reads to us every night, and does great, but I think she is struggling with Comprehension. Do you have any advice for stuff I can do at home?


Amanda's Spin On It


First of all, it is great that you are taking the time to read with your daughter every day.  This is SO important!  Although we haven't spent time reading with your daughter it sounds like she is able to decode, or sound out new words and sounds like a fluent reader, meaning her oral reading flows almost like a musical melody.  There are many different ways that you can strengthen a childs' reading comprehension.  2 strategies that come to my mind are First Lines and the use of a story map.


First Lines is an activity done prior to reading the story.  You read your child the first 1 or 2 lines of the book, then talk about what the rest of the book is going to be about.  This can also be called making predictions and they don't have to be right!  This is also a great time to bring up things you have done in the past together.  For example, if you are reading a story about a little girl going to the pumpkin patch, you can say, "Do you remember when we went to the pumpkin patch last week.  What type of things did we see and do?  Do you think this story will have some of the same things?"


A story map is a graphic organizer that is done during or after reading.  The simplest form is a Beginning, Middle and End story map.  You can find one here.   Students can either write a sentence (or 2) describing the part or draw a picture. An important component of story map is being able to talk to an adult or other child about the important parts. If your child is struggling to figure out what to write, you may provide them with prompts such as, "Lets think about the main characters.  Who where they and what did they do first?"


Kim's Spin On It
You mentioned that you're reading with her at home every night which will most definitely help her!  Since you said "struggling" I'm assuming that means her grades in school are reflecting she's having difficulty.  I would recommended scheduling a conference with her teacher to discuss what she's observing with your daughter.  I would also suggest finding out what they are reading, perhaps getting a reading list.  You can always check out the same books at the local library if they are available for additional readings and also you'll be able to focus in on what area she needs work on.   

I think that Comprehension is one of the reading skills that beginning readers struggle with most often. One of the reasons is because they are so excited they can fluently read the words that they forget to remember what they're reading.  Sometimes just getting them to slow down and comprehend is the way to start, both predicting and summarizing can help with that. 

One suggestion would be to have her spend more time predicting what's going to happen next.  While you're listening to her read, literally close the book when you sense something big will happen and have her try to guess what the outcome will be.  It helps her to process what's been happening and also problem solve what could happen. 

The other suggestions I have is to have her stop while she's reading and ask her both a specific and summarizing question about what she just read.  Those basic who, where, why, when, and how questions will get her thinking about what she's reading. 

OK Readers - what is your SPIN ON IT???? What activities do you do at home to improve reading comprehension????

 

Stop by and visit Little Wonder Days, Mouse Grows Mouse Learns, Just Playin' Around, Mama Smiles, Superheroes and Princesses, The Educators' Spin On It, and What Do We Do All Day for this weeks Afterschool Bloghop! We all LOVE comments =)

Afterschool Express: Giving Thanks

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

It's time for Afterschool Express and this week we  (Kim and Amanda) are the hosts of the Afterschool Bloghop!

This week, we tried our very best to take some time to "Give Thanks" as we went about our week.  The girls are having lots of fun reading books and creating projects about Thanksgiving.  Most importantly we are  learning about the "Spirit of Thanksgiving."  Now that they are in Kindergarten in a Public School there aren't as many opportunities to work on handmade art and craft projects which is so important for them to experience.  So we tried our best to incorperate some projects at home.   

Here's a few of our projects that we created this week in both of our homes. 

Turkey Finger Puppets
We loved these, but didn't have the supplies in the house and opted for the traditional felt (plus extra fabric choices that I didn't have the colors in felt)  Although we talked about the difference between male and female turkeys, there was NO way you could convince my 5 year old that this turkey did not need a bow =)

 

 

Thankful Turkey
We've been working about expressing the things that we are thankful for each night at the dinner table and she's been writing the thoughts of gratitude down on strips of paper.  Then we took all of the papers and glued them onto a circle for the body and a circle for the head.  Then she cut some legs and beak and waddle.  It's so cute to see what they are thankful for. 

Recycling Turkey feather papers into Fall Tree
Using the leftover paper from our feather we practiced our cutting skills and created this fall tree.  I think over the next few days my daugther will also be adding people and a turkey and an owl in the tree.  Love projects that you can continue to build upon. 

Pilgrim Writing
We were inspired by the Pilgrim at First Grade Blue Skies for our writing this week.  She cut out the pieces and glued them together.  Then wrote about what she is thankful for.  I think we will continue this idea for each Month to keep our writing on the fridge at all times. We used this as the lesson in our Cooking Class The Littlest Pilgrim and Turkey Casserole. 
  

Handprint Turkeys - So many cute ones out there like this one and this one!  Elliana and Nicholas made handprint trees and figured that our hands were already painted on and made the turkeys too!!! We visited this interactive website and learned more about the Wampanoag and if turkeys were present at the first Thanksgiving.  What would have been really cool is if the real ones showed up at my house like they did for this mama!

 

 

Works great for crafts for siblings to do together! 

 



Coffee Filter Turkeys - Elliana LOVED this project!  I showed her this post and read the directions. We didn't have the regular filters and just used the cone shaped ones.  She created the heads and decorations all on her own, then made up a game similar to "I Spy," to play using their different features. 

Turkey T-shirt

We are Thankful for great deals and re-purposing clothes that are no longer being used!  A 25 cent thrift store bright orange t-shirt was transformed into this hilarious turkey shirt.  Elly choose the fabrics, cut the peices and placed them where she wanted them.  I embroidered them with the machine! The eyes were made with my thumbprint in black fabric paint. 
 

We have pinned many projects on our Fall Pinterst Board for you to find something special to make with your little ones this week as you prepare for Thanksgiving.   We'd love to see what you are doing with your grade school children this week! 

Please join us Little Wonder Days, Mouse Grows Mouse Learns, Just Playin' Around, Mama Smiles, Superheroes and Princesses, The Educators' Spin On It, and What Do We Do All Day for this weeks Afterschool Bloghop!

Kids in the garden - the first oranges of the season

One of the first things we did as a family when we moved into our house was plant some citrus trees.  If you haven't done so already, I would strongly recommend you to consider adding a fruit tree to your yard. There are fruit trees for all climates!!!  My parents have 2 apple trees, a crab apple tree, and 2 cherry trees in Minnesota and we have a tangerine and orange tree here in the south (plus a couple more newly added citrus) Our family in Russia also has apple and cherry trees.  To help me choose which kind to plant, I went to a local greenhouse and learned about the varieties that grew well in our area and chose the biggest trees we could afford at the time (I wish we would have planted a little bit bigger 3 years ago!).  We can add trees here in the winter, but if your weather doesn't allow for winter planting, take this time to learn more about the varieties that grow well in your area! 

These trees are our garden babies!  Since they must be grafted onto a sour orange tree, they are susceptible to frost and freezing weather.  If our area gets a freeze warning, my hubbie and I traipse outdoors in our jackets and tuck the trees in with their blankets!

Last year was the first year that we had any oranges on the tree.  We were SO excited to eat those 3 oranges!!!  This year, the trees are a little bigger and stronger.  Together, there were 12 oranges!  We have rationed them to one a day and are enjoying every single bite.  I can't wait until the year in which we are able to feed our family citrus from our trees alone.  Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Pretzel dipping, crafting, and books for Tot School

 I had some leftover candy melts from cake pops, a bucket of short pretzels, and a 2 year old in the kitchen saying "cook - cook -cook!"  So, I got everything ready and let him dip the pretzel rods for a sweet treat to share with friends.  I was impressed at how quick he got the hang of it.  Although I lined up most of the dipped pretzels in the picture (he dipped them), he did the next row all by himself! Not bad for 2!

 We've been reading TONS of Thanksgiving stories.  I really like the "Thank You Prayer" book because it is simple and sweet.  Nicholas really likes Biscuit or Clifford's Thanksgiving.  I was worried when I took down my Halloween books that I didn't have many Thanksgiving books.  I shouldn't have worried, because my shelves are overflowing!!!  Some must have snuck in my house somehow???

 We have to do the classic fall artwork each year.  I have been letting both my 2 and 5 year old make their own picture and putting them on a large sheet of construction paper.  When I am done looking at it (maybe a week of display time) I'll fold it in half and use it as a folder to stuff their writing and crafts in for the month!

 We brought this project with to a play date.  It is one of my favorites!

 And we learned about the letter O.  We LOVE making these soft pretzels into the shape or letter of the week.  They turn out fantastic every time we make them!  This is the recipe we used last time only we put a little whole wheat and ground flax seed in instead of using all white flour.  Nicholas saw an O on a sign and pointed to it and said "o."  It was the first time he identified a lettter =)

If you are stopping by from Tot School - We are glad you are here and would love to have you join us!

How to make an owl apron

Kim's owl pizza cooking class really jump kicked our owl week!  And WHOOOO can resist owls?  We obviously can't!  There are so many cute owl puppets, costumes, and activities out there you could almost do a whole month with an owl theme!  This "How To" came about when I saw this owl costume (love the simplicity and the feathers) and this owl apron (Love the colors) and when Kim called and reminded us to bring our aprons for cooking class, I knew exactly what to do!!!! (well, I kind of winged it!) I merged some of the ideas with the supplies I had on hand and the time available to create my owl apron. Total cost = Free!  Time = 30 minutes

Since I LOVE re-using and re-purposing things, I used a pre-made apron that we got from Home Depot's kid clinics on Saturday morning.  (You could make your own apron too but that would add time and cost to the project)

What to do:
1.  Choose matching scraps from leftover materials
2. Cut 16 ovalish shapes (or more depending on the size of your feathers and apron) for the feathers and cut the pieces for an owl face.

3. Zig Zag stitch around the curved edges of the feathers, this is the fastest way I could think of to prevent the fraying because I will be washing it and didn't want raw edges. 

4. Sew a row of feathers on at a time, tuck the raw edge under the ribbon.  I used a zig-zag, then went over it again with a straight stitch because I had missed a couple feathers in my speed sewing and wanted to make sure they wouldn't fall off.

 5.  Embroider the face on with a zig-zag stitch close together. 

6. Add a beak (Ours was made of felt and was a diamond folded in half to be 3D)

6.  Let your little one try it out!

Other Owl Projects we've made

Owl T-shirts

Owl pizza

Owl crayon rubbings

Owl costume headband

Owl T-Shirt Tutorial

 

We made Owl T-Shirts together with my daughter's friends. They were our craft during cooking class when we made Owl  Pizzas. I know you're little one will enjoy making their own Owl T-Shirt. It's so easy to make!

First I ironed Fusible Webbing onto the back of my fabric to adhere the pieces onto the fabric. Then I traced my owl shape on the paper backing and cut out the owl. With the leftover fabric I also cut out eyes, beak, and legs of the owl. Then I ironed the owl shape onto the shirt

Now it was time for the girls to make their own Owl creations. I had the girls glue on their pieces (eyes, beak and legs)where they wanted them to be. Then we ironed on the pieces for them.

 As soon as it was cool they choose a color to match the fabric and we painted their hands and created Handprints for the Owls wings. I turned the tshirt upside down so that the wings would point towards the ground. Then I outlined the handprint with the same color paint for more definition and waited for the paint to dry completely overnight.

 Then it was sewing time, I quickly used the zig zag stitch and sewed around the owl, eyes, beak and legs to create more of a shape for the Owl and to keep the fabric on the T-shirt.

The girls were so excited to wear their Owl T-shirts that they created! Here's a fun way we used this same project to create Owl Handprint Cards for others.