Almond Milk Pudding

Last week we decided on making Almond Milk Pudding which we found out about in one of our books for our castle project. :)

We learned that Milk was used mainly for cooking rather than drinking, and puddings like this were considered delicacies.

We all gathered around in the kitchen to help prepare our snack...

We all took turns helping out with something...

 Ms. Maryam helped us figure out how many cups of almond milk we would need...

We all took a turn pouring just the right amount...

Than we looked at how many tablespoons of sugar we would need...

Finally we all counted to 30, while one of the students stirred the whole time! We loved counting and clapping together! :-)

We all wanted to smell the rose water we would add in our recipe..

After adding everything in ,stirring and boiling.. we placed the liquid into bowls so we could refrigerate it and let it turn into pudding....

After many hours of refrigerating our recipe and checking on it...nothing was changing!??!! 

I showed the children and asked them what they think happened since it was still liquid...we looked at the gelatin packets....

Kylie told me , "We didn't put enough so it could turn fluffy!"

We talked about how maybe we didn't put the right amount of gelatin for it to become pudding...

We still made the best of the situation as we always do, and turned our recipe into an Almond Milkshake with Whip Cream on top!

The children LOVED this milkshake and we plan on trying to make our pudding again so we can get it right this time! :)

Streusel French toast

What a delicious treat we had last Friday! The students all helped and prepared the recipe for our Streusel French toast we baked!

The teachers retyped the directions and ingredients in a simple format to help the children practice reading. 
These are some of the key words we focused on learning and sounding out.  You can practice at home with your child:

• For
• The
• Put
• Of
• In
• Mix
• End
• A
• At

The students were soooo good at cutting the strawberries on their own, they didn't need any help from us! They cut up two boxes of strawberries!

The children also used a measuring cup which they have been learning about in the cooking/dress up area.  When they play in the cooking area, they measure out beans or uncooked pasta using the measuring cup to help familiarize themselves with the measurements.
 Some measurements/fractions we are trying to remember and practice:

• ¼
• ½
• ¾
• 1 cup

 We also talked about these details because they were included in our recipe:

• 8 oz.= 1cup
• Teaspoon
• Tablespoon

Aside from the reading and measuring, we focused on cleanliness and safety in the kitchen.  And in the end, we had a delicious, healthy treat right out of the oven for our afternoon snack!

Yummmmmmmmmy!

The children LOVED this treat! :)  We have the recipe in our cookbook in class for anyone who is interested!

A World Of Castles

One of our main projects that the children are loving is Castles!

This all started when we received little block people of ourselves. It is an image of the child attached to the block. The children absolutely LOVED this! They loved looking at themselves and creating different things with it.

The boys went over to the block are where they began creating a, "castle" that their block people were in!

Next these three boys put their block people to "guard" the castle so no one would touch it...

Than we moved over to the table where we started looking at our castle and drawing a picture of it. After we drew it we practiced writing the word, CASTLE.

Before we were about to go outside, the boys told me they wanted their castle to stay up and not have anyone touch it. They then created a sign that said, " DO NOT TOUCH." They also put the rest of their classmates to guard the castle! ;-)

We have taken different tiles, and building materials outside, to build in the beautiful weather.

The next day we provided the children with many different materials to start creating their own castles.

While the students were creating different types of castles I began asking them questions to find out what they knew about it...

Who lives in the castle? The King and Princess!

Is their a Queen? YES!

What does the King do? He tells the Knights what to do! -Bishop

Why is their so much water around the castle? So everyone can swim!-Noah

Why are the windows in a castle so small? 

Because the princess like it small.-Bishop

The windows grow bigger.-Hendrix

They don't want big windows.-Noah

After conversing with the boys and listening to what they thought about castles, we looked at a few castle books where we saw and learned some cool facts:

• We learned why castles are usually far away on their own with water and moats surrounding them.
• We learned what a Moat is and is used for defensive purposes, to protect themselves.
• Knights and Guards are there to protect the King and Queen
• Castle Dungeons were intended for holding prisoners.

Noah's Castle

                                                                             Hendrix's Castle

Bishop's Castle

The Horse Knight Castle

By: Hendrix

By: Noah A.

The Power Ranger Castle

By: Bishop L.

                                     Christian's Castle                                  Tiger Knight Castle

                                                                                                              By: Sam

Christian's Castle

By: Christian

This is a project that has really caught the interest of the boys in the classroom because they get to learn about so many cool things that they always imagine and talk about with their friends!

Thank you to Hendrix and his family for bringing all of the interesting books that have to do with castles!  We love reading them.

Bishop has began making his own castle where he hopes to add many things to it so it can look exactly the way he wants. 

Many of the boys are creating books about the castles they are making.  The books tell the story of who lives in the castle and what happens in the castle!.

Please feel free to come see all the fun learning activities that the children are doing based on this project! :)