Week of October 24th, 2016

 "Tell me about Chatterpix and how you used it to thank Dana."

Last Dairy in the Classroom...and Ice Cream!

We had such a fun Dairy in the Classroom with Dana last week! It was the final lesson of an incredible unit. We painted t-shirts and made ice cream.

Check out this recipe Dana sent us! :)

Make Ice Cream in a Plastic Bag

Yes, it sounds dangerous and the potential for messes seems highly likely, but you’ll be surprised at the good, “clean” fun you’ll enjoy with your students when you make ice cream. The key to success is to plan smart and follow our simple instructions. The lesson possibilities for this one are nearly endless. Your class can explore the history of ice cream and dairy products, the chemistry of ice, salt and exothermic reactions, or use it an exercise in the scientific method: what if you make the following recipe without salt?

This recipe is enough for one student, so that each student can make their own.

1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon sugar
4 cups crushed ice
4 tablespoons salt
2 quart size Zip-loc bags
1 gallon size Zip-loc freezer bag
a hand towel or gloves to keep fingers from freezing as well!

Mix the milk, vanilla and sugar together in one of the quart size bags. Seal tightly, allowing as little air to remain in the bag as possible. Too much air left inside may force the bag open during shaking. Place this bag inside the other quart size bag, again leaving as little air inside as possible and sealing well. By double-bagging, the risk of salt and ice leaking into the ice cream is minimized. Put the two bags inside the gallon size bag and fill the bag with ice, then sprinkle salt on top. Again let all the air escape and seal the bag. Wrap the bag in the towel or put your gloves on, and shake and massage the bag, making sure the ice surrounds the cream mixture. Five to eight minutes is adequate time for the mixture to freeze into ice cream.

Tips
Freezer bags work best because they are thicker and less likely to develop small holes, allowing the bags to leak. You can get away with using regular Zip-loc bags for the smaller quart sizes, because you are double-bagging. Especially if you plan to do this indoors, we strongly recommend using gallon size freezer bags.

Week of October 17th, 2016

"What is your small moment story about?"

Dairy in the Classroom Recipes

We have absolutely loved cooking with Dana! Here are the recipes for the goodies we've made so far. Hopefully your second grade chef will be able to make these with you at home for continued fun!

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Butter

Pour a pint of room temperature heavy cream into into a jar with a tight fitting lid. Fill only half full. Start shaking (you'll need some serious elbow grease if doing it by hand). First, the cream will turn into whipped cream with soft, then stiff peaks. Keep going until the cream breaks. At first, you’ll hear a sloshing, then when it is whipped cream, it will not make any noise. Then you’ll begin to feel something more solid hit the sides of the jar. This usually takes anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes. In this process, you are separating the butter fat from the liquid. Once the butter has solidified, pour off the buttermilk and save it for baking (or drink it!). Scoop the butter into a bowl. Rinse the butter by pouring ice water over it and pressing the remaining buttermilk out with a small spatula or a spoon. Pour off the water and repeat the process. Keep rinsing and squishing the butter with the ice water until the water runs clear. The, add some salt if you like and work that through the butter.

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Simple Farmhouse Cheese

cook time: 1 hour 20 mins

total time: 2 hours 20 mins

serves: about 1 pound

Ingredients

• 1 gallon milk, not ultrapasteurized
• ½ cup white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons very fine sea salt

Instructions

1. Line a colander with a double layer of cheesecloth or a single layer of butter muslin.
2. Pour the milk into a large, heavy-bottomed kettle, and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Stir it frequently to keep the milk from scorching. When it comes to a boil, immediately reduce the heat to low, and stir in the vinegar. The milk should immediately separate into curds and whey. If it does not separate, add a bit more vinegar one tablespoon at a time until you see the milk solids coagulate into curds swimming within the thin greenish yellow whey.
3. Pour the curds and whey into the lined colander. Rinse them gently with cool water, and sprinkle the curds with salt. Tie up the cheesecloth, and press it a bit with your hands to remove excess whey. You can tie it up and let it set for an hour or two.  It’s ready to eat!

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Cheesy Kale Crisps

5 min to prep

10 minutes to cook

Ingredients:

1 bunch of kale

8oz of shredded cheddar cheese

Cooking spray

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 and spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray
2. Remove the stems and ribs from the kale, and shred the kale very thinly. Spread the shredded kale onto the baking sheet, and sprinkle evenly with Cheddar cheese.
3. Bake the kale for 10 minutes, watching carefully to prevent burning, until the kale is crisp and the cheese is browned.
4. Take out of oven, let stand to cool for a few minutes and then cut into pieces and serve.

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Pumpkin Pie Pancakes

Dry Ingredients

1 1/2 Cup All-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients

2 Tablespoons maple syrup 

1 Cup of Pumpkin (either canned or mashed cooked pumpkin)

1/2 Cup of Milk

2 Tablespoons melted butter or vegetable oil

2 eggs

DIRECTIONS

Whisk flour, baking powder, spices and salt in a bowlIn a separate bowl whisk together milk, pumpkin, melted butter/oil, maple syrup, and eggs. Fold mixture into dry ingredients. Spray or grease a skillet and heat over medium heat: pour in 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. Cook pancakes about 3 minutes per side. Serve with butter and syrup or maple whipped cream. 

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Short Week, Packed with Fun!

We are learning how to use the iPads as learning tools - documenting our learning and using apps like Epic Books, SumDog, and Reading Eggs to build our reading/math/spelling skills.

 One of the chimneys we saw on our hike this week! (Yes, sadly this is the only picture I took.) We had beautiful weather and all of the first and second graders at TBPS were happy to be outside!

Rereading, adding punctuation, and adding capital letters with a writing partner.

We tried to organize these items to show how the wool goes from a sheep to red mittens! It was pretty tricky and we had to make some switches as we went. Ask your second grader about the process!

 Making bracelets with wool - ask your child about each stage!

Week of October 11th, 2016

 "What is the best book in your book bin right now? Why do you like it?"

Dairy in the Classroom

We had another fantastic Dairy in the Classroom experience today! We sampled and made Cheesy Kale Crisps. We also made (and ate) Pumpkin Pancakes with Maple Whipped Cream! We tore kale into tiny shreds for the kale crisps and also worked on prepping and cooking the pumpkin pancakes. We mashed cooked pumpkin, combined wet and dry ingredients, cooked our pancakes, and made our own whipped cream in a jar! We loved the smell of the pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, and maple syrup that filled our room!

Yum, yum!