Alexis wrote:
> Okay, here's the deal :-)

The deal is you should have been a politician, you're way, WAY TOO
VERBOSE to be a decent educator... your students must fall asleep half
way through class. Anyone needing more than 100 words has nothing to
say but BS. I bet you're 'talian. Sheesh, but you're boring.

<Alexis' Soggy Saga>

> I'm trying to seriously revamp the cooking portion of my math, reading,
> and fine-motor development curriculum. I usually have about 24
> students, ages 5 and 6. When we cook, it's in small groups (usually 6
> or so students, depending on what else is going on and how much adult
> help I can get). I don't have ready access to either a stove or an
> oven (we're an old building and our one stove was recently placed "off
> limits" by the fire marshall). Losing the oven -- as old and
> inaccurate and spotty as it was -- is going to mean that I have to get
> rid of quite a few cooking projects that I've done in the past few
> years.
>
> In addition to the benefits to the reading and math programs, cooking
> has also been an important part of my science, art, and health
> curriculums. Alaska children rank pretty low, nation-wide, for their
> overall nutrition and exercise levels, and my students are no
> exception. A big part of what I do is to expose them to food
> alternatives. Our cooking projects are usually the class snack for
> that day, and ideally I try to do one majorish cooking project each
> week.
>
> So here's what I'm looking for -- recipes that are at least
> semi-healthy (no more no-bake cookies <g>) and that can be prepared by
> young children with adult help and that don't require either a stove or
> an oven and which aren't too expensive to make for 24 children (the
> cost is a *big* factor, because we're not allowed to use budget money
> for any food products. Either it gets donated by parents - which
> happens occasionally - or I buy it all myself.
>
> In my classroom I have:
>
> - bread maker (we make bread about once a month already)
> - microwave
> - hand mixer
> - dehydrater
> - blender (I don't have one yet, but I'll either purchase one myself
> for my room, or bring mine in when we need it)
> - toaster oven (Again, I don't have one yet, but it's going into my
> newsletter as a "wish list" item. Hopefully someone will have one
> they're ready to get rid of)
> - hot plate
> - minifridge and I have access to a full-sized fridge and freezer.
> - crockpot
>
> Typically we make things like stop-light jello when we're learning
> about safety signs, alphabet pretzles (back when we had an oven <g>),
> crockpot applesauce, loaves of bread, cut-fruit animals (this is an
> expensive one -- fresh fruit in Alaska isn't cheap -- but the kids love
> it and their creativity shines and they all eat the fruit once they've
> turned it into a sea monster), fruit-bat snacks (generally fruit
> kabobs, ditto the expense note) when we do our Stellaluna unit,
> butter-in-a-jar around Thanksgiving (that's a great one for a
> high-energy day <g>), energy bars, bear biscuits and honey to go with
> Goldilocks (again though, the oven issue now) -- we typically do about
> 30 different cooking projects over the course of the year, and frankly
> *I'm* getting bored with some of them.
>
> I want things that involve preparation that students can do --
> measuring, easy cutting (butter-knife stuff), recipe reading (with
> heavy picture clues -- I do those myself when I make the student
> materials for the project), mixing, timing, and assembly that can be
> done by children. So many of the no-bake recipes I have and that I've
> found are either desserts/cookies/pies or things that need the stove
> (and that doesn't work well with a hot plate -- it's just not quite the
> same. Also, I'm not thrilled with having my students use the hot
> plate. If I were working with one or two students at a time it would
> be different, but with a full class in the room I want to be the only
> one working with the hotplate -- 90% of the time it would be no
> problem, but if there were a burn-accident with the hotplate, well,
> it's not an issue for which I want to be responsible).
>
> Now, if I were being difficult already, I'm also trying to pull away
> from peanut butter based recipes. I haven't had a peanut allergy in my
> room for several years, but peanut butter is expensive and it's good to
> have a solid file of non-nut recipes for when a student with a peanut
> allergy is there.
>
> So I'm drawing on the expertise here. Anybody have tried-and-true
> favorites that fit the above criteria? I've done a lot of Googling,
> but again so much of what I'm finding is dessert oriented.
>
> Thanks, folks!
>
> Alexis
>
> PS -- here's a favorite I thought I'd share. I do a big art unit on
> color and color mixing. To introduce the unit, on the first day we use
> food coloring to make trays of ice cubes -- two trays each of red and
> blue (there's a little science involved there -- changes of state,
> water + cold = ice. It seems simplistic, but you'd be surprised at how
> many of these littles don't really know where ice comes from -- even
> here in the Great Frozen North). Then on the morning of day 2 I have
> each table make a small pitcher of lemonade (reading the picture
> recipe, measuring the mix [fresh lemons are *way* expensive here --
> usually around $1.00 each] and water and rolling and squeezing a lemon
> for each pitcher. In the afternoon, at snack time, each kiddo gets to
> choose an ice cube color -- red or blue -- and we make predictions of
> what will happen when they add it to their yellow lemonade. A *lot*
> (most) of these kiddos have no idea about primary color mixing, so they
> have no idea what the color change is going to be like. Then, all at
> the same time, they put their ice into their lemonade. The ooohs and
> ahhs are excellent -- and not one of them forgot what happens when you
> mix yellow and blue or yellow and red. We put the leftover ice cubes
> in a glass and set it to melt (there's that science again <g>). I left
> the glass by the outside door, and they forgot about it until right
> before we left for the day and one of them "discovered" that the melted
> ice cubes made purple water.
>
> If anyone is interested, I'll share the results of the flavor vs. color
> science fair project my class did. I was thrilled with their premise
> and truly surprised by the outcome.