Toddler’s in the kitchen!

Love Yum Muffins

BJ joined me in the studio this week for a cooking project!  Some Love Yum Muffins.  She made corn muffins using a GF boxed mix and the children helped to make Love Yum Strawberry Jam!

To try it at home...

You will need:

1.5 cups sugar

1 large lemon, zested and juiced

1 1/2 pints fresh strawberries, hulled and halved

Combine the sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a small saucepan and cook over very low heat for 10 minutes, until the sugar is dissolved. Add the strawberries and continue to cook over very low heat for 20 minutes, until the strawberries release some of their juices and the mixture boils slowly. Cook until a small amount of the juice gels on a very cold plate.  Pour into a serving container and keep refrigerated.

Adapted from Ina Garter's recipe

The results were a huge success!!!!!
Love and Yum!

Tortilla's in the Studio and Recipe

It was a snowy day and what better to warm the day than some cooking?!  The children and I spent the day creating art and making tortillas.  Several children liked them so much they insisted that I share the recipe with all of you, so here it is!

• 2 cups (240 grams) masa harina
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups hot water*
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1. Mix the dough: In a bowl add masa harina and salt than gradually add 1 1/2 cups hot water.  Mix.  Then knead the dough for a few minute til it is smooth and makes a ball.  The dough’s texture should feel like Play-Doh.  If too wet, add flour.  If too dry, add hot water.
2. Rest the dough. Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel and let it relax for 10 minutes.
3. Portion the dough. Get about 2-tablespoon ball of dough.
4. Press the dough balls. Place the dough ball between two pieces of plastic or parchment paper in a tortilla press. Then gently press the dough ball until it forms a tortilla.
5. Cook the tortilla. Heat a-stick skillet to medium-high.  Peel the tortilla away from the plastic or parchment and place on the skillet.  Cook the tortilla about a minute per side.  The tortillas will likely bubble up while cooking, especially on the second side, which is a good thing!  We added a bit of cheese to the top in the last 30 seconds.  Eat right away or keep in a tortilla warmer or a bowl wrapped in a towel, so the tortillas stay fresh.
   
   
   Enjoy!!!

What's for dinner? How bout some chicken noodle soup!

The children requested another cooking project.  Happy to oblige, we settled on chicken noodle soup.  

Which involves A LOT of vegetable chopping!

If you don't have one of these knives at home I highly recommend getting one!  Your child will become your best kitchen helper in no time!  For best results, clarify that the goal isn't speed, but careful, deliberate chopping.  Your child's precision will surprise you! 

The added bonus of all this work was getting to participate in all of the conversations gathered around the table.

Want to make our soup at home?  We thought you might say that!  The talented Cadence, in Ward Hobbs XP, wrote up the recipe for you:

Once all that chopping was done, we cooked our soup in an Instapot, sautéing the vegetable ( in butter or oil of choice) before adding the chicken (you could use left over turkey!), broth and seasonings (oregano, basil, salt and pepper) to cook.  When your soup is all done, just ladle the yumminess into bowls, top with cooked noodles and ENJOY!

Prepare to be satisfied!

Ward Hobbs studio week: September 27

The children of Ward Hobbs were excited to get back into the studio! And we had a wonderful time playing and discovering together! 

Dramatic play continues to unfold giving children wonderful opportunities to collaborate, manage limited resources, practice conflict resolution and imagine together.

This child noticed that the characters didn't have arms so he drew some and taped them on

The children had lots of opportunities to explore color using oil pastels, liquid water colors and inktense pencils along side black markers.

XP Corner:

The XP children continued their examination of storytelling working to scale last weeks drawings up to a larger size rendered in watercolor.

Next, the XP teachers and I helped each child to consider their drawings, particularly the characters and setting.  Then the children decided what dialogue might be added. Utilizing soundboards the children phonetically sounded out their words and labeled their work with appropriate captions.

BJ is back in the studio this week making grape and peach juice fresh from our backyard garden.  Harvesting together is a traditions at Children's Garden and one we all enjoy! 

The consensus was an unanimous, YUM!

We'll see you all back next week!

Emerging Themes in 440

Welcome to our second studio week in 440!  Look what we've been up to!

As the season prepares to shift toward the colorful days of autumn we are discovering bugs glorious bugs!!!

And to celebrate, the children have been drawing insects using Prisma pencils on black cardstock...

Creating insects from loose parts...

And recording observations in liquid water color and graphite on mixed media paper.

Observational Drawing:

Harvest season is ramping up and the children are always eager to help prepare natures bounty for a gustatory delight.  This week we focused on apples!

An early emphasis on Observational Drawing helps us to slow down and really look at the subject with curiosity and precision. 

And the drawings communicate the time spent getting to know each subject.

Cooking:

The studio is so glad to welcome BJ back for a year of collaborative cooking!!!

Today we made apple-mixed fruit butter and it was DELICIOUS!!!

Each child is bringing home some butter to share, but if you’d like to make some too the recipe is super easy! We mostly used apples, with a few peaches, strawberries and even a plum added in (all but the strawberries came from trees at school or from home), add sugar to taste, a little water, some lemon juice, a dash of salt, a bit of cloves and a good shake of cinnamon. Cook low and slow for a long while and then purée. Bon appétit!

XP Corner:

Drawing, cooking and fun in Ward Hobbs

What a wonderful week in the Ward Hobbs classroom! Absolutely wonderful. Here’s a glimpse :

Observational Drawing:

Beets grown in our garden formed the inspiration for this week’s observational drawing. 

Observational Drawing helps us to slow down and really observe the subject.  Look at the detailed drawings. Need I say more?

We had so much fun with first round of beet drawings that  decided to pick another one. We were astonished by its size!

Which inspired even more drawing!

To further celebrate nature’s bounty I harvested apples from my home tree and BJ collected crab apples from the trees in the front of the school and together we made apple butter with the children!

The recipe is simple: lots of apples, sugar to taste, cinnamon, cloves, lemon juice, a dash of salt and some water. Cook long and slow in the crock pot, whisk it smooth and serve! Yum!!!

Dramatic Play:

We brought in some wonderful wooden airports with ramps and pulleys for the children of Ward Hobbs to use.Thier travel play is a joy to watch and their conversations are connecting nicely with the classrooms geography materials.  (Notes on play at home…Encourage your child to enjoy play for its own sake. They needn’t look to you for affirmation about the joy of an activity. Play, by definition, is a reward in and of itself. Redirect them back to their own joyful barometer whenever possible with observations rather than praise… “I see you have lined up all your cars. That took a lot  of work. How do YOU feel about that?” .)

What do you do when there’s no people to populate your airport? Make your own!!! (Hint: that’s why I removed the people😉)

XP Corner:

To extend the XP story writing project, the children and I thought about what matters most to them before using the language of drawing to communicate our ideas on paper. Our observational drawings earlier in the week helped us to slow down and really focus on communicating, in line and color, what we love. Here are a few examples:

Stay tuned next week to see what else we get up to!