Strawberry Jam

On Tuesday, we made Strawberry Jam with 3 simple ingredients:

Sugar, Pectin (found in the baking aisles of the grocery), and strawberries.

We measured the sugar and pectin and stirred them together.

Then we smashed fresh strawberries until they were squishy and chunky.

We then poured the berries into the bowl of sugar and pectin

and stirred until it was a beautiful, jammy consistency.

We poured them into jars and let them chill for two long days. 

Today we spread the jam on bread with our homemade butter.

It was a little taste of heaven, 

and well worth the wait!!

Pickle Tasting!

Today we tasted the pickles we made yesterday!!

They were crunchy, 

and tasted like MORE!!

Pickles!

Today we transformed our classrooms into kitchens; 

mixing salt, sugar, peppercorns, mustard seed, dill, garlic,

vinegar, cucumbers and water,

we shook....

and shook....

Until all of the ingredients were combined. The salt and sugar dissolved, the garlic, dill, mustard seed and peppercorns moved. 

Practicing patience, tomorrow, we taste pickles.

Week 2: June 8 - 12 - Farm to Table

Farm to Table

Week 2 - June 8 - 12:  Making Food with items from the Garden and Farm

Building upon our 5 senses that we explored in Week 1, we will go into the garden, making pickles from cucumbers, jam from berries and butter from cream. 

Chef Buchanan visits again with his chickens and we'll taste hard-boiled eggs. 

The Botanic Gardens will wrap-up the week with a presentation on worms and dirt, helping us to understand the importance of worms in producing healthy soil in the garden to help us grow produce. Next week, we'll move into bugs, and explore insects and spiders. 

Our originally scheduled Petting Zoo has been postponed until June 26th with the sudden passing of a beloved Holy Rosary parishoner. The Petting Zoo is in Spalding Green - a park section of the Parish parking lot; many people will attend the funeral mass and a petting zoo would be disruptive. We can't wait to see the goats, lama, pony, pig, chickens, roosters and bunnies on Friday, June 26th.

June 8:     Cucumber to Pickle

• 9:00 -    9:45       3K
• 9:45 -   10:30     4K1
• 10:30 - 11:00     4K2
• 10:00 - 10:45       K1
• 10:45 - 11:30       K2

Using simple ingredients (salt, sugar, peppercorns, mustard seed, dill, garlic and cucumbers), preschoolers will transform cucumbers to pickles! They will practice fine-motor skills while measuring, pouring and shaking the ingredients! 

They will use their sense of touch, smell, and taste while preparing the recipe. 

They will practice patience while waiting for the brine to work it's magic on the cukes!! 

June 9      Strawberry Jam

Using 3 simple ingredients, (fresh fruit, sugar and pectin) children will make a homemade berry jam that they'll test on bread with homemade butter we make on Thursday! 

Strawberry jam will be made in 4 classrooms; blueberry or blackberry will be used in the 4K1 classroom with a strawberry allergy.

June 10     Water Wednesday

Please send your child in a swimsuit with a towel and change of clothes!! Please label all items!!

June 11      Making Butter from Cream 

Children will shake, shake, shake jars of cream to create the best butter ever! We'll try it on bread with homemade jam!! 

June 12     Botanic Gardens - Worms and Dirt

The Botanic Garden visits to introduce us to worms and the important job they do to create healthy gardens. 

also on June 12: Chef Buchanan and Chickens! 

The amazing Chef Jordan returns this week with backyard chickens!

and Ice Cream Dream Machine:

An ice cream truck will visit our school in the afternoon. Preschool children will enjoy snacks after nap. Kindergartners will enjoy snack after story time with Mrs. Douglas. 

Computer Lab with Mrs. Craven begins Monday, June 8th

Starting tomorrow, our rising 4K and Kindergarten classes will visit the computer lab each Monday to become familiar with the space, practice using a mouse, and wearing headphones. They will play age appropriate educational games, including starfall.com and pbskids.org.

The schedule is as follows:

9:00 - 9:30 a.m.  4K1 + 2

9:30 - 10:00 a.m. K1 + 2

Thanks to Mrs. Craven for making this possible. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Week 2: Dill Pickles - Preschool Style!!

When I was a kid, my parents had rows of quart-sized jars lined against the wall of the basement pantry. The pickles inside were the best ever.

I've often asked them to recreate or give me the recipe, but the answer is always the same. "Ann, they are such a hassle!!"

Along comes Pinterest, and I've found a super-simple recipe that our preschoolers can put together! It requires no cooking, steaming or complicated canning equipment. I'm so excited to spend some time with them in a make-shift, classroom kitchen. It will be simple, and hopefully as good as I remember.

10 Minute Refrigerator Dill Pickles

Take a quart jar and add 1 T salt, 1.5 T sugar, 1/4 t black peppercorns (heaping), 1/4 t mustard seed (heaping), 1 T chopped garlic (about 4 cloves), 1/2 cup white vinegar, and "fresh dill to taste" (I used one head of dill and a 3" section of the feathery stuff). 

Note: If you don't grow your own dill, you can usually find it at a farmer's market or stand this time of year. Or ask a gardener friend. She will probably give you some. :)

Add sliced cucumbers. (This was about 4 pickling cucumbers from my garden, each about 4" long. You could also use the English cucumbers from the store, but not the regular larger kind because the skin would be too tough.) (Again, now is a great time to buy these at a farmer's market for dirt cheap!)

Fill the jar with warm water, screw a lid on, and shake until the sugar and salt have dissolved.

Stick the jar in the fridge for about 24 hours, but don't beat yourself up if you can't wait that long.

You're probably going to suffer immediate and intense pickle hoarding tendencies and you may be tempted to tell your kids that they wouldn't like them so you can have more for yourself. Again, we're all only human.

Pickles will keep for up to 3 weeks, but empirical evidence shows that they generally only last about 2.2 days, on average.

The children will love adding the ingredients, shaking the jars and tasting the final product!! 

If anyone has access to fresh dill, please let me know!!

Week 2: No Cook Strawberry Freezer Jam

Last spring, my daughter and I planted 5 strawberry plants in a flower bed. 

They produced!! We recently harvested several quarts of fresh berries and froze them for this recipe:

Ball No Cook Strawberry Freezer Jam

1 pkg. Ball No Cook Pectin

11/2 cups of sugar

4 cups crushed strawberries (about 4 lbs or 2 quarts)

~Wash & hull strawberries.

~Use a potato masher to mash up the strawberries for a more chunky jam.  If you prefer less chunks, use a food processor or a hand blender. 

~Add the sugar and pectin and stir.

~Ladle into containers, these can be any type of jar, or plastic containers with lids. (make sure to leave some room at the top for expansion when freezing) 

~Let sit for 30 minutes.  Put into refrigerator or freezer. 

~A jar will keep in the refrigerator for 3 weeks, and in the freezer for up to a year.

I think the children will really enjoy mashing the berries and mixing the sugar 
and pectin, and pouring into jars. 

The ultimate payoff? Taste testing!!