The Famous Tomato Basil Strata Recipe

I have mentioned the Tomato Basil Strata a few time in the blog so I thought I would add the recipe.  The kids loved it!!! And I think it is because when you go out into the garden and you pick the tomato.....(after you have planted the plant, watered it and weeded around it) you're invested in the process!  Tasting something new is just the next step.  Almost all of the kids asked for seconds......This was a recipe that I thought that the kids would take their obligatory taste and the rest would hit the trash.  I will add a photo in the near future (a soon I get out in my home garden, pick some tomatoes that are surround by weeds that I have not yet weeded) and make it for my boys.

 

 

TOMATO BASIL STRATA

 

1 cup milk

1/2 white whine

(did not use wine when cooking in the classroom!)

1 loaf of day old French bread torn into small pieces

1 lb. shredded mozzarella cheese

3 ripe tomatoes slice thin

basil to tastes torn

4 beaten eggs

1/2 cup of half and half

 

Place a layer of torn bread in the bottom of a glass baking dish.  Cover the bread with the tomatoes, cheese & basil.  Beat eggs with some salt and pepper and pour over layers.  This is when you can refrigerate overnight....but we skipped that step.  Drizzle with half and half and if you want some parmesan cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 mins.  The sides should start to bubble.  ENJOY! 



These are 3 of my favorite go to stories for group time.

 

Do You Love Faires?

FUN FAIRIE FACTS

 

Did you know that dancing is one of a fairy’s favorite way to pass time? Here are some fun fairy facts:

·         Fairies size ranges, from tiny fairies smaller than fireflies to powerful forces that guide the wind

·         Fairies love fresh flowers and laughter, this attracts them

·         Fairies live on islands, hollow trees, under toad stools, where streams divide or border hedges

·         To discover the portal to their world, you must walk nine times around a suspected place on a      full moon night

·         A ripple in the water or sudden chill often indicates their presence

·         They are passionately fond of music, bells and jingles!

·         They play melodies which are haunting and wistful

·         Fairies love to dance!!

·         Rheumatism, cramps and bruising can be the result of pinches from an agitated fairy

·         Tangles in your hair – sometimes known as elf locks – are the work of fairies

·         The disappearance of small objects can be a clue they have been visiting

·         They can make themselves visible or invisible and can change their shapes and sizes but But   Day, Midsummer’s Eve, and Halloween are good times to see them

·         Children – particularly young girls – are most likely to see these little people

·         They live to be several hundred years old

·         They like honey, milk, and nectar

 Some things to think about while I wait for the Barefoot Book of Fairies to come back in stock!  I can't wait. Hopefully it will be available soon because I have some fun art project ready when it is!

 

To SEE other great   BAREFOOT BOOK TITLES GO TO

 

                                                                                 HTTP://www.TeacherKarenReads.com

Three Billy Goats Gruff

 Barefoot Books offers many titles in Spanish and French
Three Billy Goats Gruff is great in any language!  I love a great story and how can you resist a story with a grumpy troll?

And a fun art project......makes for a perfect day! 

We traveled to the sea and we didn't even leave our classroom

We traveled to the Sea and we didn't even leave our classroom.  The kid's had fun picking which sea creature they wanted to make.

 David made a Jelly Fish

A school of fish, a crab, a jelly fish and a sea horse were just a few of the art project choices from the story Secret Seahorse. 

Then we found all of the different sea's and oceans on the World floor puzzle and the kid's felt very proud of themselves after they put the puzzle together.

 

We're Riding On A Caravan

   We're Riding On A Caravan is a story about a far away place!  We traveled on the Silk Road and on a camel instead if riding in Mom's Van.  We talked about how long it would take.......and instead of being in a comfortable car or van we were on a bumpy, slow camel!  Would you like to travel like this?  We made an art project of the children riding on a camel.

Gwen did a great job making her picture!  We talked about how different her cloths were from the children in the story book.  We also talked about why there was a blanket on the camel, and how hot it would be on the journey.  We also put together the World floor puzzle and found where the Silk Road would be on the map.  We can be a "World Traveler"  with our imaginations and a great Barefoot Book. 

Star Seeker

Star Seeker is a beautiful book about outer space.  The artwork is amazing and the text is lyrical and when we read it at circle time the children were mesmerized!  The children had fun painting the galaxies, planets, stars and moons.                                                                                    

Don't You Just Love a Great Bear Story

I know I love a great bear story....I am not a teddy bear collector but I did buy a few teddy bears before my boys were even born.  Barefoot Books has a nice collection of bear stories . Bear in a Square, Bear Takes a Trip, Bear at Home, Bear at Work and many more.  What is nice about the Barefoot Bear series is that they also come in bilingual titles.  Spanish and French and the stories have English/French and English/Spanish text!



      This is great way to introduce your child to another language!  And of course we had a fun art project to go along with the story  Bear in a Square.

You can check out the other titles at http://www.TeacherKarenReads.com

There are some projects that I do each session and Alligator Alphabet is one of them.

 

 

 
I love this beautifully illustrated ABC book that Barefoot Books offers young learners!

IT HAS BEEN A GREAT YEAR IN THE GARDEN

The Kids Garden has been a huge success this year.  I wish that I had the camera with me when we pulled the potatoes out of the garden.  The potatoes were the "Rock Stars"  of the summer garden.  The kids squealed with joy and surprise when we pulled those weed looking stems, digging carefully around in the dirt and then out popped a red or brown potato!

We were amazed how big the sunflowers got and I think they could still be growing.  I actually had kid's asking if we could go out to pick carrots for snack.  I smile just thinking about it!  That alone makes the garden class worth while!  Right now we have yellow, green & orange pumpkins growing and we will have fun carving jack-o'-lanterns this fall.  The watermelons and the honey dew melons are planted in the wrong spot and are getting a little too much shade.....I will have to find a new spot for them next year.  I am hoping that they will eventually be big enough to pick.  The beans just have not produced much this year and I was glad when a friend said that her beans didn't do well this year either.    Because everyone knows how easy it is to grow bean.  There are a lot of green tomatoes and hopefully we will be able to use them in the fall garden and cooking class.  Fried green tomatoes anyone if they don't  ripen?  We did have a few early tomatoes and interestingly we made a tomato and basil strata and it was a huge hit!  I was surprised when the kid's asked for seconds.  The sad story about the garden  was when we came to class after a weekend and someone got all of the ripe strawberries...animal, kid, adult????  We don't know who got them but we had a lesson on sharing that day.

I believe that a garden is a huge asset to any school and I am pleased to see the huge garden at Western Ave School! Now if the other schools in our community could join in the fun of gardening and provide one for their kids (in my perfect world!). I had a little girl that asked if I could do it next year for first graders  (currently we offer it to kids that are 3-6 and she will be seven).....and could I also do it for 9 year olds because her brother would like this class.  The gears are working and I am making notes to talk with my supervisor and see if we can do this.  And a big Thank You to Mickey my supervisor, he has been very supportive with the start up of the garden class and as the program as it grows.   Thank you Mickey and thank you to all came and had fun learning in the Park District Garden with me this summer!  Check out the really fun little gardener pictures below.

I think these little gardeners will grow up to be big gardeners!

What's This? is a great Barefoot Book for the Child who loves to garden!

 Is a story about a little girl who finds a seed.  She takes care of it and at the end she is surprised with a beautiful, very large flower that grows from the tiny seed.  I will give you a hint, the boy below is carrying one of these very tall flowers into the classroom from the Kid's Garden.

Gardening is the BEST

Carrots from the garden, it was the last day of class and we could not resist pulling crunchy, crisp, beautiful, orange carrots from the garden.  While we were out in the garden, we had to check out the sunflowers one last time......

 

 

                                                                 

 

 

We had to pick one sunflower so that we could see it up close.  It was amazing and filled with little green bugs.  It didn't smell but it was very rough when we touched it.

TURNIPS?

I did not grow turnips in the garden....I didn't think that the kid's would eat them.....but after the Tomato Basil Strata maybe I was wrong. 

We read the classic children tale The Gigantic Turnip.  I LOVE THE CLASSICS! You can find this title on http://www.TeacherKarenReads.com

More Gardening Fun

 Oh the joy and discoveries when learning in the Garden. The Barefoot Books title Grandpa's Garden, takes your child through a growing season.  Grandpa's little grandson is there to help with all of the chores in the garden and Grandpa explains all the interesting new discoveries to him. Your child will learn what to do in the garden while he/she reads this sweet story.  When he/she becomes a little gardener she/he will know exactly what to do.

Yes weeding is part of the FUN!  Check out the Geneva Park District fall brochure to join in on the fun of the Little Gardeners class.  The class is offered this fall on Thursday afternoons 12:45-2:45.

LEARNING ABOUT SHAPES

 A great way to learn about shapes is with the Barefoot Books Shape Song Swingalong.  This fun singalong story is sung by Steve Songs.  We also made an art project where the kids added foam shapes to the Triangle, Square and Circle and  of course the line. 

In the garden

The Kid's Garden was a huge success this summer.  The pumpkin patch has yellow, green & orange pumpkins growing.  We will have fun this fall making jack-0-lanterns!  And baking sunflower seeds too. 

A BIT OF A BREAK FROM TEACHING

I am off of work until Sept 9th and I have lots of projects to get done! 
I am going to spend some time in the pottery studio, I have a white painters canvas that is waiting for me to add paint to, I will do some organizing at home, and clean my classroom. I also have to make time each day for the gym.  But I am going to take time and update my blog.  It has been a busy summer and I have much to post. 

Reality is that I will want to have lunch with my friends that are not working and take time to do some fun things that I have been putting off like a day in Chicago, maybe the Botanical Gardens or the Holocaust  Museum.  So much to do and so little time.  I know that when Sept 9th rolls around I will be ready to get back to a schedule and look forward to a new group of kids. 

 

I LOVE BAREFOOT BOOKS!

I use Barefoot Books in my classes and they are the books that I use for my class
Story Book Club.  The class runs for 2 weeks and each week the children take home the featured Barefoot Book story. The response from the kids and parents is that they are great books. I also sell these awesome books so when you are purchasing gifts for the children in your life consider buying Barefoot Books. 

To view the online catalog go to http://www.TeacherKarenReads.com

You will find it in the bottom left hand corner of the first page, just click on Online Catalog.

The kid's have had lots of fun at the art

table this summer!  Paints, crayons and markers

are a great investment in our children's education

and creativity.

I love when the old nursery rhymes are new to the children!

Cleo the cat is a great

Barefoot Books series.  Always having a new adventure! 

 

Art is one of my favorite things and I hope the children grow to love it as much as I do! 

I'm back....summer has been busy with work and studio time....but I will be adding entries in the next two weeks since I will have 3 weeks off!

LEARNING HOW TO LEARN

Below are the first words of the book Discover Your Genius by Michael J. Gelb

ON THE SHOULDERS  OF GIANTS

You were born with the potential for genius.  We all were; just ask any mother.

In 1451, in the Italian seaport of Genoa, a new mother saw it in the eyes of her firstborn child, unaware that the scintillating power of the 100 billion neurons in his brain would one day redefine the shape of the planet on which she lived.  Decades later, the wife of a prosperous Polish merchant saw it in the eyes of her baby, though she would never have dared to predict that the connections his adult mind would eventually make would effectively reorder the universe.  Three centuries and an ocean away, a woman of land and privilege didn't know that what she saw in the eyes of her child was the dawn of the capacity to grasp and synthesize the essence of Classical, Renaissance, and Enlightenment thinking---and reinvent the notion of personal liberty for centuries to come.

Few of us may claim to be geniuses, but almost every parent will tell you of the spark of genius they saw in the first moment they looked into their new baby's eyes.  Your mother saw it too.  And although she may not have realized it, the newborn brain she saw at work shared the same miraculous potential as the infant minds that would one day achieve the greatness described above.

Even of you have yet to revolutionize anyone's ideas about the planet or its inhabitants, you came into the world with the same spark of genius beheld so long ago by the mothers of Christopher Columbus, Nicolaus Copearnicius, and Thomas Jefferson.  By its very design, the human brain harbors vast potential for memory, learning,and creativity.  Yours does too---far more than you might think.  The 100-billion-neuron tally is a simple fact of human physiology, according to the greatest neurologist Sir Charles Sherrington, who describes the human brain as "an enchanted loom" ready to weave a unique tapestry of creative self-expression."*

The outcome of this post is not saying that we should all aspire to have a little genius.  Rather that with the choices that we make everyday we will be setting in motion the adult that our child will become.  Will we chose to read to our children, give them crayons and markers, walks in nature and other experiences that will offer them the skills to develop a love of learning and exploring. Will they be able to harness the power with which they were born and as parents will we be able to give them the most important skill of learning how to learn?  I found Discover Your Genius fascinating  it gives me a a reason to pause and think about what I should do as a parent to help my children reach their potential.

*  Michael J. Gelb, Discovering Your Genius How To Think Like History's Ten Most Revolutionary Minds.  (New York:  First Quill, 2002, p.1-2).

If you are interested in viewing the Barefoot Books catalog

Go to www.TeacherKarenReads.com

Dance with me!

LOLA'S FANDANGO

 

 Lola's Fandango is a Barefoot Book story about a little girl who is trying to figure out where she fits in and what makes her special.  As she learns the fandango she realizes that when learning something new you have to keep trying and not give up.  She also has to overcome her fear of performing the dance in front of her family and friends.  It was a special birthday gift to her mother and she is was very brave when she danced for her!  

THE PRINCE'S BEDTIME 

The Prince's Bedtime is a Barefoot Book story about a little prince who needed to develop a healthy bedtime routine.  Of course the king and queen gave the little prince everything that he wanted.  Including dancing all night, a magician with tricks and a beautiful feather quilt that he loved but when he jumped onto it, it burst and feathers were all about.  Then a wise old woman arrives with just the thing that the little prince needs.  A calm bedtime routine!  You can make this story part of your own bedtime routine.....a great story, a kiss, a hug, and a snuggle for your little prince(or princess)!