Baking Fun...Fall Leaf Tortilla Chips!

   On Monday through Thursday I teach Spanish to my munchkins and then on Fridays, I take off my Spanish Teacher hat and put on my Chef hat!
   Every Friday, we engage the kids in some sort of cooking/baking project. Seeing that the summer-like temps (in autumn), in the North Bay area don't seem to be cooling off anytime soon, we needed something that was either a no bake snack or something that required little baking time.
   And so we made some Leaf Shaped Tortilla Chips!

 Our school has these cute baking mats for the kids to each have their own spot. 

All we needed was corn tortillas and leaf shaped cookie cutters:

Each child was given one corn tortilla and was able to cut out two different leaf shapes.

(We later found out that two tortillas chips were definitely not enough.

Most of the kids wanted more!)

After they had their two tortilla shapes cut out, we brushed on olive oil onto both sides of each one.

Then I sprinkled some salt onto them and popped them in the oven. I let them bake for 4 minutes and then turned them over and let them bake for another 4-5 minutes. 

They came out perfect!

(This batch was a little crispy and brown on the edges, but still yummy!)

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Cute, simple and delicious!

Try making your own Tortilla Chips with kiddos! 

Below is the recipe:

Fall Leaf Tortilla Chips:

Ingredients:

Corn Tortillas

Olive Oil

Salt

Cookie Cutters (any shape)

Pre-heat oven to 350. After chips are cutout, brush on small amounts of olive oil on each side. Bake 4-5 minutes on each side, for no more than a total of 9 minutes. Allow them to cool and enjoy!!

Tons of Math Fun With Apples... and a little Freebie!

   We have been knee deep in our Apple Unit! My preschool munchkins have enjoyed the science behind apples-as we have learned alot about apples and have investigated the inside of an apple.
   We added in some math fun for our Apple Study. We read the book, Ten Apples Up On Top, by Dr. Seuss, and each child worked on their fine motor skills to stack as many "apples" as they could before they all came tumbling down. I used small foam blocks in the colors of red, yellow and green and also added little apple stickers, just for the fun of it.

They were all so very focused on stacking as many "apples" as they could.

    I think the most that any child stacked was twelve... and they all kept on trying to get their stack to be higher! It was good, competitive fun!

   Patterning is another fun activity that we did with Apples. We used the same "apple" blocks over the course of a few days, to practice making AB patterns.
   As an assessment type of activity to gauge their grasp on AB patterns, the munchkins created an Apple Pattern Crown. They created and glued an AB pattern, using two colors.

 Then we measured their little heads and made a cool crown!

    We also worked on our counting and number identification. I created these fun little Apple Count & Clip Cards (and picked up another set from Preschool Printables) and added some clothespins in our Math Center. Grab a FREE copy of my set here or in my TPT store!

    I have to say, the plastic clothespins I had were horrible! The kids kept managing to break them apart! I am definitely getting wooden clothespins for any future Count & Clip activities.

    And for a more tasty, hands on Apple math activity, we made an Apple Pizza! Talk about YUM! I have never made it before, but I knew it was easy to make. Turns out, it tastes alot like apple pie and/or apple crisp! Absolutely delicious!!

Here is the recipe:

Pie Crust: 2 cups of flour

                  1 tsp. salt

                  2/3 cup shortening

                  5-7 tsp COLD water

Prepare pie crist above OR use refrigerated pie crust. (We opted for the refrigerated pie crust!)

Place dough onto a greased pizza pan. Spread to the edges.

Slice 7-8 apples into thin slices. 

In a separate bowl, combine 1/2 cup sugar and 2 tsp. of cinnamon. Toss apple slices in and mix.

Layer the dough with the apple slices.

Topping: 1/4 cup flour

                1/2 cup sugar

                1/2 cup softened butter

Mix ingredients until it is crumbly. Sprinkle on top of apple slices.

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

   The munchkins helped us in each step of the process: slicing, measuring, mixing, etc.

   Each child came to the table to slice up a piece of an apple... (Great fine motor work!) 

Some were obviously more skilled than others, but they caught on after they tried cutting a few slices.

The children helped to mix the butter, sugar and flour for the topping and helped us soften up the butter.

They mixed the apples pieces into the sugar and cinnamon mixture.

We laid the apple slices on top of the dough.

And added the crumbly topping.

We popped it in the oven and in 20 minutes:

 Delicious APPLE PIZZA!

Crazy over Pizza!

    There is no question about it in this house- my little munchkin LOVES pizza! And the funny thing is, about less than a year ago, this was far from the truth, as she wanted nothing to do with pizza...and I thought that was the weirdest thing ever. What preschooler does not like pizza? But sometime before her 5th birthday, the love for pizza finally emerged! Now I have to be careful when I ask her what she would like to eat...because nine times out of ten, the answer will be pizza. (That is, if the answer is not chicken nuggets, yogurt or a Nutella sandwich!)
   So we did some learning with a fun little pizza theme. She learned quite a few sight words during the last school year and I have continued to reinforce them all summer long.
   With Kindergarten right around the corner, sight word review was on the to-do list and so we reviewed sight words with a fun activity idea that came from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas. All that is needed is some construction paper, glue markers and some paper plates. I colored the paper plates to look like pizza slices and wrote different sight words from the Pre-Primer Dolch Sight Word list onto the "ingredients" (broccoli, pepperoni and sausage)

She read each sight word and if she read it correctly, she glued it onto a slice of pizza.

She made three of these little pizzas... enough for everyone!

     And everyone has heard of the book " The Little Red Hen", right?  Well, I was shocked when I found out that there is now a book called, "The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza" I was shocked b/c many years ago in a teacher training workshop, my group and I were asked to modernize an old folk tale as part of a Reader's Theatre activity, and this was the exact twist we put in our modern version of The Littlle Red Hen. Interesting.... I could have had a published book right now...who knew?

     Anyway, we read this book and then made a pizza! Well, actually, we made mini pizzas, using flatbread, pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese and my favorite topping: Pepperoni

She put hers together like a pro!  Just cheese, please! 

All ready to go into the oven!!

YUMMMMMM!!

The Art of Cooking meets the Art of Teaching...Awesome Stuff !

    It has been a few days since my last post, hasn't it? Well, I took a little break and flew out to Chicago for a few days to visit family and friends. It was quite the exhausting weekend and I must say that I am glad I can sleep in my own bed tonight!
    Anyhow, while I was in Chicago, I had the opportunity to take a look inside the talent and work of my younger brother. And today I am going to highlight the awesome work that he is doing with kids these days.
   He is currently attending culinary school at the Illinois Institute of Art Chicago, and works at an awesome place called The Chopping Block, on the north side of Chicago.  The Chopping Block is a recreational cooking school and a gourmet shop. It offers hands on cooking classes for adults and children. My brother, George, works as a Lead Chef Instructor for Teen & Kids Camp.
    He invited me to attend the final day of the Teen Cooking Camp that runs weekly throughout the summer. The weekly camp consists of kids between the ages of 11-16 years old.
    By being there for the final day of their week, I could see that the kids had learned so much from him in a week; from Day 1 when he teaches knife skills to how to break down a recipe,  all the way through to Day 5 where the kids partake in his own version of an Iron Chef Competition; which is what I was honored to be a Guest Judge!

    He has expressed an interest in getting his certification in teaching to go along with his culinary degree, and so as I watched him  do his thing, I have to say that his unorthrodox teaching techniques remind me of School of Rock meets Good Eats... But it is quite fun and effective and I was able to see the end product of the work he is doing with kids this summer, at the Iron Chef Competition.
    I noticed firsthand how each member of each team contributed. Each person or pair took something from the menu and focused on it, while working together and communicating the whole time (2 hours) to prepare, cook and present their dish. (Under the supervision and guidance of George and his aide)

I was TRULY impressed!

Check out some of these dishes:
Team Spain:
Albodingas (Meatballs) Virgin Sangria, Spanish Butter Cookies (Dessert)

Team New Zealand:
Grilled Leg of Lamb Steaks w/Grilled Vegetables and Pavalova Cake (Dessert)

Team Greece:
Saganaki, Cinnamon Braised Leg of Lamb & Potatoes, Pita Bread, Deconstructed Bakhlava w/ Homemade Cinnamon Ice Cream (Dessert)

Team American Gastro Pub:
Southwest Steak Slider, Philly Cheesesteak Slider & Bbq Steak Slider w/ Chipotle Chips, Orange Iced Tea

    Keep in mind that these dishes were all cooked and presented by kids between the ages of 11-16. Wow, huh? Don't they just make your mouth water? Doesn't this just make you super jealous? They sure made me look bad! I could take a few cooking lessons from them!! =)

     The winners of the Iron Chef Competition this week was: Team Greece! 

     AWESOME job all around, from both the kids and George! I felt like pointing at him and saying "Yup, that's my brother!" 

Food, teaching and kids: That is George's passion!

    Am I a little proud of him for choosing to pursue a career that deals with teaching children? 

You bet!

     It was quite the experience to see the art of cooking and the art of teaching, together in one place! 

For more information about The Chopping Block and to read more about the Kids & Teen Cooking Camps, visit The Chopping Blog where George has his own weekly blog. 

    Hope you all enjoyed reading something different from me today!