recipe Archives - Page 2 of 2

The Lonely Scarecrow Activities for Kids

November 23, 2012 By Deirdre

This week we read a wonderful book called The Lonely Scarecrow by Tim Preston and did a few scarecrow activities. The scarecrow is placed in a field to scare the local animals away from the farmer’s crop, but doing what he was created to do leaves him lonely. He longs to get to know the local animals and finally have friends. Yet they can’t get past his scary face and flapping coat.All through the spring and fall he watches the animals play wishing he could be part of their fun. When winter draws near, the animals scurry to find warm winter homes and he is left alone.

When the snow arrives, the scarecrow is covered from head to toe in it and the animals think he is a snowman. The animals come out to play on and around him. Yet he was afraid that they would fear him again when the snow melted.

Thank goodness they remember who their friend is on the inside when spring comes and his scary features reappear.

Here are our Lonely Scarecrow Activities for Kids:

Haystack Cookies

My sister in law Marcia make the most wonderful haystacks and brings them to our family Thanksgiving celebration. Her version contains peanut butter and chow mein noodles. JDaniel avoids everything with peanut butter in it even though he has decided he likes peanuts. We made our haystacks with chocolate and butterscotch chips, marshmallows, and chow mein noodles to take to our family’s Thanksgiving celebration.

JDaniel thinks they are wonderful!

Measurement Activity with Scarecrow

The Lonely Scarecrow Activities for Kids- Measuring a Scarecrow

JDaniel made this wonderful scarecrow in preschool a few weeks ago. We have had him hanging on our refrigerator. Recently we took him down and used inch cubes to measure him.

We measure the length of his nose.

We measure the length of his smile

It was fun to use some of JDaniel’s school art to work on a math activity.

Here are some wonderful posts that linked up last week:

I love the wild bird study that was done on Like Mama~Like Daughter. Her handprint bird project is amazing.

$Jack & the Beanstalk Math$

This retelling tool for Jack in the Beanstalk from Fantastic Fun and Learning is truly amazing too.

How have you been exploring books this week?

My Posts From Other Blogs – Fall Crafts and Actvities

November 22, 2012 By Deirdre

Today I am taking the day to enjoy time with members of my extended family. The Smith clan is in South Carolina this year for a family reunion and a time give thanks. I hope you enjoy looking for this wonderful collection of fall crafts and activities.

I am giving thanks that they everyone from out of town is staying at the amazing Embassy Suites hotel and that almost all the food is catered. Our Cape Cod house would have been filled to its rafters if everyone had tried to dine at our house.

If you have stopped by for a moment or two of your Thanksgiving downtime, here are some of the posts I have shared on other blogs and websites this month as well as some of my old favorite from this blog.

The other blogs and websites represented are Kiwi Crate’s The Studio and Kids’s Activities Blog this month.

Here are the Fall Crafts and Activities:

A yummy Turkey Bento Lunch with apple feathers and frozen yogurt Thanksgiving molds was served to JDaniel two weeks ago for lunch.

JDaniel and I made a delicious Pumpkin Smoothie. It was smooth and just a tad spicy according to the JDaniel.

One morning for breakfast JDaniel had Apple Cider Pancakes. My husband keeps asking for me to make more the ones I made for him disappeared too quickly he claims.

The final picture in this collage isn’t food related, but we did have fun with the owls in it. They were for a post called Owl Craft for Skip Counting. We counted by ones as we counted their beaks, we counted by twos when we counted their eyes, and we counted by threes when we counted their claws.

A turkey activity for preschoolers and others to work on spatial terms like above, below, and over was created with feeling. JDaniel was told to place the small red feather on the large green one. Then we were asked to place it beside the large red feather. We had a great time making various turkeys with this activity.

Beside it is a turkey JDaniel created. His feathers were created by painting in a salad spinner.

JDaniel and I did our November shopping for our local food bank using a word and picture guide I created that displays food the food bank really needs.

We worked on symmetry while creating a found art object or centerpiece. JDaniel loved collecting the objects to create the project with.A paper boat was used to create a really simple Mayflower craft! I love how the ruffled edge of the plate looks on the sails.

Here are some of our fall crafts and activities :

JDaniel and I made two paper plate turkeys. They were a part of a post called Read.Explore.Learn.- Trouble at the Tappleton’s.

I made the turkey bowling pins for JDaniel when he was two and a half. The turkey’s bodies were made of his hand prints. The post was simply calledRead.Explore.Learn.- Thanksgiving

We made the turkey treat bag to take to our local fire station. We filled the bag with cookies. The post the bag was featured in was called Read.Explore.Learn.- The Firefighter’s Thanksgiving.

Our thankfulness tree spent last Thanksgiving on our kitchen table. It is filled with leaves that list things we are thankful for. The post that featured the tree is called Thanksgiving for Kids: Being Thankful.

The muffin tin meal on the top of this collage features a turkey and all different foods a turkey would eat. The post was called Muffin Tin Monday- Turkey’s Food Pyramid Meal.

The muffin tin meal on the bottom features a stuffing turkey, the best sweet potato casserole, and turkey divan with a turkey biscuit on top. The recipe for the sweet potato casserole is included in the post. It really is wonderful. The post is called Muffin Tin Monday- Thanksgiving with Sweet Potato Casserole and More.

I made my guys a Breakfast Turkey last year. They loved the pumpkin spice pancakes, bacon, and sausage.

I hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Mrs. Mariner’s Homemade Applesauce Recipe

September 20, 2012 By Deirdre

I have been dying to go to Skytop Orchards with JDaniel to get apples and make applesauce. Yesterday I showed you pictures of our trip to the orchard and today I am going to show you how we made applesauce.

Mrs. Mariner's Homemade Applesauce Recipe

I have never made applesauce before or at least I don’t remember having made it before. JDaniel and I checked a book out of the library called Applesauce Season that describes how to make applesauce using a food mill to break up the apples after boiling them.We don’t have a food mill and none of the other mom’s in my playgroup had one either when I checked with them. I turned to the women of my church who have set up a Facebook group to see if any of them had one. Three ladies called me within two hours to say that had one.

The first lady I talked to was Mrs. Mariner. I have never met her before, but she was a joy to talk too. She was so excited that we were going to make homemade applesauce. Not only would she bring her food mill to church to lend to me on Sunday she would take a few minutes on the phone to describe to me each step of the process.

Mrs. Mariner gave us foolproof or should I call it homemade applesauce that is novice proof.

Here is how we made homemade applesauce:

JDaniel and I cut up four pounds of apples. Mrs. Mariner told me to pick Jonathan Gold, Mats, Golden Delicious and Macintosh apples. They would give us a good mix of sweetness and tartness.

Once the apples were cut. I put them in a pot and filled the pot with enough water to cover the top of the apples. Mrs. Mariner told me that too much water would not be good for the apples.

The apples needed to boil for ten minutes and no more than that. They would get to mushy if I let them go too long.

Draining the apples in a colander sitting on top of a bowl was the step. We weren’t going to need all the water drained, but we were going to need some if the applesauce was too dry. (JDaniel loved drinking the apple water after it had cooled.)

Then we took the drained apples over to the food mill sitting on a bowl. The apples were added a little at a time to the mill. JDaniel and I took turns turning the mill and holding the mill onto the bowl.

When all the apples have been milled, you can store the applesauce in the bowl beneath the mill or you can as JDaniel did put the applesauce into plastic applesauce cups we had saved from store bought applesauce. JDaniel said they were supposed to hold applesauce and it didn’t matter what kind.

I think Mrs. Mariner would be thrilled that we did so well at our first attempt at making homemade applesauce. I know that I am.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Balancing Your Wants and Those of Others

July 6, 2012 By Deirdre

Welcome to Read.Explore.Learn.! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.

I am participating in the MeMe Tales #readforgood Readathon 2012 this summer. During the Readathon, anyone who signs up on the MeMeTales site is given access to the books being featured for free. Each week the books follow a theme. The theme this week is character development. The books being spotlighted this week are StickFiggy and the Piggy-Monkey, Good Habits to Have, and Ditto the Butterfly.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

I chose to focus on the book StickFiggy and The Piggy-Monkey this week. We really enjoy the other two book featured in the MemeTales Readathon this week, but StickFiggy and the Piggy Monkey hit home with some of the issues four-year-olds deal.

You may remember StickFiggy from last week. He is a happy go lucky guy who wants to be friends with almost everyone. The one person he doesn’t want to be friends with it PiggyMonkey.

PiggyMonkey is selfish. He wants all of the raspberry pie that StickFiggy makes and when he just gets one slice he throws a tantrum. He has previously cut the cord to StickFiggy computer as a joke and let StickFiggy play the computer repair bill. He is a real mess.

PiggyMonkey needs to find balance in his life if he is going to have any friends at all. He will need to learn that if people share something with him he can’t demand that they be more generous. He loves to wear a crown which I think means that he wants to be king of all things. What he really needs to learn is how to serve others! It is hard for balance your wants and others needs.

What did we do with this book?

Made a Frozen Raspberry and Strawberry Pie

StickFiggy and Piggy Monkey - Frozen Raspberry and Strawberry Pie

I found a really simple frozen raspberry and strawberry pie on the Cool Whip website. The recipe called for a graham cracker pie shell, two small cartons of raspberry yogurt and a container of Cool Whip. All you have to do is mix the yogurt with the Cool Whip and place the mixture into the pie shell.

The pie will need to freeze it for a couple of hours and you may want to garnish it with a strawberry or two before you serve it. ( You could garnish it with raspberries if your store has them in stock. We tried two stores and there wasn’t a fresh raspberry to be found.)

We really loved this dessert.

Finding Balance Activity

StickFiggy and Piggy Monkey Finding Balance

I found a clown balancing activity on the Discover Primary Science site. The idea is that placing two pennies on either side of clown printed on cardstock will give the clown help in keeping his balance.

It worked. JDaniel was shocked that it really balanced on the edge of a cup. He kept turning the cup around to see if the clown would fall.

Piggy-Monkey needed balance in his life. He just kept thinking about what he wanted. He didn’t think about how his behavior affected others. Piggy Monkey gave us the opportunity to talk through choices and their effects on others this week.

What have you been reading this week?

Disclaimer: I have been given access to the MemeTales: Readathon books and will receive copies of the books. All the thoughts and information in this post about the books are my own.

Watermelon Recipe – Fruit Flavored Watermelon Stars

May 24, 2012 By Deirdre

Memorial Day is right around the corner and many of you will be celebrating with picnics and family gatherings. During those gatherings, you may want to have a cool refreshing treat for the younger members of your family or your friends family. Flavored watermelon stars are both cool and refreshing. This watermelon recipe is fun and easy to make with your kids.

Watermelon Recipe

You simply cut stars out of the slices of watermelon using a star-shaped cookie cutter. Slices that are about one to one and a half inches thick are the easiest to cut through.

We tested out five varieties of Kool-Aid and one type of green ice tea mix in our flavored watermelon stars. The flavors we used were peach-mango, cherry, strawberry, pink lemonade, and orange. The peach-mango green tea was our local grocery store brand. You could select any flavor you or your family enjoys best or you could randomly select packets as I did.

Watermelon Recipe - Fruit Flavored Watermelon Stars Soaking

Each star was dipped in a mixture of a teaspoon of the liquid and a 1/3 a cup of water. The star remained in its muffin cup for about ten minutes. If you leave the watermelon stars in flavored water too long they become very mushy.

When the watermelon had absorbed some of the drink flavors, we did a taste test. Actually, JDaniel did a test taste. He loved all the flavors, but the strawberry watermelon star was his favorite.

If you decide to try this at home, you may choose to only dip our watermelon stars into one flavor. With just one flavor you may decide to place them all into one bowl instead of a muffin tin. When they have absorbed the fruit flavor, you can set them on a platter for your guests.

You may decide you want to have a star dipping food area at your event for children to try dipping star into the flavor of your choice. If decide to do a dipping area, you may want to have forks or tongs available for lifting the stars out. The flavor dipping cups will probably not stay free of germs if little fingers are repeatedly reaching into the bowl or muffin tin to retrieve their stars.

What is your favorite powdered drink?