Sweet Potato Fries

I love French fries! I hate greasy French fries with as big a passion. This recipe incorporates my love for French fries while avoiding my hate for greasiness! These fries are baked in the oven instead of deep fried. You will need the following ingredients: sweet potato, seasoning salt, and olive oil. You will use the following materials: baking sheet, knife, cutting board, and a zip lock bag. Doesn't this sound simple?

The hardest part is making the sweet potato into fries. First, cut the top and bottom off of the sweet potato. You can either use a peeler to peel the potato or use the knife to cut off the peel. When it comes to the fries, I usually choose to use the knife, but I'm not really sure why. After peeling the potato, I cut the potato in half with the knife. Then I can cut the potato into fries. I put the fries into the ziplock bag and pour about 1 tsp of olive oil over them. Then I sprinkle about 1/4 tsp seasoning salt on the them. Close the bag and toss to coat.

Finally, I pour the fries onto a sprayed cookie sheet and place in a preheated oven. I bake them at 400 degrees. After 10 minutes, I use a spatula to turn the fries. I toss the fries again after another 10 minutes. If they are not crispy on the edges, continue to bake until they are finished. I usually check them every 5 minutes after the initial 20. However, it can take up to 45 minutes for the fries to be the texture I like. 

This is the simplest recipe I have found for sweet potato fries. I LOVE these fries by themselves, but I can be a condiment buff, so I have begun exploring different dips. One that I have tried was a BBQ Honey sauce which I found while exploring Pinterest. I found it at Saving and Giving. It uses 1 c bbq sauce and 1 Tbsp each of brown sugar and honey. YUM!!!!!

Calm Down Kit

Today’s “getting ready for a super-stellar school year” project was a Calm Down Kit I saw on Pinterest. The original source was the Social Work Practices at the UT Elementary School Blog (http://blogs.utexas.edu/utes_socialwork/2010/12/). I have some students in my classroom who could definitely benefit from this creation.

The idea behind the Calm Down Kit is that a student who gets worked up during class will be able to sit in a special spot with the items in the kit to help them cope with their emotions.

In my kit I choose to put the following things: a pack of tissue, crayons, scrap paper, play-doh, counting sticks, accent gems, pens, a stress ball, and a Sudoku puzzle book. I’m also planning on adding a pocket-sized Chicken Soup for the Soul as well as a rosary, which I can hopefully borrow from school.

I’m sure this kit is more of a work-in-progress. I’ll probably be thinking of more things to add to it during the school year!

Readers' Theater

Readers' Theater Resources

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE using readers' theater in my classroom. My students really get into it because the characters really come alive for them. The elements of the story really become clear.
 This year I was able to turn the week before Christmas (when absolutely nothing can usually pull the students away from the visions of sugar plums) into a romp into the world of fluency and expression. I chose a reader’s theater play for each class. One class did a version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” by Dr. Seuss that I adapted into readers’ theater format, and the other three classes had plays based on “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement C. Moore. On the last day before Christmas break, we have a tradition of caroling for local senior citizens. When we got back from caroling, this year the students performed their plays for the whole school. One of my favorite parts of the performances was watching one of my students exclaim, “Boo hoo to the Whos!” Students in my classes were still quoting his amazing expression at the end of the year. 
My seventh and eighth graders do readers’ theater on a regular basis. I subscribe to Scope magazine through Scholastic. One of the best parts of this magazine is the readers’ theater play in each issue. My students and I look forward to each volume!

While I was searching for readers’ theater scripts for Christmas, I found a lot of different resources to utilize. I would like to put them in one place! 

Readers’ Theatre Digest	This site contains many wonderful articles on incorporating readers’ theater in the classroom.
Aaron Shepard	Aaron Shepard is an author who created Readers’ Theatre scripts for many wonderful folk tales, fables, and stories. The best part: the scripts are free!
Timeless Teacher Stuff	This site has scripts and other resources I found helpful in implementing readers’ theater in my classroom.
Readers Theater All Year	This site has some free scripts. It also includes a description of readers theater as well as other useful resources. The “All you can Eat” option is available for under $5/month. The scripts are also separated according to holiday/occasion so it is easy to find what you are looking for!
Grandview Library	There a lot of scripts aimed toward students in grades K-3 at this site. Older students can have a lot of fun preparing these scripts to perform for younger students. Choices range from beloved fairy tales to more modern children’s stories.
Teaching Heart	This site has various scripts compiled from different resources. There is also good information on creating your own scripts and evaluating readers’ theater.
Super Teacher	Although this site gives full access to paying subscribers (about $20/year), it also has some free goodies!
Giggle Poetry	This is one of my favorite sites in the world! It has a lot of poems for students to read, and there is a whole section called “Poetry Theater” divides the poems into parts.
The Best Class	This is the website of Mr. Young. He is a former literacy specialist. He has a lot of scripts and each script shows the number of parts in the menu!
Library Point	This is the site of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library. There is an article about reader’s theater in the teacher’s section which includes some free scripts.
Teachers.net	This page is a wonderful site for teachers. At the lesson plan page, search ‘readers theater,’ and you will find a plethora of scripts.
Playbooks	This site has a lot of scripts available for purchase.
Reading Online	This site is run by the International Reading Association (IRA). There are very good resources here!
Sherlock’s Wiki	A ton of great scripts!
Reading Lady	This is the blog of the Reading Lady. Not only does she have a lot of wonderful scripts, but she also has great resources for comprehension, author studies, poetry, six trait, and assessment.
PBS Kids	This site has a lot of play scripts. The format is a little difficult to read, but these plays have production notes in them.
Whootie Owl	This site has a lot of good scripts, and you can also submit your own scripts! Then there is a spot to submit performance video.

Magnet Adventures

Crafts

This summer I have made it my personal conviction to create some amazing new things for my classroom. 

There are quite a few white boards in my room, and my students and I are always looking for magnets to hold things up. My first magnet project was to make alphabet magnets that would be strong enough to hold up papers, and also be usable for other activities.  

I bought accent gems from Dollar Tree and cut out letters from the MANY magazines I hoard for use in my classroom. I used mod podge to glue the cut out letters to the back of the gems. Then I bought heavier duty magnets from Hobby Lobby to hot glue onto the backs. The resulting magnets were fairly inexpensive to make and are already holding up papers well. I made two sets, and I am planning to use one set strictly for magnets. I am planning to use one set for a BOGGLE-type activity. I have seen some bulletin boards on Pinterest (I know, I'm a little obsessed!) with a BOGGLE theme. I do a thinkler activity each week, and am planning to have a BOGGLE grid underneath the thinkler made with the alphabet magnets. I also made a worksheet that students will use to participate in the BOGGLE experience. 

My second magnet project is an "I'm done, now what" activity. I bought longer accent gems and a cookie sheet from the Dollar Tree. Then I cut out interesting words from the same magazines I used before. It is pretty difficult to see the words from the pictures, but it isn't too bad up close. For these magnets I used weaker magnets since they didn't have to stick amazingly well to the cookie sheet.  I am going to have paper available by the cookie sheet, and the students will be able to use the magnetic words and add their own words to write poetry. I hope they can have a lot of educational fun with this activity!

Cranberry White Chip Blondies

Cranberry White Chip Blondies

  

I hate to admit it, but I am one of those people who buys a gift for someone and then uses the recipe on the back of the package before giving the gift. Are there meetings for this sort of behavior?  Anyway, this recipe comes from the back of a Wilton pan I bought for a good friend’s birthday. Although I have heard great things about this brand, the recipe on the back was the final kicker in making my decision. 

 The recipe was pretty straightforward. There aren’t many necessary ingredients. A big plus is that I had all the ingredients on hand: flour, brown sugar, baking powder, 3 eggs, butter, salt (I forgot to get it out before I took the picture), white chocolate chips, and dried cranberries. 

 

Begin by preheating the oven to 350° F and preparing a 9 by 13” pan with non stick spray. Next, combine the 1 ½ c flour, 1 ½ tsp baking powder, and ¼ tsp salt.

 

Then combine ¾ c (1 ½ sticks) butter and 1 ½ c brown sugar in a saucepan. Melt the butter and brown sugar and stir until smooth. Keep them off heat for 5 minutes before stirring in 3 eggs and 1 Tbsp vanilla. Add the sugar mixture to the flour mixture until blended. 

 

Fold in ¾ c cranberries and ¾ c white chocolate chips (add the chocolate chips last because the mixture may be hot and they will start to melt right away).

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Then sprinkle the remaining cranberries and white chocolate chips over the batter. Bake 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely before cutting.

Here’s the final product!

It turned out very soft in the middle especially. I think I could get away with using less butter and still having the same effect. 

 

Cranberry White Chip Blondies

1 ½ c flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

¾ c (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter

1 ½ c firmly packed light brown sugar

3 eggs

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1 c sweetened dried cranberries

1 c white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray 9 x 13” pan with vegetable pan spray.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. In small saucepan, melt butter and brown sugar; stir until smooth. Remove from heat and let cool about 5 minutes. Stir in eggs and vanilla; mix well.

Add flour mixture; mix until blended.

Fold in ¾ c of the cranberries. Quickly stir in ¾ c of the white chocolate chips. Spread batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle with remaining cranberries and chips.

Bake 22-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool completely before cutting.

Makes 24 brownies.