Holiday Celebration

We had a fabulous time celebrating together. We made fun crafts, made and ate fun treats. Read lots of holiday books and enjoyed our day together. Happy Holidays!

Partner Reading with our Fifth Grade Buddies

We have been partner reading and working on many reading strategies. Today we showed our fifth grade buddies the correct procedure for partner reading. We then worked with our buddies to read books and implement the reading strategies that we are working on.

Polar Express Day

Today our class joined Mrs. Meissner's class to celebrate Polar Express Day. We began the day with each student creating their golden ticket. Each student entered the room wearing their pajamas. They had their ticket punched and got on board for the adventure. We watched the movie, read the book, made and ate homemade doughnuts, drank yummy hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows. It was a truly terrific day.

Bee Bim Bop continued

We received this awesome Thank you note from our Principal Mrs. Phillips after she enjoyed our tasty dish!!

Mrs. Jackson's Guidance Lessons

We are very fortunate to have Mrs. Jackson, a retired Guidance Counselor. (Who also happens to be Mrs. Brown's mommy). Come and volunteer at Chets Creek. She travels through all first grade and kindergarten classes and teaches Character lessons. We love having Mrs. Jackson visit. This month we learned about Respect and Patriotism.

Promise to Kate

Promise to Kate

Our classwill be supporting “Promise to Kate” for our “Seasons of Giving” project thisyear.  Some of you may know Mrs. ElizabethConte.  She has been a longtime K-1 Chetsteacher.  She left for a while after herchildren, Charlie and then Kate, were born but has returned to work with smallgroups of children in Kindergarten.  Mrs. Conte‘s daughter Kate was born with myotonic muscular dystrophywhich is an inherited disorder that the family was unaware that theycarried.  After Kate was born, Elizabethand her husband, Dave, founded “Promise to Kate,” a foundation that embodiestheir promise to raise money to cure the disease in Kate’s lifetime.    They are working with a “Dream Team” ofresearchers right here at the University of Florida.  The money they raise goes to fund researchbut also helps families who need the services of Wolfson Children’sHospital.  This is an especiallyappropriate project for us, since our children at Chets see Mrs. Conte andCharlie daily and also see little Kate, who comes to Chets early in the morningbefore preschool to receive occupational and physical therapy along with speechand language services.

For ourpart, we will be auctioning off a holiday item made by the class during thesilent auction that will be held in the lobby after Thanksgiving.  We hope that you will want to stop by andsupport the silent auction.  Families mayalso choose to make a direct financial donation to “Promise to Kate.”   What we hope to accomplish during thisseason of giving is for the children to begin to understand the meaning ofservice to others.  We appreciate yoursupport and especially you speaking to your child about this very worthwhilecause.   We are very excited to besupporting something so close to home.

View a videoabout Kate at http://www.promisetokate.org.

written by dayle Timmons

Bee-bim Bop

Bee-bim bop

Bee-bim bop is a popular Korean dish.  Bop is the Korean word for rice,and bee-bim is a nonsense sound meaning “mix-mix.”  So “bee-bim bop” means “mix-mix rice.”  It’s a favorite meal for many Koreans.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Each diner gets a portion of rice, then tops it with meat, steamed or stir-fried carrots, green vegetables like spinach and mung-bean sprouts, eggs that have been made into flat omeletes and then shredded, and kimchee (pickledcabbage).  When all the food is on the plate, you bee-bim-toss and mix everything together like crazy – to make a colorful and delicious meal.

Bee-Bim Bop!  is also a book written by Linda Sue Park.  This book was the inspiration for today's activity.  The Fifth graders,   acted out the book and then we made Bee-Bim Bop.  Then we were lucky enough to eat it,  Yum Yum.  If you would like to make Bee-bim  bop at home here is the recipe.

Bee-bim bop recipe

There are many versions of bee-bim bop.  Bean sprouts, sesame seeds, and kimchee are available at most supermarkets as well as at Asian grocery stores.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

2 cups of cooked white rice

Meat:

1 pound of lean beef (flank steak) cut into thin strips

          marinade:

                    2cloves of minced garlic

                   2 green onions, chopped

                    5Tablespoons soy sauce

                    2Tablespoons sugar

                    2Tablespoons vegetable oil

                   1 teaspoon roasted sesame seeds

Vegetables:

          2 carrots, cut into matchsticks

          2 packages frozen spinach, defrosted

          1 pound bean sprouts

Other ingredients:

          4 eggs

          vegetable oil for frying

          Kimchee (Korean pickled cabbage)

                             

Cooking Instructions:

1. Combine the marinade ingredients in a large bag.  Add the thin strips of beef and squish it around for 2-3 minutes. Set the beef aside.  You can marinate the meat up to12 hours. 

2. Break the eggs into a bowl.  Beat the eggs with a fork.

3. Pour about ¼of the eggs into a nonstick frying pan that has been coated with 1 tsp. of oil.  Rotate the pan quickly so the egg spreads out in a thin layer on the bottom. Cook the egg for 1 minute, then flip the egg over and cook on the other side for 1 minute.  You should have an egg “pancake”.  Flip the pancake out onto    a cutting board and leave it there to cool. Repeat until you have used up all the egg.

4. Roll up each egg pancake tightly and cut the roll into ¼ inch slices. They will look like yellow ribbons. Set aside.

5. Heat 1 Tbl. of oil in a frying pan or wok.  Stir-fry the carrots until tender. Set aside.

6. Put another Tbl. of oil in the wok.  Stir-fry the spinach until tender.  Set aside.

7. Put another Tbl. of oil in the wok.  Stir-fry the bean sprouts until tender. Set aside.

8. Take the bag of beef with marinade and dump it into the wok – all of it at once.  When the beef hits the pan it will sizzle.  Stir-fry the beef for 2-3minutes until all the red meat turns brown. Turn off the heat.

To serve:

Put the rice, the bowls of egg strips, and vegetable, and the pan of meat where everyone can reach them.  Each person puts a pile of rice in the middle of a bowl or plate and some meat and vegetables on top.  Top with egg ribbons.

Now “bee-bim” –mix everything together.  It’s ready to eat (with some kimchee on the side.)

Election Results

It seems our class and the nation voted similarly.

Election Day!

Today we held a mock presidential election. Our students made Voter Registration Cards and filled out a ballot voting for the next President. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post, we will share the winning candidate and see if our vote followed the same trend as the nation.

Chets Creek Garden

Our class planted "The Three Sisters". We planted corn, squash and beans.

Pumpkin Sorting

We are currently working on a unit that is all about pumpkins. We are studying and using pumpkins throughout all subject areas. Here are a few students that are using pumpkins and gourds for sorting. The students sorted them into groups and their buddies had to determine which characteristics were used to place each one in which group.

Fifth Grade Buddies

We are lucky to have joined with Mrs. Shannon's fifth grade class. The fifth graders come to our room each Thursday. We work on our Reading skills together, and have worked on plenty of Science Skills. Math is next!

Orientation

We had an amazing Kindergarten Orientation today!  It was a thrill to see students that I have known for years as well as meet many new friends.  We have a wonderful group of children in our class this year and I am looking forward to learning all about them.  The parents learned all about what to expect in kindergarten and the students created  chefs that look like themselves for our bulletin board.  It was an exciting morning.  I look forward to seeing all of my new students again on Monday for the First Day of Kindergarten!  We most certainly have the Recipe for Success!

Getting Ready for Kindergarten

Tomorrow is Kindergarten Orientation.  I am so excited to meet my new students and their families.  This is going to be an exciting and learning filled school year. Chets Creek has the recipe for success and we are ready to teach our new students what the recipe is and how to use it.  Looking forward to seeing what this new group of chefs are ready to cook up.  Looking forward to a wonderful and fun filled school year.  See you tomorrow. 

Pizza Party!!!

Lunch was terrific today! We won a Pizza Party from the PTA for collecting so many Box Tops, Soup labels and Printer Cartridges. It was yummy and so much fun to eat with our friends in the classroom. Thanks to our parents for helping us to collect what we needed, and big thanks to the PTA for the Super yummy pizza.

100 Day of School!

Today is the 100th Day of School. We have been counting the days since the very first day and it is finally here. The students had a special homework assignment this week. The students were challenged to create "something" to wear that had 100 things on it. We had a belt with 100 buttons, we had a shirt with 100 candy hearts, and a shirt with 100 bows. The kids looked and felt terrific. In class we made a 100 day trail mix with exactly 100 treats in each bag. Each student made a 100 Day of School Hat and a 100 Day book. We read books about the 100th day. We counted to 100 by one's fives and tens as well as other fun activities based on the number 100. We finished the day with a visit from "Zero the Hero", who made the day extra special.

Potting Day!!!

What a Great Day!! We were so very lucky to have Chloe's Dad come to our room for "Potting Day"! He and his co-worker Ms. Smith brought, soil, seeds and all of the other supplies that we needed to plant plants. We planted radishes in the room. We learned all about what plants need, and where food comes from. Each student received a large pot, a bag of soil and seeds to take home. Now our Super Smart students can share what they have learned with their parents and start their home garden. Thank you Mr. Jones and Ms. Smith.