Thursday, June 6, 2019

Shortcakes and Soap- June Edition

Monthly GIA Elementary Newsletter

Student Features: 

Have you had to do any projects recently? Here is a really cool project on our own students created for her social studies class! She was tasked to create an African mask and this is what she came up with! Want to share your project with us? Email pictures to Cindy Cancel and we would love to share them! 






Happy Birthday in June to...
  • Cayla C.
  • Alywn F.
  • Sofia P.
  • Nicholas B.
  • Natilee B.
  • Martin A.
  • Tracy A.
  • Brynna E.
  • Leila A.
  • Esther S.
  • Jaira K.
  • Matthew T.
  • Hiromi M.
  • Mason L.
  • Wendolyn J.






 Storytime Announcements

starting for the new year on January 10th!

Chef's Corner!

strawberry shortcake cups recipe collage



Ingredients:

Cookie Cups

§ 6 Tbsp butter, softened
§ 1/2 cup sugar
§ 1 egg
§ 1/4 tsp almond extract
§ 1/2 tsp vanilla
§ 1 1/4 cups flour
§ 1/2 tsp baking powder
§ 1/4 tsp salt

Filling

§ 1/2 cup whipping cream
§ 2 oz cream cheese, softened
§ 1/2 cup powdered sugar
§ 1/2 tsp vanilla

§ 1 cup strawberries, diced

Instructions:
  1.  Cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl till creamy. Add egg, almond extract, and vanilla. Beat well
  2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to creamed mixture and stir till well combined.
  3. Roll into 1″ balls and place in well greased mini muffin pans. Make an indentation in the dough with your thumb or the back of a teaspoon.
  4.  Bake at 350° for about 10 minutes, or till lightly browned on the edges. Use a spoon to press the dough down in the middle, forming a cup. Remove to cooling racks and cool completely.
  5. For filling: Beat whipping cream till stiff peaks form. Set aside.
  6.  Beat cream cheese till smooth. Beat in powdered sugar and vanilla. Add whipped cream, and beat till well combined.
  7. Fill cups with filling. I piped it in, but you can just spoon it in if you prefer.
  8. Top with diced strawberries. Serve immediately or chill.
 Creating in the kitchen is so much fun! You can share your pictures of your oreo brownies on Griggs facebook page, or email them to me so that I can see your creation.

     

"You Don't Say": Fine Motor Skills


 According to this article in the NY Times, the hobbies that adults used to do as kids (handwriting, coloring, sewing, woodworking, etc.) has had an important impact on the development of fine motor skills. Because they used their hands to do projects and crafts, they developed fine motor skills that many children are not developing. Children today are spending less time doing projects and more time working on screens. Recently,  medical schools have found a decline in the quality of fine motor control in their surgical residents. So parents, take a lesson from research and keep your kids hands and minds busy with lots of projects like cutting and pasting, knitting, whittling, and yes, cursive handwriting!

Craft/Science Project:

The amazing expanding ivory soap science experiment


Check out this awesome science experiment!

Supplies:
  1. Bar of Ivory Soap
  2. Microwavable Dinner Plate
  3. Microwave
 Directions:
  1. Before you begin, you can take a few minutes to let the children examine the bar of soap. Use descriptive words as you take turns holding it, feeling it and smelling it.
  2. Did you know that Ivory soap floats? It has a high air content! If you have an extra bar of ivory soap, you could drop the spare bar into a bowl of water to show the children how buoyant it is. 
  3. Place your Ivory on a microwaveable plate
  4. Put your soap in the microwave.
  5. Run the microwave on high for 1-2 minutes. Today I set my microwave for 1:30. You can't really overcook your Ivory, but it will reach a point where it stops expanding. 
  6. When the microwave stops, remove the soap and examine it.
  7. Caution! The plate and soap will be quite hot for a minute or so after being removed from the microwave. They cool down quickly but give the soap a few minutes before letting your children handle it. 
  8. Let your children investigate how the soap has changed: what started out as a hard bar of soap is now a fluffy, crumbly powder. 
  9. Visit this website for more scientific specifics: https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/soap-souffle/
  10. Once you're done you can recycle it! We grab a roll of toilet paper and some water and the hooligans whip up a clean mud. It's a moldable dough that smells wonderful and keeps the kids entertained for hours. 
Visit this site to see all the instructions and more pictures: https://happyhooligans.ca/ivory-soap-microwave-experiment/

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