Talk About Trees in the Classroom

We were lucky enough to welcome Bev from the Forestry Foundation into our classroom last week.  She was AMAZING!!  Thank you Mark for setting me up with her - you are amazing too!

Her set-up: 

Love this poster!

We had my class and another first grade class in my room for the presentation.  We had a nice conversation before she started setting up asking exactly what we wanted her to talk about.  She modified her presentation to fit exactly what we wanted them to learn.  It was perfect!  I could tell she was a teacher - she made the connection from trees in our backyard and trees in the area to trees in the forest and products from those trees we see and use every day. 

She interacted a lot with the kids, which was perfect!

She showed us how pencils are made. 

Then she set us free to explore (we did this one class at a time since my classroom is very small).

The students counting the rings to see how old each tree is.

Seeing what products are made of wood.  After she left and the next day they were still so impressed that balloons are a forestry product. 

My students kept bringing everything up to me and asking if I took a picture of whatever it was yet.  They were so excited!

My kids LOVED this presentation.  A few teachers came and asked me what we are learning about because my kids were all walking down the hall telling each other that they were going to be foresters when they grow up.  How cute is that? 

Wordless Wednesday - fence project

The fence in our backyard is literally falling down - it has been since we bought the house and we have been patching and supporting the fence for the past two years.  We never really got around to talking to the neighbors about replacing it.  A few weeks ago the neighbors were replacing a small section of their fence, so I asked them about replacing the fence between our houses.  We could do the work ourselves and split the cost of the materials.  They agreed and we started on Friday after work. 

This is what the fence looked like on Friday afternoon.

We tore the fence down and put in galvanized metal posts (that way they will last and not rot like the wood posts had). This is how we left it on Friday night (actually this picture was the next morning because we didn't stop working until it got dark).

Then Saturday we worked and worked and now our fence looks like this.  It is so nice!  Now we just have the rest of the fence to do!

And just for fun here is my nephew - he is the cutest little guy ever!!  I watched him in the morning while we were putting up the fence. 

Happy Wednesday!  If this blogger cooperates this will publish as I am enjoying the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom Conference in San Francisco.  I am so excited about it and can't wait to tell you all about it!! 

Hunk of Meat Monday: Marinading Chicken

Instead of a cooked hunk of meat - this week I am going to share how we prepare a hunk of meat. 

Since there are two of us and I buy chicken in "bulk" (I don't really consider this a large amount of meat but the store does) since it is a better price that way.  And, chicken goes bad when it is just left in the fridge until you want to use it - oh, you knew that? Uh, me too - lol.  Anyway, on to the prep work. 

All you need is chicken (we use boneless skinless chicken breast) and . . .

marinade and freeze bags.  This is my favorite marinade - Lawry's Herb and Garlic.  It is the best!! 

I put one breast in each package - I used to put two since there are two of us, but the breast keep getting bigger and bigger and we only eat half of one, so I started puttting one.

Put the marinade in - just enough to cover.

Make sure the marinade covers the entire breast - lay flat and freeze.

Then, whenever you want chicken all you have to do is defrost and you have marinaded chicken ready to be cooked. 

Guest Room Tour

Next stop on our tour is the guest bedroom.  We have done nothing to this room - oh, wait that is a lie - it was three colors when we moved (like the rest of the house) so we painted it a neutral color. 

Here is the view from the hallway.

A chair that used to belong to my dad's grandpa (I really have no idea who it used to belong to - mom will you leave a comment and tell us who really owned it).

The bed.  The frame is just beautiful and I LOVE it - my mom and dad bought it at a thrift store or something like that and loooong time ago and we got it when my mom got a new bed.  It makes noises when you sit on it and it is only a full but it is perfect and I love it.  The pillow (and the matching one on the chair) we bought at TJ Maxx for the couch but wanted more pillows on the couch, so we moved it in here.  The sheets and bed spread are both from Ross and we bought to go with the pillow. 

We did buy a mattress pad - one of those amazing memory foam ones for a great price at Kohl's the day after Thanksgiving a few years ago - which makes the not so great mattresses feel really nice. 

That's it! Pretty boring guest room - I would like to work on this room.  Some artwork on the wall, a pop of color (turquoise like in the pillow would be great), some curtains maybe.  A real side table and a lamp would be great too.

How do you make your guests feel at home?  I would love to read your suggestions for this blank room!

Farmers in the Classroom

I have so many things to share with you that my kids are learning in the classroom, but I am just so excited about this I am going to skip to it. 

Last week I was lucky enough to have a farmer visit our classroom.  We have been learning about agriculture for 3 weeks, specifically cotton so I was a little worried my kids were going to think these were cotton farmers, but it was fine.

A rice field.  95% of rice grown in California is grown with 100 miles of Sacramento.  Our school is in the heart (not really - more like the feet since we can't see rice fields from our school or neighborhood) of rice country so I was SO EXCITED when I asked begged some farmers to come to my classroom.

A field being harvesting before the rain hit last week.  I was VERY worried when I saw field being harvested the weekend before the farmers where supposed to be in my room.

But, come last Tuesday morning there were two rice farmers sitting in my classroom!!  This is Pa and Susan, they operate Daddow and Sons Farming (you can show them some love on Facebook).  Susan is a former first grade teacher and was just perfect!  Side note - she is super creative and has a blog - go check it out and tell her I sent you! 

Here is my classroom full of kids!  One of the other first grade teachers is doing the ag unit with us and joined us for the presentation.

First, Susan showed us wheat and helped us make the connection from the Little Red Hen to rice (I told you she is awesome). 

Then Pa showed us lots of pictures and explained the whole process from getting the field ready to harvest.  He was wonderful - the kids LOVED seeing the pictures and thought it was pretty cool that rice is planted using an airplane.

See Pa smiling?  I think he had fun too!  Then they showed us the difference between long grain, medium grain, and brown rice.  Susan said that brown rice has a jacket on and white rice took its jacket off - it was THE PERFECT explanation!

Then they explained the two different methods for harvesting rice, showed us products made from rice, let us look at the rice up close, and fed us some rice.  And if that wasn't enough they let us take rice (and wheat) home to share with our families. 

It was AMAZING!!  I would love to do something like this everyday!  Susan and Pa were just perfect and my kids sat and listened for 45 minutes - seriously!!  They never do that for me!

I am so grateful for farmers likes these that take time out of their lives (especially during this busy harvest time) to talk to kids about what they do.  THANK YOU PA AND SUSAN - you two are amazing and I love you both to pieces!! 

Wordless Wednesday

Michael went deer and bear hunting over the weekend.  Apparently it was beautiful and covered in snow:

Hunk of Meat Monday: Pork Chops

Michael LOVES pork chops. 

My favorite defrosting method - putting the meat in a bowl of cold water.  It defrosts them quickly and that helps since I never remember to take the meat out of the freezer a couple days before (it takes a few days to defrost in our fridge). 

Here they are!

Four chops for two people - we took them for lunch the next day (and I forgot to eat lunch - it happens when I work through lunch and recess, my stomach doesn't realize it until the kids leave)

I made a spice rub with garlic powder, pepper, oregano, and some salt.  But, you can use anything you like!  Cinnamon and brown sugar sounds really good right now.

A rub is so easy - you literally just rub it on, turn the hunk of meat over and rub it on the other side.

Get the pan hot, and put the pork on.  Let it cook for a few minutes.

Turn it over and brown the other side.

At this point you can put it in the oven to cook it the rest of the way, but I didn't want to heat up the house - today I do, but I cooked these a few weeks ago.  I just put the lid on and added some water (so it wouldn't burn on the bottom). 

I like to use a meat thermometer to check to see if it is done, but i think I need a new one because this has to be wrong.  I over cooked it, so if you use a thermometer make sure it works! 

Here are the pork chops served with fried zuchini and roasted potatoes.

Enjoy!  What are hunk of meat did you enjoy this evening?

- linking up to Hunk of Meat Monday over at Beyer Beware -