Unexpected opportunities create “fruitful” experiences in the classroom
- At August 29, 2017
- By CGMontessori
- In Blog, CGM BLOG, CGM Parent News
- 0
Unexpected circumstances stepped in this week and provided a learning opportunity to demonstrate that if you are flexible and creative, you can truly be grateful for all the food we have and minimize waste of these precious resources.
The children in our classroom have a “snack day” on a monthly calendar so that they may bring in food to share with their classmates. This week (and last) we received a bounty of fresh fruit. With the addition of a donation from one of our teachers, we ended up with ripe bananas, grapes, pears, and several pints of raspberries. Because I always try to stress that we never want to waste food unless absolutely necessary, I had to alter plans for cooking and snack preparation. And I’m OK with that. Keeps me on my toes!
The children requested pancakes, so the raspberries became a delicious sauce. The grapes and pears became a yummy fruit salad, and the bananas were perfect for a loaf of banana bread.
(Additional teacher challenge: We have numerous dietary restrictions this year, so I am getting to know all about cooking with gluten free ingredients. I am currently running into consistency issues, but I will keep at it and post my results.)
Enjoy the following photos from out “waste not, want not” week.
New Recruits and Old Pros: Cooking again!
- At August 24, 2017
- By CGMontessori
- In Blog, CGM BLOG, CGM Parent News, Oak Room
- 0
We’re back for another school year in our Montessori community, and these kids are ready to cook! Our returning friends went straight for the kitchen to see if anything had changed, while our new students followed to explore the tools and gadgets.
Given the success of our cooking endeavors last year, I changed very little in the environment. I found a bigger shelf in the garage, and after a quick coat of fresh paint, we had a much more flexible storage area…
I also added a few more child-sized stools to keep under the counter so the children could just pull them out for a visit with friends while waiting for items to bake. This was a really “social” time last year!
Since my veterans were ready to jump right in, I asked them to choose what recipe would be good to show our new students. The answer, of course, was muffins. We settled on blueberry.