Goody O'Grumpity's Spice Cake

The students have been learning about early European colonists in North America. The Older Elementary students have been focusing on Jamestown. Here are two of their recent projects:





The younger children have been learning about the Pilgrims. They to have done a comparison of Native American food and Pilgrim food.

Today, we read the book, Goody O'Grumpity, and baked the spice cake recipe in the back of the book. Even though the recipe is called a "cake", by modern standards it would be considered a yeast-rising bread.



The kids all enjoyed the bread baking, especially the punching down and kneading of the dough.







The bread contained currants, candied citron, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves and it filled the school with a wonderful smell as it baked.

Here are our two big, beautiful loaves, just after they came out of the oven:


Everyone was able to have a big slice of bread to eat while we watched a movie in the afternoon. 9 out of the 10 children loved it.




A reminder to parents:
tomorrow (Wednesday) is silly hat day, Thursday is pajama day, and Friday is our class party, as well as being only a half day of school.

The Human Body Continues

I have fallen a bit behind in my posts.

The children have continued to learn about the human body, through many fun hands-on lessons.



Their science teacher, Pat, is amazingly creative with how she presents the information to the class. For instance, this was a demonstration of the nerves carrying messages to the brain.



This past Friday, the topic was the heart.

Thanksgiving Feast

Today was the day of the annual Thanksgiving Feast at Trilogy.

Pre-meal set-up:

The high school art class did a beautiful job on center pieces created with materials found in nature.
















Parent volunteers setting out the food.



The turkey was purchased with a $4 entry fee to the meal, but all the other food was provided by the families attending (potluck style).



Lining up for dinner:


Service with a smile:


The parents serving the food did a fantastic job and everything looked and delicious.





Thanksgiving wasn't the only occasion to celebrate today. It was also the birthday of two of our students.

Turkeys in Disguised

Each child was given a picture of a turkey today and asked to decorate it, so that it would be disguised and it wouldn't be eaten for Thanksgiving dinner. We had some very creative turkeys.

This one is a hunter:


Tim Turkeybow:


Peacock:


The elf turkey:


Colorful turkey:


Robo-turkey:


Her name is Lola. She is a show girl.

Welcome to the New World

The children just stared learning a new song about American History called "Welcome to the New World". This is only our third practice, so they don't know all the words yet, but they sure make up for that in enthusiasm.

University of Florida Homecoming

Because it is U.F. Homecoming, there will be no school on Friday, Nov. 4, 2011.

Mexican Day of the Dead

Feliz Dia de los Muertos!

In honor of the Day of the Dead, the high school art class set up an shrine on the stage at school today.





The elementary students also learned about the Day of the Dead in Spanish class and they each assembled a skeleton (this also went well with their continuing study of the human body in science class).