Spinach Wrapped Goodness

How was your Super Bowl Sunday? Mine was spent snacking on delicious goodies and mingling with great friends. Not too shabby for a Sunday afternoon if you ask me!

Of course, the Super Bowl was the perfect occasion to test out a new recipe on a few willing guinea pigs. As you may (or may not) know, I'm a big fan of crescent rolls. Who knew those little wraps were so versatile? On Pinterest I found a recipe for a spinach and cream cheese pinwheel but then it vanished. I couldn't seem to track it down again. After wayyy too much searching, I had to rely on that other search engine, google.

Taste of Home has a delightfully simple recipe for Spinach Cheese Pinwheels.  I modified a bit.  Here's how to make these little goodies on your own:

Fits in the Palm of Your Hand

Spinach Cream Cheese Pinwheels

• 1 tube garlic butter flavored crescent rolls
• 4 oz cream cheese
• frozen spinach
• (optional) meat or veggie of your choice!

Make it!

1. Separate crescent rolls into four rectangles and seal the perforations. (Yes, this step took me awhile to figure out)
2. Spread cream cheese on crescent rolls. Top with spinach, ham, and veggies (if you so choose!)
3. Roll up each rectangle up jelly style and cut into slices. Don't forget to pinch the edges to seal!
4. Cook for 8-10 minutes on 400 degrees.
5. Enjoy!

Happy Tuesday!

Flippyity Flaps

Warning: I went a little crazy with hyperlinking. Once I started... I just couldn't stop. You've been warned.

One of my goals for science is to make using our textbook more exciting.  It's common knowledge that textbooks don't possess much of that "cool factor".

I've always been a fan of Dinah Zike's Foldables, but until recently I hadn't quite figured out how (or when) to use them.  Then, my wheels starting turning.  As part of of plants chapter, I wanted my kiddos to be able to recognize the process of photosynthesis, but I didn't exactly have gobs of time to spend on it. I knew in my mind, I wanted my students to create some kind of photosynthesis foldable. After a few failed google searches, I decided to use my own noggin.

Using an awesome foldable resource I snagged from Pinterest, I decided on a "Six Door" foldable.  A Teacher's Treasure has several great options and ideas for foldables here.

In the top three boxes, students listed the three things necessary for photosynthesis to occur: water, sunlight energy, and carbon dioxide. On two of the bottom flaps, we wrote what plants produce as a result of photosynthesis: oxygen and sugar. One of my students even suggested writing "produces" at the bottom to remember! Brilliant!

Finally, in the last box we wrote the definition of photosynthesis.
Not too shabby!

On the inside of the flaps, using our books as a resource, students described what happened with sunlight, carbon, water ... and so on and so on.  My kids loved it! It was probably because they got to fold, cut, and color. Oh well, I'll take it!

I've been a follower of Eve's Science Notebooking blog for awhile, but it took my brilliant coworker to stumble upon her Flip and Flaps post for the lightbulb to turn on!

As I mentioned earlier, I am always looking for ways to make the textbook seem "cool". Although, one student DID tell me that he took his book home every night to read... I'll assume he is the minority.

So! After reading this post on Flip and Flaps, Erin (my brilliant coworker) and I put our heads together and whipped up some flippity flaps for the week! Using Microsoft Publisher as Eve suggested, I created a little interactive textbook activity for lesson four. I asked my students today what they thought and I received cheers! Let's keep in mind... they got to color and glue again.

On the cover of the flip flap, I created a parts of the flower review based on this photo.  On the inside, students sneakily had to reread the text to fill in the blank and answer various questions.

I'm Learning So Much about Flowers!

How DO plants grow?

Erin (my brilliant coworker) recreated this leaves, stems, and roots flip flap for our kiddos to review the functions of each. Once again, my kids were in love with science (or their scissors, colors, and glue).

Now, before I part for the evening I must inform everyone of something extremely important happening this weekend. The University of Missouri will be playing the kU jayhawks (yes, that is grammatically correct) at THE MIZZOU Arena this Saturday. There's only one thing I have to say:

MIZZOU-RAH!

Taking the Plunge!

This year, I'm participating in the annual Polar Bear Plunge at the Lake of the Ozarks!

The charity event supports Special Olympic athletes across the state. I am so excited to be part of this event to support athletes in my area!

I've been blown away by the tremendous amount of support I've received so far.  If you wish to support the School of the Osage team, click here. We are hoping to raise over $2,000!

Have you ever taken the plunge?

Stretch Your Spine

Last year, I stumbled upon 100 Scope Notes and their post about "Book Spine Poetry". The entire post was a collection of some of the best poems from the year. It's a creative take on the world of poetry.

Since my students are working hard to write poetry from their (soon to be published) hardback poetry books, I decided to throw them a little challenge and create poems from books in our classroom library.

Confused? Here's an example:

Prior to starting, I showed my kiddos the webpage full of poems. We talked how the poem's seem to revolve around a central theme and idea. I challenged my students to search our classroom high and low to put together spines of books and create a little poem of their own! I was blown away by some of their creations. Their creativity and imaginations were fantastic!

Not only were they thinking about theme, but they were also finding books upon books that haven't been discovered this year (including nonfiction!!). Plus, it didn't hurt that they had a lot of fun. The perfect activity after a weekly test.

Here's a few more that will make you giggle, think, and smile:

Happy weekend friends!

"FindAnythingInTheFridge-Monday"

I've never really been creative enough to throw ingredients together and whip up something grand. Now, before I continue with  my "creation", I will warn you: a four year old could do this. I definitely don't deserve a medal for my little kitchen creation.

I peaked in my fridge and three things that stuck out to me: crescent rolls, cheese, and salsa. Why not put them all together? So I did. Like I said, this post is dedicated to the younger demographic.

Let me back up. I mentioned finding some salsa in my fridge. Yes, recently I purchased a jar of salsa from a restaurant down here at the lake. There may be more Mexicali Blues floating around the world, but to me.. it's local!

Please examine this jar carefully. Notice the "HOT" and "XXX"? Yeah, ME TOO. As I was banging the jar of salsa on the counter and twisting with all my might to get the lid off... I read the jar carefully. I gave a shriek and put that salsa away ASAP. I am what you might call a "weenie" when it comes to spicy food.  Actually, I'm more than a weenie. I'm a wuss/weenie/little baby/chicken when it comes to spicy foods. I stick to normally-flavored foods that don't make my lips and mouth want to fall off and run away.

Thankfully, I had another jar of salsa hibernating in my pantry. After that unfortunate salsa "episode", I rolled out my crescent rolls, sprinkled them with colby jack cheese, threw in some frozen corn for good measure, and doused them with salsa. I'm sure Martha Stewart is calling me as we speak and I'll be guest starring on "The Chew" in no time.

I Picked the Pretty Ones to Photograph

After about 13 minutes in the oven, I pulled out my little crescent delights and parked myself on the couch for a fine feast.

Not too shabby for a Monday night.

A Spectacular Wednesday

Guess what? It's almost Friday. Just wanted to throw that in there in case you forgot.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting with my book club to discuss "Killing Lincoln". I usually don't read many historical books, but I highly recommend picking up this thriller! It tells the fascinating story of President Lincoln's assassination in the spring of 1864. The book definitely keeps you on your toes and begs for you to turn each page. 

Anytime I'm involved of a gathering of some kind, I always bring a dish to share. I can't help it! It gives me an excuse to test out recipes and cook a little. Usually, it's a dish I've never tried before others get to be my test-subjects. Thanks to Pinterest (as always), I found an appetizer that is a definite crowd pleaser. I brought the leftovers to school today and this was the end result:

I had to stop myself from licking the bowl clean. Needless to say, I believe I've found one dish to contribute to a superbowl par-tay. 

Pizza Dip from Closet Cooking

Ingredients

• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup mozzarella, grated
• 1/4 cup parmigiano reggiano (parmesan), grated
• 1 cup pizza sauce
• 1/2 cup mozzarella, shredded/grated
• 1/4 cup parmigiano reggiano (parmesan), grated
• 2 ounces pepperoni, sliced
• 2 tablespoons green pepper, sliced
• 2 tablespoons black olives, sliced

Directions

1. Mix the cream cheese, sour cream mayonnaise, mozzarella and parmigiano reggiano and spread it across the bottom of a pie plate.
   
   Click here to read the rest of Kevin's recipe from Closet Cooking. 

After snacking and chatting about Lincoln, we decided on our Jan-Feb book pick. We decided on Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Have you ever read it? I'm really looking forward to it! I wish the Amazon storks would drop it off sooner than Monday. 

Before I scoot to my laundry... I have a fun announcement to make! A friend and I have decided to participate in the Lake of the Ozarks Polar Bear Plunge for Special Olympics! If you want more information on how YOU can help out, leave me a comment!

Happy Thursday!

Wordless Wednesday

(I'm not really good at being silent and/or wordless. So I'm writing everything in parentheses. Pretend, if you will, that I'm whispering to you. This is a strategy I learned from my kids. If I'm whispering when I'm told not to talk then it's practically the same thing, right? Anyway, back on track here! This was the view that lit up my house while the sun was setting tonight. Stunning.)