Story Time: Buttons!

I have decided to start keeping some documentation of my story time plans and how they went. I currently plan and implement story time for ages 3 to 5. I get my ideas from a variety of places including, fellow librarians who are friends or coworkers, books, my own inspiration, and other blogs. I honestly don't always remember where ideas originally came from when all is said and done. When possible, I will share credit where it is due.

My standard story time includes two parts.

The first could be considered the traditional story portion, which lasts about 20 minutes. I alternate story, interactive flannel, song with movement, and repeat. I sometimes change the order depending on how well my group is listening. Since my songs are not always chosen to match my theme, I will probably not always share those.

After taking a moment to explain the activities provided, we move on to the second part of story time. This includes two crafts, a coloring page, and a sensory activity. This also lasts about 20 minutes. I will probably share all my plans except maybe the coloring page.

This weeks theme was buttons! I thought it would be a good theme because buttons can represent several different things. For instance, buttons on clothes, buttons that you push, and of course your belly button!

The Books

 

 

 

 

Press Here by Herve Tullet, is a great interactive book. The book instructs you to press colored dots and as you turn the page, the dots multiply, change color, get bigger etc. I attempted to allow my kids to participate by helping me with the pages where all dots on a page needed to be pressed. While I think it was fun and would recommend the book in general, I am not sure that it was the best choice for story time. In general, it is probably a better one-on-one type of book, but still great fun!

 

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback is a classic. It is also a simple story, with a positive note that is just right to pair with something a little longer or more involved.

 

Flannels

 

Flannels really are one of my favorite parts of story time. Maybe it is because I remember enjoying them as a kid. For the buttons theme, I decided on a flannel version of Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin. In all honesty, I might have chosen it as one of my books, but our copy was checked out and not returned in time to make that possible. A template for making this flannel story is available at Making Learning Fun

 



For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Pete the Cat books, they are great stories because it is easy to make them interactive, have a positive message, have elements of song, and have just the right amount of repetition. For one of my songs, we actually listened and danced to the song version of this story. You can download the song at the Harper Collins Children's website here. In the future, I would choose to do either a flannel of Pete by himself, or the book and the song. I think the flannel and the song felt a little to much like the same thing. In any case, Pete is always a hit!

 

For my second flannel, I decided to make some letter puzzles and talk about the letter B. Basically, I create a big B and a little b and fill them with clipart images of words that start with that letter. I print, laminate, cut up and add velcro. I like these because it brings focus on the first letter of our current theme and then the kids get to help think of other words that start with the same letter. We don't have a ton of time, so at a certain point I just start showing them the pieces of the puzzle and they say what it is. As they come up with the words, I add them to the felt board and assemble the letters. In the end, I ask them to name what we have on the board: Big B and little b.

 

 

 

Crafts

 

I will say that I had a hard time with crafts on this one. Both crafts ended up being challenging for 3 to 5 year olds in terms of hand-eye coordination and motor skills. Unfortunatley, I couldn't think of a good way around it and the crafts ended up needing a little more adult help than I normally like. However, the kids all seemed to enjoy themselves.

The first craft was a button bracelet. The picture above was my sample, made out of buttons and plastic lace. It wasn't too hard to thread the buttons onto the lace, but it did take some patience for those little hands. In anycase, some of my participants left sporting button necklaces because that is what suited their fancy.

 The button flowers were really cute and some of the kids really got into them. I had the flowers cut out before hand and punched holes in the center to feed in the pipe cleaner. The cleaner then went through one hole of the button, looped around through another to twist around at the back of the flower. The kids used tape to tape the pipe cleaners to their paper and then glued the flower pot on top.

At the end of it all, it worked out pretty well. Hope you enjoy!


 

Flavorful cooking and Honey Ginger Apple Stuffed Squash Recipe

Wow, it has been awhile since I have updated this blog. While I think we all know we should stick to our guns on healthy eating all year long, the nice thing about the New Year is that it is a reminder that to get back on the wagon.

One thing that I regularly fail at is resisting the urge to eat out. Let's face it, eating out generally takes less effort, less clean-up, gives you an almost endless list of thing to choose from, and it TASTES SOOOO GOOD! However, we often ignore that eating out is generally more expensive, you have less control over the ingredients, and probably a lot of fat, salt, or sugar was used to make it taste that good.

That is not to say that anything you make at home is not also in danger of being unhealthy. Growing up, a vegetable wasn't served without garlic salt and butter on it. It has taken some time to train myself to enjoy vegetables in their more natural state and lets face it, my taste buds still find the buttered vegetables more tasty. So how do you cook a healthy meal at home, with less fat, salt, and sugar, but still have it be something that doesn't feel like chore to eat?

One solution is to experiment with herbs, spices, and flavored vinegars and olive oils. They can provided a lot of flavor so you can add less of things that aren't as good for you and still be satisfied. It seems so simple. Why doesn't everyone do this all the time? Answer: it honestly sounds like a lot of work for something that might not turn out so great, because let's face it, we aren't all trained chiefs.

The key to success is to start small with simple substitutions.

I recently discovered an oil and vinegar store called GIUSEPPE'S INTERNATIONAL OILS AND VINEGARS, INC. It offers a tasting room to try a variety of flavored vinegars and olive oils before you commit to buying anything. Better yet, this particular store will allow you to get a sample pack of 6 smaller bottles so you have a greater variety to play with once you get home, without spending a ton of money. Their website also offers some recipes for you to try. Don't live near Giuseppe's? More and more stores like this are opening up all the time.

I recently paid a visit to Giuseppe's and had an itch to try out some of my new additions. I also had a dumpling squash that needed to be used so I decided on a variation of a recipe I already knew. Its a recipe from Penzey's Magazine for Acorn Squash with Apples. The original recipe is great on the spices, but a little heavier on the sugar and butter. Plus, acorn squash tends to be a little larger than dumplings so my serving size is a little more modest.

For this recipe I decided to experiment with my new Honey Ginger Vinegar and Organic Butter Flavored Olive Oil.

Serves 2
Ingredients

• 1 Dumpling squash
• 1 medium size apple
• 2 Tbls Golden Raisins
• 2 Tbls Honey Ginger Vinegar
• 1 tsp Organic Butter Flavored Olive oil

Directions

• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut your dumpling squash in half, remove seeds and strings, and place cut-side down on a cookie sheet greased with cooking spray. Bake just long enough so that the outer flesh starts to give when you stab it with a fork.

• In the meantime, chop up the apple into cubes and place in a bowl along with the raisins. Add the 2 Tbls Honey Ginger Vinegar and toss the apples until they are well coated. I used a sweeter apple that I had on hand, but a more sour apple like a granny smith with probably be fantastic.

• Once the squash is just tender enough to yield to a fork, remove it from the oven and carefully turn each half cut-side up. Take the teaspoon of butter flavored olive oil and brush the inside and the top edges of the squash. This won't be enough to give the squash a really rich buttery flavor, but it will keep the top edges of the squash moist in the oven and add just a little hint of sweet butter taste.

 

• Fill each half of the squash with the apple, raisin, and vinegar mixture. Feel free to heap it in. My apple was a little large so I had some left over. I put the extra apples in a small ramekin to bake separately so I didn't have to throw them away. Place back in the oven and bake until the apples start to get brown.

 

• It might be a good idea to hit the top of the apples with a little cooking spray since mine got a little burnt at the edges. It still tasted good but a little cooking spray will probably help keep some moisture in without adding a lot of fat. Alternatively, you could use the butter flavored olive oil and brush it over the tops of the apples.





I did not calculate the nutritional aspects of this recipe since I don't have info on the olive oils or vinegars. I believe you can ask for this information for Giuseppe's, but it is not available from their website. The Honey Ginger Vinegar is sweet so yes, there is sugar in it, but I would bet still less than what was in the original recipe and it is definitely less added fat.

The ginger in this is strong enough to stand out and provide a pleasant flavor. If honey ginger vinegar is not available in your area, some grated fresh ginger, or dried ginger could be used instead and mixed together with a good white wine or white balsamic vinegar and a little honey as a suitable substitute.

Well here is hoping that I make this a good start to my year of hopefully eating in more in 2013.

Recipe: Purple Cabbage & Apple Salad

So, a friends was asking for salad ideas on facebook today and this salad came to mind. I looked through my pictures and discovered that I actually took photos awhile ago to blog about this recipe and forgot! Oops.

Anyway, I can't take complete credit for this one. This is my slight variation on a salad found in the recipe book that goes along with the TurboFire fitness program created by Chalene Johnson and produced by Beachbody. I am a big fan of this workout and, obviously, the food guide isn't too bad either. My main changes are that I added lime juice and I do not add walnuts or dried cranberries. They are an optional add-in for sure, but the salad tastes great without them and the lack of these two ingredients makes it easy to add in as a side salad to your main meal since it is very low on calories.

What I like about this recipe is that it has some key features that are always a big plus. The first is that it is simple. There are few ingredients and it takes only a few minutes to throw it together. Second, it is healthy. Other than the vinegar, this is as unprocessed as it gets. Third, it gives an example of a salad made from something other than greens. Don't get me wrong, I like greens. However, salads made the same way all the time get boring and when things get boring, that is when we start making bad choices. And of course, it is also super yummy!

I am also a big fan of having a variety of color in my food. In a previous blog post I talked about how the color of fruits and vegetables is actually an indicator of the kinds of phytochemicals they contain. According to the American Cancer Society, "Phytochemicals are promoted for the prevention and treatment of many health conditions, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure." So eating a variety of colors and getting a variety of phytochemcials in your diet is a great plan!

Purple Cabbage & Apple Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 Small to Medium Purple Cabbage
• 1 Medium Lime
• 1 Granny Smith Apple
• 1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar (approx.)

Directions:

First take out a large bowl and a cutting board. Cut your apple in half and remove the seeds. Cut your apple into thin slices and place them in the bowl. Juice the lime over the slices and toss to coat.

I originally did this thinking it would keep the apple from turning brown. This was pointless because the balsamic turns the apple brown anyway. However, I have continued to use the lime because I think it adds a freshness to the salad and cuts some of the sweetness of the balsamic.

Now we go to the cabbage. Remove the softer outer leaves of the cabbage. For this recipe we actually want to use the crunchy interior. Cut the cabbage in half and then start cutting slices. If your cabbage is a little large, you can quarter your chunch before you start slicing. While we like the crunchy part, you might want to remove the really thick stalk part of the cabage that holds it all together. Its a bit large and hard to cut through.

Add your chopped cabbage to your apples and add 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar. This amount may very depending on exactly how big you cabbage is.

There isn't a lot in this salad to hold on to the vinegar so always toss before serving to redistribute the liquid that will pool at the bottom of the bowl. Enjoy!

I put the ingredients for this recipe into Sparks People Recipe Analyzer. Assuming this recipe makes 4 servings (though it probably makes more than that), we get the following nutritional information. This recipe is low on calories and high on fiber, potassium, vitamin c, and vitamin B6.

Nutrition Facts
Servings Per Recipe: 4
Serving Size: 1 serving
Amount Per Serving
Calories		96.9
Total Fat		0.6 g
	Saturated Fat	0.1 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	0.3 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	0.0 g
Cholesterol		0.0 mg
Sodium		61.9 mg
Potassium		527.7 mg
Total Carbohydrate		24.3 g
	Dietary Fiber	5.5 g
	Sugars	12.7 g
Protein		3.1 g

Vitamin A	47.0 %
Vitamin B-12	0.0 %
Vitamin B-6	22.2 %
Vitamin C	208.5 %
Vitamin D	0.0 %
Vitamin E	1.2 %
Calcium	9.7 %
Copper	2.0 %
Folate	9.8 %
Iron	9.4 %
Magnesium	8.7 %
Manganese	25.6 %
Niacin	4.5 %
Pantothenic Acid	3.3 %
Phosphorus	6.5 %
Riboflavin	8.6 %
Selenium	1.8 %
Thiamin	9.2 %
Zinc	3.2 %