Plant and Cell Animal Model crafts

So, Big Sister had to memorize a list of some of the parts of the plant and animal cells. After two weeks of working on this, we created models of the cells that contained the parts she had to memorize.

I did some looking around online and other people used lots of things to do this. Paper, pancakes, jello and pizza were just a few that I found. I decided to use cookies to help us learn. I love sweets and after just having a baby thought what better way to get a sugar fix.

This was my first time trying to bake gigantic cookies though, and it was a bit tricky. Getting the centers to firm up took more time than I wanted, so the edges were a little more done than I like typically. Although as cookies cool they tend to firm up a bit. Here are our cookies. Yum!

We used frosting as the cytoplasm, pull apart Twizzlers as the mitocondria and the cell membrane, fruit strips as the vacuoles and the golgi bodies and, flattened taffy as the nucleus and green skittles as the chloroplasts.

 

Little guy wanted in on the action! We kept a digital diagram up on the computer as we worked on our cells. Once we finished, Big Sister had to recall what each item was so she and little sister could have some of their cookies. It took a little time, but she was proud of herself once she remembered.

 

We checked out some resources that I had found on Pinterest.

 

3D Video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nqd9jYQEzw

 

Interactive site- http://www.cellsalive.com/cells/3dcell.htm (check out How Big is a? on the left side)

 

Cell Rap- http://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=-zafJKbMPA8 (the girls were singing this the rest of the day)

 

Diagram of both plant and animal cells- http://www.kathimitchell.com/cells.html

 

 

 

7 Wonders of the Ancient World Craft- Classical Conversations

 

This week in Classical Conversations we studied the 7 wonders of the ancient world. We decided to make a book about the wonders. I found some coloring sheets to print out for her to color. Most of them I found here, but there were a few that I had to google and find the images that way.

After she colored and cut them out, she pasted them on some plain white paper. We read about each wonder in The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Reg Cox and Neil Morris.

I love this book! We checked it out at the library.

 

Then we worked on a paragraph for each wonder. Writing skills are hard to master, but model, model, model. As we read we talked about what she thought were interesting facts. We talked through sentences as I wrote them on the white board. She simply coppied them from the white board. I usually tried to compile three sentences to create these paragraphs.

 

When we finish the book I'll update the post. This is really a fun way to learn a little about each wonder. We also watched this video off You Tube. 7 Wonders Video

Fun Pancakes

Recently I was reading through a Martha Stewart magazine and saw an adorable idea. They used a regular pancake batter and a squirt bottle to make spider web pancakes. I had a squirt bottle sitting unused in our cupboard and thought it would be easy enough to do. The catch is your batter can't have any lumps and you have to snip off the end tip of the squirt bottle to create a bit of a bigger opening.

I made my batter and then poured it into the squirt bottle.

Really easy to make shapes and letters. The kids got a kick out of the first letter of their names as pancakes!

 Ta da!

We had a little batter left over. I put it in the squirt bottle and in the fridge. I just cooked up the remaining batter 4 days later and it was just fine. We will be doing this again.

Personal Calzones

I love having fun, kid friendly foods for either Friday or Saturday nights. I found this idea here, and loved it! It's super easy, but does take a little bit of time to assemble.

First I made some pizza dough in my bread maker. I love that machine! I got it for a wedding present 10 years ago and have been using it regularly since then. Cut the dough into how ever many calzones you want to make. I let the kids roll out their own dough and assemble it themselves. I think that's what took up the most time. :)

Here's Big Sister doing her thing.

Here's munchkin working on hers.

Some of the toppings. Don't forget the cheese!

 Little guy was covered in flour!

Kevin's contribution- holding a sleeping baby while watching a Purdue game.

Yummy dinner!

After we put toppings on one half of the dough, we folded it over and pinched the edges. I brushed the tops with olive oil, sprinkled on some garlic powder and shook some cheese over that. I baked them at 425degrees for 15 minutes. Whatever type of pizza dough you use, follow their directions for baking.

An Afternoon of Baking

Mmmm, can't you smell the yumminess?!

 So first I wanted to make these monster 'magic' cookies. It looked super easy for the girls to help out with. It was and to top it off they are extremely yummy. I found them here.

When I turn on the oven and heat up the house in the middle of summer, I try to bake more than one thing. I went ahead and whipped up these really easy muffins for the freezer (and probably tomorrow's breakfast). We love how moist and healthy these are. They use applesauce, a bannana and ground flax seeds to make it gluten free. I don't have flax seeds, so I replaced that with regular flour since we don't have any allergies to gluten. I found this recipe here.

Who could turn down a muffin with mini m&m's on it?? Not me! Yum!

Easy Graham Cracker Snack

Smear a little cream cheese on top of graham crackers and add some strawberry slices. Sounds so simple and the kids love it. Also, you could put a little honey on top of the cream cheese instead of the strawberries. I think if you add cream cheese to anything it tastes good!