Grammy's World - "It is what it is.": Edible Maps

Grammy's World - "It is what it is.": Edible Maps: "Creating an Edible Map Suggested Grades 2+ Objective: Students will create a map and examine the physical geography, borders, and/or cit..."

Edible Maps

Creating an Edible Map

Suggested Grades

2+

Objective:

Students will create a map and examine the physical geography, borders, and/or cities/towns of an area.

Materials:
State map outline, Wax paper, plastic knife (for younger ones they will need parents help with this part) and pencil
2 cups smooth peanut butter
2 1/2 cups powdered milk
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 cups white corn syrup
Blue icing
Chocolate chips
M & Ms
any other edible material you want to use for landmarks photocopies of map of area chosen to create Method

Distribute photocopies of maps and wax paper.
Mix first five ingredients together, and distribute equal amounts of dough to each student. This will be the 'base' of their map. They will put cookie dough on table, add wax paper on top, then add map outline on top. They can use the pencil to trace the map. Remove the outlined map and wax paper then cut the outlined map cookie with the plastic knife to look like the outlined map shape.

Students decorate their map:
Blue icing-- lakes, rivers, and oceans,
Chocolate chips-- mountains
Reeses chips-- wooded areas (trees)
M&Ms-- Capitals
skittles-- cities and towns
Add any other goodies you feel that can adapt to properties of state maps
Students compare and identify others' maps.
Eat!

You can also bake them in the oven at 350* for 8 min or until crisp for a peanut butter cookie effect. My kids liked them baked much better actually.

Have the child do a report on paper of the state they picked having them tell about the state flower, bird, tree, etc ...
The older the child the more detailed the report should become. This is an awesome project because the children love doing it and they remember their states info for years to come.

Signals of readiness for school

Ms Janey sent this to the homeschool group today and I found it VERY interesting and just had to share it!!! Hello all, If you are trying to teach a young child to read and having difficulties, I wanted to share some very useful information with you. I found this information over 25 years ago while I was 'teaching' at a private school the year before I started homeschooling. The book is called "Dyslexia in the Classroom," by Dale R. Jordan, Ph.D. The school had a dyslexia therapy program, and the teachers were trained at Scottish Rite Hospital which specializes (among other things) in testing dyslexic children. anyway, this book was given to all the teachers/workers in their mail boxes. The only thing I found really helpful (and I had 2 dyslexic children over the years) was this bit of information. It may not be anything new to you; it basically says that until a child's two top permanent teeth come in he is most likely not reading-ready. I just heard of the arm-to-ear test as another indicator of reading readiness: the child lifting his arms over his head and being able to touch the opposite ear as an indication of reading readiness. Here's the excerpt: "One of the most trustworthy signals of readiness for school success is the child's tooth structure. There appears to be approximately eighty-five percent correlation between the age at which a child's 'reading teeth'(top front permanent teeth) emerge and the time he masters classroom skills in listening, writing, use of phonics in reading and spelling, and arithmetic. Several hundred primary teachers have found this physical milestone to be true. A physical enzyme structure in involved in dissolving the roots of baby teeth, causing them to loosen and drop out. This enzyme activity occurs about the time the child is ready to settle down to the listening (attending) and producing tasks of first grade. A girl who is developmentally on shchedule should lose her first baby teeth by age six-and-one-half, usually during the fall of the first grade year. Most boys are six months later than girls in reaching this milestone in tooth development. As primary teachers know, far more boys have difficulty with beginning skills than girls. As a rule, boys do much better in school learning after they turn severn. Educators clearly need to review the common practice of starting all children to school according to birthdate. "Approximately eighty-five percent of the slow learners, late readers, and pupils place in slow achieving groups show late tooth development. These children often lose no baby teeth until age seven. I see many children each year who still have their baby teeth at age eight....Tooth development in relation to a child's age is 85% reliable in identifying boys and girls who will probably have difficulty with curriculum tasks on schedule. "For the classroom teacher, late maturity is a critical problem. Immature pupils cannot copy with grade-level expectations. They cannot internalize the concepts presented in daily lessons. They cannot yet transfer and generalize concepts, nor do they build a memory continuum of yesterday's facts as the stepping stones for today's activities. In Piaget's terms, they cannot conserve form nor can they manage transformations and reversibility. They are quickly bored, constantly restless, and overwhelmed by the load of the school day. They are not, however, children with learning disabilities. Their little bodies are not ready for school to cary work loads designed for seven-year-olds. Emotional problems, rebellion, unpopularity with peers, insecurity, and low self-esteem are generated when children are placed too soon in full academic expectations. We have unwittingly been inhumane to thousands of children who should have waited another year or two before being plunged into the fast-flowing academic stream. "A rule of thumb can serve as a cautionary guide in determining developmental maturity in chidlren. If a child still reverses symbols, has short attention span, displays poor fine motor control in writing, and cannot grasp phonetic principles after his top front permanent teeth have emerged, he is probably learning disabled. Eighty-five percent of the dyslexic children we see follow this pattern.....Once tooth development signals general body readiness for sustained curriculum learning, the children who still have problems are usually perceptually impaired." I would also add that Charlotte Mason's short lessons, varied subjects, and time outdoors all help to remedy the problems mentioned in that next to last paragraph.
Janey

Shared to me by my friend: Becky McGee Husband
http://www.facebook.com/stewecky
Thanks Becky!
Mary B.~~