Tips on cooking your Thanksgiving Turkey from our Half Day Kindergarten Students

If you are preparing a Thanksgiving meal next week, you may want to consider seeking some advice from experts. Some people will tune into the Cooking Channel's Turkey Marathon and others will use tried and true family recipes.

I recently had some time to sit down with our Half Day Kindergarten students in Mrs. Risinger's Class to ask them about some tips they may have for people cooking a turkey.

All generally agreed that it was important to cook the Turkey at the proper temperature. Ian suggested that you cook the turkey at 13 degrees for 13 minutes. This differed slightly from
Victoria's family recipe which calls for a much higher cooking temperature at 32 degrees  for 34 minutes. Be sure to leave enough time to cook a turkey using this method. Nevaeh normally sets her oven to 75 degrees which of course results in a fast cooking time. No one wants to wait around for the turkey. The gravy could burn.

Several of the students felt it was very important that you select the right size turkey. Chris was looking forward to his 200 lbs turkey that was to serve 20 people and Mary recognized that the cooking time would vary depending on the size of the turkey but anywhere from 6 to 10 minutes would be perfect for a juicy plump turkey of average size.

But the true culinary talents of these young chefs became apparent when they were asked how they would season their turkey. For those who enjoy that old fashion citrus tasting turkey, Nour recommended cooking it with orange juice and white rice. Malykai uses a more traditional method of "using the grease with the turkey baster stuff." Malykai also likes to stuff his turkey with "something green or yellow, like cheesecake." Who needs Pepperidge Farm?

Mila knows that everything tastes better with Catchup and of course, she would prefer to serve the turkey with cheese. Chris had a similar sentiment but for his own reasons. When asked what type of cheese he would serve with it, Chris offered "American. It's an American Holiday." Patriot spirit is alive.

Of course we couldn't talk about just cooking the turkey. After all, with guests joining you, presentation is everything. Victoria knows that a colorful display of bananas, strawberries and pineapples are the perfect touch to dress up a freshly roasted turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our families!

SMARTboards in use

We are now two months into the school year and two months into our major technology initiative of having a SMART Board in every classroom. It has been exciting to watch how the teachers first invested themselves in the training that was offered at the start of the year and how they have continued to learn from our Technology Integration Specialist and from each other (and sometimes the students). In my time in the classrooms, I have witnessed a variety of ways teachers have been using SMART Boards to help with classroom management, instruction, demonstration and student learning activities. The student engagement has clearly improved.

Teachers have found ways to "replace" what they previously did on paper with a more visually engaging activity. Many teachers are taking the content directly from our Storytown Literacy program and using it for integrated lessons. We have seen YouTube videos to help introduce a math concept and we have seen teachers using outside sources like TumbleBooks e-readers. These are just a few examples.

While I still believe we are just beginning to implement the way we use technology with students, it has been impressive to watch such a fast transformation from school that used very little technology on a daily basis, to one that now relies on the tools for our daily instruction. We still have more to come and much room to grow but every classroom uses the SMART Board every day. Our next steps will be working with teachers and students, so students are producing work and publishing work online and through other means of technology. I'll be sharing some of these products as the year moves ahead. We are also planning on purchasing some e-readers, like a Nook, for our library and for student use.

As our curriculum shifts to the new State Frameworks based on the National Common Core standards, we must shift our instructional strategies and our expectations for students. We'll be focusing our efforts on making sure that students are engaged with problems and tasks that require them to think, work cooperatively, and be creative, while using technology as a tool to solve problems. These are the skills of a 21st century learner.

Afro-Brazilian Martial Arts and Ensemble Enrichment Program Wows the Lincoln Students!

The students at Lincoln School were treated to a great enrichment program today that celebrated the rich heritage of the Brazilian people. In two separate assemblies, we learned about the Brazilian culture, Capoeira Martial Arts and dance.

With a growing population of Brazilian students at Lincoln, today made many of them especially proud of their home country. They were able to share with their classmates much about the region they or their parents were born in. We learned several Portuguese words and a few of our students even joined the performers on stage for dance demonstration.

Thanks to our PTO for this great opportunity.

Our world is changing

Our world is changing...even quicker than we realize. Here are two links to helps us understand the pace at which change is occuring. The first is a brilliant display of how the countries of the world have narrowed a gap of wealth and health. Those that were considered "third world" countries, even just a generation ago, are catching up. While there is still considerable poverty around the globe, the access to technology and information is without question one of the most powerful forces we have ever dealt with.

http://www.gapminder.org/videos/200-years-that-changed-the-world-bbc/

The second link is to an ESPN special report on the Ugandan Little League team. While the team was prevented from coming to Williamsport to compete in the Little League World Series this August due to Visa issues and birth certificate discrepencies, it is clear how a game, which was completely foriegn to people in the country just a few years ago, can be taught and learned well. These kids can play. If we can teach them to play baseball that well in such a short time... what else can we teach people?

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6860895&categoryid=5595394

Why your child can't skip their 20 minutes of reading per night

We assign homework most nights but nothing may be more important than your child reading at home for at least 20 minutes each night. All the technology in the world, can not replace the importance of reading. Watch the cumulative effect in the math problem below.


Student A reads 20 minutes a night, 5 times per week

Student B reads only 4 minutes a night or not at all



Student A reads 100 minutes a week

Student B reads 20 minutes a week



Student A reads 400 minutes per month

Student B reads 80 minutes per month



Student A reads 3,600 minutes a year

Student B reads 720 minutes per year

Student A will read for a total of 60 school days

Student B will read for a total of 12 school days

One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably and so, undoubtedly , will school performance.

Which student would you expect to read better?

Which student would you expect to know more?

Which student would you expect to write better?

Which student would you expect to have a better vocabulary?

Which student would you expect to be more successful in school and in life?

Back to School

Final preparations are under way to start School on August 30th. We have been hosting dozens of Melrose teachers in the final weeks of August to provide training in SMART board use and technology integration. All classrooms will have their own SMART boards to start the year. We'll also be implementing our complete hands on inquiry based science program developed by FOSS and using a newly revised math curriculum. Our focus on these STEM (science, technology engineering, and math) initiatives brings great excitement to the building.

Here is a link to the FOSS website where there are several resources and ideas for parents and families at home to expand science experiences at home.

http://www.fossweb.com/