A Snow Treat: Snow Cream!

We got a little bit of snow here in the deep south several weeks ago. It doesn't happen very often so we get a little excited around here when it does. 

The beautiful white fluff came a few days after we studied measurement in math. So we grabbed the ruler and measure how much snow we ended up with. 

This picture isn't clear, but it did measure at one inch. 

Then I remembered something called snow cream. I've never heard of this before. You'd think living in the north where we get more snow that I would have. Nonetheless, I remembered people posting about this treat in times past when we were lucky enough to get snow here. 

Google has become a very good friend to me. :-)  I googled the recipe and found a simple one on DisneyFamily.com

You need

1 C. of half and half or milk

(we used milk)

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/3 to 1/2 C. granulated sugar, adjust to your taste

Mix all those up in a large bowl until the sugar is dissolved. It took a few minutes. 

Stir in 4 to 6 Cups freshly fallen snow, 1 cup at a time....

....until the ice cream magically forms! 

You know, when it reaches ice cream consistency. 

You can freeze it for a few minutes before serving. 

ENJOY! 

Learning Measurement

I think I've written enough posts about the math in our curriculum that one should know that I am just beyond crazy about it.... and that's coming from a person who grew up hating math. It really isn't my best subject, but I am loving the way our curriculum is making it so fun for the kids.

We had a week of learning about measurements. We started off observing different objects and seeing which ones are shorter and which ones are longer. This was very simple, but the children enjoyed it very much. 

Then we explored the measurement of inches and centimeters. We played the "Inchworm Game" where they measured different objects using inches.

We used our unifix cubes as game markers and placed them on start. Then we shuffled the playing cards. Each card has a picture of an object that can be measured with a ruler.

Then the first player draws a card and uses a ruler to measure the longest side of the object that's pictured on that card. Then the player moves his marker that number of spaces on the game board.

For example, if the object shown is a pencil, the player measures a pencil (one that we designated to use for this game). If the pencil measures 5 inches long, the player moves ahead 5 spaces on the game board.

Each player then takes turns until one player reaches the tail of the worm on the game board. That player is the winner. 

Easy. Right?

Fun? You betcha! 

The children really couldn't get enough of this game, so after we played it a few times, we then played it again using the centimeter side of our ruler. 

We also went around the house measuring different larger objects using a yard stick and non-standard measurements, such as, our hands. We also read lots of library books about the other types of measurements. 

To end our week of measurements, we made a cake where I let the children measure out the ingredients and mix up the batter. 

This was another fun week of math. 

I couldn't be more pleased and the kids couldn't have more fun learning.