Friday, January 28, 2011

Valentine's Units and other Teaching Helps

It is hard to believe that we are looking at the beginning of February already! I wanted to share a couple of February Units that I'm using to plan our February lesson plans! 

First, here is a great Valentine's Unit from one of my favorites,  Musings of Me.  She does such awesome work and is so willing to share.  Make sure and check out her entire blog because she shares a multitude of ideas.
Than, Moo Moo's and Tutos has supplied another unit based on the letter "H" (for hearts).  She also has a great blog so check out her other posts for inspiration in other areas too!
Than, 1+1+1=1 shares her Valentine's Sensory bin.  We are still playing with our winter bin, but I'll have pictures soon of our February Bin!


Than, a friend shared this link to Story Time for Me.  I checked it out tonight and loved it.  There are different age levels (I didn't dig through the site yet) - I found ages 1-4 and 4-8.  Josh and I sat and listened to two different stories and he really enjoyed watching the story being told.

I'm always looking for different ways to interact with my kids and this is just simple way to do something with reading.

Snickerdoodle Muffins

Talk about some sweet, yummy goodness!  I was a little hesitant to try this recipe I've had for awhile because of the most recent HORRIBLE new recipes I've tried but, it was laying on the counter, I had all the ingredients, and it really did sound good.  I'll just say that these are a little bit of heaven on earth.  If you like Snickerdoodle's and you like muffins - you will LOVE these!!  My husband has told me that these are the best things EVER and I can make them every single week . . .forever!  And, honestly, they are that good. (I found this recipe over at Oopsey-daisy)
Snickerdoodle Muffins

Muffins
2 c. flour
¾ tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. cream of tartar
¼ tsp. salt
½ c. butter, melted
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Topping
1 c. sugar
2 T. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Either butter a 12-cup muffin tin or use cupcake papers.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.  In another bowl, combine the melted butter, sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla.  Stir until combined.  Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and mix lightly with a fork.

Fill the muffin cups with batter.  Top each muffin with the cinnamon/sugar mixture.  It can be applied heavily.

Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean
My Notes: 
* I did not use muffin cups but next time I would for this simple reason, the cinnamon/sugar topping sunk into a lot of the muffins so, when I took them out of the pan, some of that goodness stayed behind.  With the liners, you could lick the paper :-)  hahaha
* I think I over filled my muffin tins - I filled them about 1/2 full and some of them kinda ran over so next time I"ll put a little less in each one and make more muffins
* Today, with making 18 cupcakes, I put 1 1/2 Tablespoons of the topping on each muffin - you think it is alot but you'll want ever bit of that goodness on the top :-)

I'm linking up over at Comfy In the Kitchen!