Easy Classroom Chocolate Fondue and a Valentine Freebie!

I could have called this post One Great Valentine Party because I cover the fancy treat, a cute hat that doubles as my teacher Valentine to students, and a crazy way of Valentine exchange, with a little Freebie thrown in for good measure. Here we go!

One of the BEST treats we have all year is "Chocolate Fondue" for our Valentine's Party. Ok. So I use the term "fondue" loosely... no flames are involved. snort It is more like chocolate dip... but it IS warm. And it is easy. And it is nut-free. And it is DELICIOUS!

Simply get a jar of Trader Joe's Speculoos Cookie and Cocoa Swirl spread.

I tell you this stuff is wonderful in any form on anything you choose. I found out about it from the mom of a nut allergy student who could not have many forms of chocolate, but could have this stuff. What a find!

Put some in a safe container and microwave for ten seconds at a time, stirring in between ten second blasts. It doesn't take long to turn it into smooth, warm, liquid heaven. It mixes the two flavors into the BEST chocolate flavor. I put the fondue in little sauce cups, another reason why the chocolate should only be warm, not hot. If it cools down it is okay because once liquified, this dip won't harden again. Also put out whatever items you are going to let the kids dip– pretzels, bananas, crackers, marshmallows...  it's all good!

Then let the kids have at it! Voila! You will be the most popular teacher in the school. One of my parents gave glowing praise, "It figures you'd figure out a way to do Chocolate Fondue with five year olds! My daughter can't stop talking about it! I think we're going to be having it this weekend." Hee

If you don't have a Trader Joe's nearby, not to worry because I found it on Amazon! Click on the pic below to go there. And if nuts aren't an issue in your classroom, I'm betting good old Nutella would work, too, though I have not actually TRIED warming Nutella, so experiment first!

Click to find on Amazon

Now, take a look below at the kids' Valentine hat close up. I think they are the CUTEST things around and I use them as my Valentine to each kiddo. Here's how you can do it, too, with the help of my FREEBIE download.

Print out the "Happy Valentine's Day, Love Bug!" sheet on pink paper, one for each child, and cut the paper in half lengthwise. This message is printed on the back part of the headband, which you can't see in the photo. And it's printed in bubble letters so the kids can color it in.

Print out eye sheets on white paper– you get six pairs of eyes per sheet and each child needs a pair.

Include a small heart sticker, paper heart punch-out, or those press on foamy hearts for a nose. Do Love Bugs have noses?? Mine do!

Add two pipe cleaners or one pipe cleaner cut in half, or if you don't have pipe cleaners handy, just cut skinny strips of paper. They'll need four more hearts to make the antennae. The kiddos will sandwich the pipe cleaner tips in between two hearts to form antennae that can be taped to the hat's inside edge. As you see, the hearts don't have to be red or pink.

To turn the hat into a Valentine for my kids, I sign my name under the word "Love Bug" on the message at the back of the headband. Then I make little Valentine "kits" by rolling up all the parts into a scroll tied with red curling ribbon. I hand one to each kiddo as our party begins and let them cut, glue, color and tape their hats into place. It makes a lovely, wearable Valentine and a great valentine party activity.

Hat making is followed by the fondue, and then the big valentine opening event. We open Valentines with everybody sitting in a circle on the floor with their lunch bag mailbox of Valentines in front of them. On my signal everyone starts to take out their Valentines, one at a time, and when they figure out who it is from (it takes a while for five year olds to read five year old handwriting!) they then yell, "Thank you, So-and-So" across the circle. Then So-and-So has to yell back "You're welcome!"

You have never seen or heard such chaos!!! So much happy yelling. Warms my heart! I've done it this way for years and won't do it any other way. Then all the Valentines go back in their bag with any candy that came in Valentines, so it can all be taken home.

One heck of a good party, and a level of prep that I can handle. Try it! Bet you like it!

OH! Almost forgot! For the simple freebie hat download, just click on either of the photos with kids in hats! Kuddos to DH Jonathan for putting the hat handout together to my specifications. Life would be SO much harder without him... it's why I keep him around... well, that and a few other reasons. TeeHeeHee

As always, Pin Pin Pin please!!!

See you next time! News Flash– Next time is TODAY. I put together a compilation of dance party brain breaks featuring Black artists performing a wide variety of music over the years to use throughout February. This collection for Black History Month is coming out in a couple hours! You'll want it for easy reference. AND going BACK in time, don't miss my post with the Safe Youtube QR Code cards for students to use to watch Storyline Online! Click HERE for that one.

Blogging from McDonald's... with a freebie and a GIVEAWAY!

Oooh, I have a Freebie, a book review, and a GIVEAWAY today!! Thanks to Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky. Gotta love Five for Friday!

1.  What a glorious morning!

Well, THAT gorgeous morning was not THIS morning, but one last week. I love to see the dawn and that breathtaking sky, and feel like anything is possible. Usually I'm rushing around to get out the door with the oh-so-necessary three dozen bags a kindergarten teacher must always have on her person when she leaves the house. I share this so you can feel anything is possible on this Good Friday, too.

Because we don't have school today, I treated yesterday, Thursday, like IT was Friday. I mean it was the last day of the school week after all. On the way home I picked up a bunch of movie rentals– yes, we are among the rare citizens we don't have a million cable stations and movie subscriptions. We love Redbox where we simply grab a movie or two... or three for the night. I threw together a dinner and Jonathan and I settled in for mindless entertainment: Specter. Jonathan's choice, not mine... I've seen every James Bond movie that ever was because of the men in my life... brothers, boyfriends, husband... only one husband, thank goodness. We were halfway through when flicker, flicker, click. No power.

WHAT???? A whole glorious night of movie escapism ahead and now. no. power!!!! I even took a fifteen minute nap when I got home so I could stay up late! How were we to watch those red boxed discs now? Hmmpf.

I reported the problem to the electric company and signed up to get a text when the power came back on. We packed up the laptop, cord, earbuds, and movies- NOT Specter because it was stuck in the player which doesn't open without power– and headed to our favorite coffee shop. Coffee and chocolate cake only made the evening better. It was an adventure!!

Here we are camped out in the comfy chairs with the laptop between us. Gotta love selfies and how very attractive they make you look... my nose is really not that big...

We got back home about midnight, stumbling through the dark house and flipping every lightswitch as we went. We knew the power wasn't on yet because the porch light was still off, but for some reason we found we couldn't remember that fact from one room to the next. Stumble, grope, click. Hmmph. Stumble, grope, click. Sigh. Stumble, grope, click. Dang it why do I keep doing that! Both of us. Through the house. At every switch. I bet you didn't know there are magnets in lightswitches that make your hands automatically grope for them in the dark. What an interesting phenomenon.

This morning the power was still not on. No power, no heat, low overnight temps of 26 degrees. The adventure was over. I briskly hustled out of pajamas and headed off to breakfast with a teacher friend so I didn't have to open the fridge, and then camped out later at McDonald's to blog. McDonald's, on a Friday, when there is no school, and apparently not much else to do in town. Again, not so much an adventure. But what's a blogger to do.

2.

Aren't these adorable! And so easy to make!

One of my students brought this in to me yesterday. Well, one of my former students. Don't you just love when they come back to see you. A real advantage of teaching kindergarten is that you know the kids for their entire six years at school.

I thought this was so cute I took a shot. And it's pretty easy to make. A rice crispie treat "nest" formed by pressing the mixture into a muffin tin, then some frosting to hold the jelly bean eggs and a Peep bird to the nest. These are probably all the go on Pinterest but I had never seen them before. If I'm ever again in a phase of life when I need to make such treats, I'll try these. And I'm going to pin my own photo up  there so I don't forget about it. Pinterest: the memory I don't have.

3.  I blogged about this game idea which I found on Pinterest a couple posts ago. I report on it again because it is a HUGE HIT!!

That is a foam die in my kiddo's hand. You simply drop the die into the center dish and it bounces into one of the dishes around the edge. It works amazingly well. It bounces right into one of those depressions 99.4% of the time like pure magic. It takes work to make it bounce out... which means if yours bounces out you worked at it... and you lose your turn. Funny how it only took one or two off bounces for off bounces never to happen again. They love it that much.

The game edition in the picture has two word wall words per bounce. Every student chooses one of the words to graph with every student's turn, which keeps everybody engaged and the words being read aloud all the time... and it seems like there is strategy because you get to CHOOSE the word... I don't need to tell you I've been teaching kindergarten a long time to come up with this exciting game version.

With the one below, the die has letters on it, and the kids write the word that is made with the letter that is up and the word chunk landed on.

They write the word on the "earthling" side or the "alien" side of the recording paper- surely on Mars they must say words like tig and bap.

The kids love writing nonsense words on our Alien sheet. You can download mine by clicking on it above. So nice Jonathan can draw Martians. Let the kids use it for recording real and nonsense words with any word chunk/word family manipulatives you put out in your classroom.

You can use the bounce tray to practice lots of concepts in reading, math or, well, anything. You'll find the dip tray at dollar stores. Post-it notes easy to use because you can switch out the same tray for many uses, though I do have several of these trays now. I shared it at our staff meeting with K-5 teachers. It really is fun to bounce and I caught several teachers giving it a go after I shared it. hee. I strongly recommend it to any teacher, no matter who or what you teach.

4.  My friends at Flashlight Press sent me a brand new book that is just hitting bookstores. It is called Hammer and Nails, written by Josh Bledsoe and illustrated by Jessica Warrick. If you are a regular reader you know I love the books Flashlight chooses to publish, and this one does not fail my high expectations.

This is the story of Darcy, whose plans for a playdate are foiled when her best friend gets sick. It's Daddy to the rescue as he orchestrates the day with activities from both Darcy's and his to-do list... except that they do them Daddy-style. Dressing up, mowing the lawn, Hair Salon and doing the laundry take on whole new meanings on this special day.

For the teacher or parent who keeps an eye out for learning opportunities, this delightful book is full of them. Dealing with disappointment, being flexible, trying new things, and making the mundane events of life FUN are all underlying themes in the book. I can think of lots of times in the classroom and in family life when this book would have extra appeal: Father's Day; as a baby gift inscribed with "Think of the good times ahead;" or as a gift for a daughter from a Papa who shares this approach to life.

When I read this one to my class, before they ever saw it, I asked what a book called Hammer and Nails might be about. Construction, of course. Then I asked them again when I showed them the cover. Hmmm. Then I asked a third time after we read it. That lead to a discussion of the meanings of nail and what a homonym was. Common Core standard on word meanings- nailed! snort.

Here are some shots of the book.

OF COURSE it has great endpapers and About-the-Author blurbs... a requirement for every good kids' book.

I told you it was good. You want this book and you can find it here...

5.  .... OR I might just send it to you!!!! Whoot Whoot! Yep, this is the giveaway I've been talking about. Well, writing about, but in my head I'm talking to you... babbling actually... excitedly babbling, as this is my FIRST ever giveaway. Flashlight has been oh so gracious enough to send me an extra copy. And all you have to do is sign up below. Yes, you have to follow via Bloglovin or email when you sign up because Flashlight Press wants more readers of the reviews I post, and I want more readers, period. All these wonderfully insightful, exciting, funny ideas I write about should be read by more people, right? So just fill in your name, how you are following, and your email address (so I can tell you when you win) into the Rafflecopter entry form below. Names and addresses do not become public on the blog. Rafflecoper will "pull the name out of the hat" on Saturday, April 2nd, at midnight eastern time, so you can enter until then!!  If you are already a follower, enter the contest and tell me how you follow. Come on, what do you have to lose?? I know you'll love the book!!


a Rafflecopter giveaway



Ping!!! Hey, I just got the DTE message that the power at home is back on!!  Goodbye MickeyD's. I'm outta here!

Except, whoa, I almost forgot... the giveaway for Hammer and Nails is only my FIRST giveaway. A Hue document camera and another book are on the way- this one from Usborne! Be SURE to follow so you don't miss 'em!

See more, more, more good stuff by checking out Five for Friday!

And one. more. thing. Do you know about Oh-My-Heartsie Girl's link-up? We're talking lots of posts on tons of topics. If you're a teacher, mom, wife, daughter, grandma... you'll find something!  Click.

Well two. more. things. These bloggers are fired up and provide a great way to peruse blog topics on their Sunday Link-up, too. Click to see.

See you next time!!!

Five Fav Things to Share

Well, hello there on this Friday when I have Five Favs to share. Thanks to Doodle Bugs for the weekly linky.

1. I am just finishing a week of break, and what did I do? I went into school for some spring cleaning. Here is the before pic... well, actually, the during pic.

And yes, that fuzzy creature in the midst of the mess is Popeye. See her? She loves to come to school to "help." No matter where I moved a bin, there she was. I didn't even know she was there until I went to take the picture. sigh. At least I wasn't lonely.

There are four sections to this stretch of shelf where I keep math and science materials. These items are mostly those that go with a particular unit, so I only need to get something out every two or three weeks. I keep these shelves covered with a cloth curtain which I love because it cuts down on visual clutter and provides a backdrop for student art display. Here is a pic from a few months ago. The blog post about how I attached the display strip can be found by clicking on the photo.

Problem is, when I lift the curtain to get things out or put them away, I can see only one little section. Over time, I forget what goes where and because I never have enough minutes in the day I shove don't take the care I should in putting things where they belong... stop judging. You know you'd do that, too. Anyhow, pretty soon pet supplies are with a set of magnifiers, measuring tools are with a box of magnifiers, human body parts are with a few random magnifiers, and planting supplies are with a bin of, you guessed it, more magnifiers. And when I need magnifiers, none are to be found. ugh.

So I took everything off the shelves. Then I sorted and regrouped and rebagged and rebinned and matched one kind of item with the space that they needed, keeping in mind which items need easier access than others. And now it looks like this. Ta-da.

In my mind's eye these shelves were going to be full of matching bins all labeled with cute color coded stickers. What really happened was that so much of this stuff was of odd shapes and sizes it would have been really difficult to find matching bins to hold it all. To say nothing of the expense of all the lovely matching bins if I could have found them. And sometimes it will just be handier to pull an item off the shelf without taking out a bin to rummage through. The curtain is there to hide mix-matched stuff anyway, right? I won't win any classroom decor awards for these shelves, but they will do the trick.

The best detail of all might be that I made a little map for myself. It shows the four sections of shelves and what things are on each. I'll keep it nearby for easy reference. NOW things will stay neat and tidy forever for a while.

2. I hope you didn't miss my Monday Made It!

These are DIY math manipulatives that I posted earlier this week. They are great for lots of kindergarten math, and they also have a very satisfying feel when you slide the beads with just the right amount of pressure. They can also be used as a fidget for kids who need to keep their fingers busy to keep their mind engaged. They are easy and inexpensive to make and you can read all about them by clicking on the photo. Oh, and there is a freebie to go with it :)

3. I spent a good bit of break working on various school projects. One of the projects was searching for new center activities. Not just new kinds of resources on TPT (though I found some of those, too), but new activities that can be done repeatedly and which we haven't done before. And. I. found. one. I am most excited about this– the Message Center.

This idea comes from Kristin at A Teeny Tiny Teacher. She has kids rig up clothesline between two chairs, then gives each one paper and a clothespin. The kids write messages to each other, clip them to the rope, then pull the rope across. Talk about incentive to WRITE!

My guys are gonna LOVE this. I can hardly wait! Kristin gives all the details on how she does the activity on her post, actually several posts. You can find all when you click on her button below. THANKS, Kristin. It's just the kind of thing I was looking for.

4. I gotta share... new FitFlops for me, again. Whoot, whoot! I don't usually post about clothes, but these shoes are less about fashion and more about comfort. I have bum knees that give me periodic issues... but not if I wear FitFlops. I wore FitFlop boots all winter, but as it started to warm up I needed a transitional pair of FitFlops before I could slip into their sandales. I chose the Shuv clogs.

No, Silly, they don't come two colors to a pair, and I don't wear them this way... though I suppose I could... I teach kindergarten, after all, and it's not like I haven't seen mixed up shoes before. While shopping for the black patent pair, which I found on sale, I also found the red patent ones, on an even better sale, so both went into the cart. I've been wearing them for about a month now and it is LOVE! I can wear them with socks, or without.

They have the same feel and support as any of my other FitFlops. Click on the pic of the boots to read about them in an earlier post.

I highly recommend checking them out. They have TONS of cute styles for summer. I'm contemplating the sneakers next... hmmm.

5. Pop quiz! What are these?

They are the most adorable little shovel spoons I've ever seen! They come from Orange Leaf– and I'm not talking about autumn foliage. Orange Leaf is a frozen yogurt spot. Really good frozen yogurt! Really low cal, low fat, good for you, good frozen yogurt. The entire place is done in ORANGE. Like, you could never think you were in any place other than an Orange Leaf when you're inside. It is orange to the nth degree– ours even has an orange Christmas tree inside... where did they find an orange Christmas tree?? I just discovered them, but they have been around for a little while.

And the BONUS for teachers are their little spoons. SO CUTE. I have no idea WHAT fantastic project I'm going to think up yet, but I'm definitely taking them to school. They'd be great fun in the sandbox for working small, or for digging something out of a sensory bin at a center, or for making finger puppets, or... or... I'll let you know when I figure it out. For right now, building my collection is the reason I'm going into Orange Leaf on a regular basis... okay, the spoons are another reason. If there is one near you, I suggest you check out the fro yo AND the spoons!

AND I'm not the only one who loves the spoons... I tell you, this place was made for teachers. They have a whole special page on their site about the SPOONS! You can submit pics and projects and stuff. Great fun. Click on the photo below to go there!

Whew. That seemed like a lotta stuff today. Hope you found some useful tidbits. Head on over now for more Five for Friday. Thanks, Kacey!

Hope to see you around next time!

Fruit Snack Everyday? Yes, Way!

Oh, I am so grateful to have Fourth Grade Frolics' Monday Made It! linky to help spread the news about this system I developed to get GREAT healthy snacks into our class! You really gotta know about this! And this post holds a helpful Freebie, too!

In my classroom we eat community style snack, morning and afternoon, with everyone eating the same snack all together.

Did everyone get their squirt of hand gel first?

As both parent and teacher, I wanted to stay away from the cupcakes, chips, and candy that come into class when kids bring in daily snacks from home. We now know much more about how sugar is not good for our bodies and not good for learning. And we know how peer pressure from friends eating junk food trickles into families, even as they strive to eat in healthy ways. So I have parents supply two big boxes of shelf-stable, pantry items like crackers and cereals, about four times a year. The list that goes home includes only healthier choices to pick from.

But it gets better than that! You might wonder how it can be that parents only send in crackers four times a year to cover snack. Well, in this snack system parents supply fresh fruit and veggies for snack, too! And each family is only on the schedule four or five times in the year!

Yum!

Three families send in fresh produce each week. I ask for what amounts to one serving of snack for each child in the group–  a small bag of apples, a bag of baby carrots, half the number of bananas as kids, three cucumbers... you get the idea. I found over the years, though, that many parents happily send in more than this, easily supplying two class snacks per contribution. This means HALF OR MORE of our DAILY SNACKS are FRESH FRUIT AND VEGGIES. It's TERRIFIC!

Parents LOVE our snack system. When compared to packing two snacks every day, they save money and time by sending in class snacks less than ten times in the year. And both parents and I are happy that kids eat better overall... kids usually dig into fruit and veggies faster when their friends are happily munching beside them.

Sooo Good!

Here are the details that make it work:

Family participation is not mandatory in any way and I say that clearly to parents. However, over the ten years I've been doing this, I have come across very few families, as in maybe two, who never sent in produce at least some of the time. And, regardless, each student still got regular fresh snack as planned.

My school has a wide range of diverse families. One of the most striking things I discovered is that a household's economic means is neither a predictor of who will participate, nor how much produce will be sent in. Families who don't shop at fundraisers or book sales, for example, participate in supplying fruit. And my experience says that these very families are often the ones who show up at the classroom door with a whole grocery bag of produce!

If you teach at a school with extreme poverty, than this system might not work as described here. I encourage you to consider the benefits and think about ways that it could be tweaked so your students get more fruits and veggies, and healthier snacks in general. As a teacher, I've lived the adage where there's a will, there's a way. Before I developed this system in which all families to participate, I found three families who sent in enough fruit for each child once a week– one of them was not a parent at our school! In all my years of public school teaching we have had fresh produce... the will, the way.

Cukes become our favorite every year... Who knew?

It is not a hassle for me as a teacher. With all we have to do in our full days, I simply couldn't do it if that were not the case. I ask that parents wash the produce, but that's all. I've set up a space and routine for serving, and I've become a fast-as-a-TV-chef chopper... well, almost. Serving snack takes less minutes than everyone going to their backpacks to get and open snacks. Honest. And while I dole out and chop, we sing, do brain quizzes (like minute math), and talk to our friends. So although you could use your planning time to ready the snacks, you don't have to.

I make the schedule that parents follow by looking over the school calendar for the entire year. I list all the weeks we're in school and ask families to send in the goods on Monday or Tuesday of their week. Each week I assign three families to bring in produce. If it is a four day or less week, or there are days when we won't be having regular snack for some reason, I assign fewer families.

I discuss our snack system on Curriculum Night, and send home a letter explaining how it works. Although I like to discuss it at our meeting, this is not crucial to the system. The year I began serving fruits and veggies, I started midyear and it took off just fine. Also, there are always some families who miss Curriculum Night, and they come on board through the letter I send home.

As a help to parents, and to keep the snack program running smoothly, my Communication Parent (CP) sends home email reminders. My CP is a classroom parent who can't come in to help during the school day, but does have internet access. He/she emails a reminder to the parents of the upcoming week on the Friday afternoon before.

Quick FAQS:
- Crowds? This works in my classes of 18-22 students before needing any tweaking of amounts.

- Cleanliness? Each child gets a squirt of sanitizer hand gel directly before eating. We also practice "taking the first one our fingers touch." Bowls are cleaned after each use. My physician parents have had no issue with hand gel or community snack. With all the contact the kiddos have all day, snacking is probably one of our cleaner periods, because our germ awareness goes up with our healthy practices.

- Hungry? Kids always have the choice to eat or not. Even when they don't eat much, they go just another hour or so before having the chance to eat again. I encourage a "tooth bite," which is sticking one corner of one tooth into the selection. Funny how it's usually not as bad as they think.

- Yucky? Kids are permitted to say, "I don't care for this" one time. They are not allowed to say it more than that because it would be rude to the kids in our classroom community who like the food. The few kids who say this often say it right before they munch it all down :)

Snack was out on the veranda this spring day.

To make this all easier for you to see and use, I have a FREEBIE download for you to mull over. I include:
– a sample snack blurb to distribute to families describing our community fruit/veggie snack plan
– a sample nut-free, pantry snack list. This is the list I ask parents to choose from when they send in their boxes of snack for our pantry cupboard. Sometimes teachers don't want to have community style snack because they worry about kids with nut allergies. With community snack, I'm the gatekeeper doling out what everyone is eating, which makes our snacks more safe for allergy kids to be around. And the allergy families are happy, too.
– a sample parent schedule for bringing in produce throughout the year, which gives suggestions for produce to try.
– a sample email message that is sent to families by our CP.

Click on our basket of bounty to get to the FREE DOWNLOADS.

I would sure LIKE it if you would follow me! Various tips, tidbits and downloadables like this appear here. And we do believe in freebies :) Also, to my blogger friends, I'd love if you'd spread the word about this way of snacking and send readers on over to check it out. I think kids will benefit tons!

If you already have ways to get less junk and healthier snacks into your classroom, please share in the comments! If you're inspired to give it a try, I'd love to hear that, too. And even more terrific would be if you come back and let us know after it becomes your norm, or if you're a blogger, blog away. When you stumble upon something that works for you and your kiddos, you can't help but want to spread the word.

I say with great enthusiasm– try it, you'll like it!

Be sure to ask any questions you have below, too-- I'll get back to you! My hope is you'll put this healthy snack system in place for your kiddos.

Now click to head on back to more good ideas! Thanks, Tara!

The post Fruit Snack Everyday? Yes, Way! first appeared on kidpeopleclassroom.com