Book Clubs: Historical Fiction

Every month, I have run two book clubs: Reading Rangers for grades K-2 and Pagemasters for grades 3-5. We talk about what books they are reading, read a book, make a craft, and make a snack. The theme varies from month to month, but the kids are not required to read anything specific before the club. I don't even give them the theme beforehand - I ask them to guess it based on the books I've put out for them to look at.

I start each group by putting out 20-30 books on the rug for them to look at while they wait for the program to start.

This month in our book clubs we tackled Historical Fiction. I recently weeded my intermediate chapter books and my J Fiction and I noticed that if a book was historical fiction it was much more likely to be a candidate for weeding based on circulation alone. This bums me out, so I thought I would highlight the books we have left!

Talking 'bout books and the Theme

The Reading Rangers (grades K-2) and I talked about historical fiction and why The Magic Tree House doesn't really count as historical fiction even though they travel to the past.

Then we read Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt by Lisa Campbell Ernst.

This one was longer than I would usually attempt at this age, so I abbreviated a little as we went. I was worried they wouldn't really be in to it, but when someone in the book says "quilting is only for women" one little girl said "no it isn't!" And the whole group gasped when the quilt fell in the mud.

The Pagemasters (grades 3-5) and I read John, Paul, George, and Ben by Lane Smith which I find hilarious. They found it less so, though they were interested in identifying each historical figure before the book gave away who they were.

I still think this book is hilarious, but I'm starting to doubt its audience. The younger ones wouldn't know who these people are (even the older ones struggled with John Hancock) and the older ones didn't seem to enjoy the humor. But, since I think it's an awesome book, I'm going to chalk this up to my inability to read it properly. 

Both groups did the same craft and snack. We made candles from crayons and made our own butter. 

Candles: 

I pulled out my much maligned toaster oven (poor thing just doesn't work well for my cooking programs) while the kids peeled broken crayon bits and put them in aluminum muffin tins. 

I popped those in the oven until the wax melted, pulled them out and added a wick, and then waited for them to harden. Fortunately, crayon wax hardens quickly. 

Butter:

 I got this idea from a coworker who uses it during a silly cow storytime. I used Talenti gelato containers that someone donated (the kids always want to know if I ate all that gelato by myself) and dice.

Pour some milk into the container. Add a pinch of salt. Add two dice (or marbles if you have them). SHAKE!!!

First you get sour cream: 

Then you get whipped cream: 

Then finally, once the water (buttermilk) separates out, you'll have butter. 

Spread it on bread.

Yum!

It takes a lot of vigorous shaking, but the kids mostly enjoyed that part. I put on "Shake it off" and, if I were to do it again, I would probably make a CD of shaking songs for motivation. 

The younger set mostly made it to whipped cream (which is totally spreadable as whipped butter and it was enough to make them happy), but the older set took great pride in opening their jars for me and having me proclaim "BUTTER!!" 

As an extra bit of butter on the bread, one of the moms sent me a photo of their dinnertime that evening with candles for ambiance and butter for deliciousness. 

I always encourage the kids to take the books I've brought to continue reading on our theme at home. 

Sweet Snacks: Chocolate Waffle Ice Cream Sandwiches

For the last Sweet Snacks of the spring session, we made Chocolate Waffle Ice Cream Sandwiches. And yes, it was as good as it sounds. 

I used Alton Brown's recipe to make the chocolate waffles. I only made half a recipe at time which made about 6 waffles. (How did I halve the called-for three eggs? One egg and a yolk. It seemed to work ok.)

Here's what you need: 

We mixed the dry ingredients: 

Then the wet ingredients: 

Then we mixed them together and took them over to the waffle irons. I was lucky to have two of these; I borrowed one from another staff member. 

Chocolate waffles:

To add the ice cream, I took a container of Edy's Slow Churned, put it on its side, and used a big knife to cut about half an inch off the top of the container. I popped out the resulting round of ice cream and placed it between the two waffles.  

The ice cream, halfway through the program. It's been cut down a little bit at this point...

I cut the resulting ice cream sandwiches into triangles and TA DA!: ice cream sandwiches for everyone!

I chose to do a recipe that had a lot of ingredients so that everyone would get a chance to measure something and mix it in. You could also, I presume, use regular just-add-water waffle mix, but that doesn't seem as exciting. Even with all the ingredients that went in to this and making two sandwiches (four waffles) per group, it only took about 20 minutes per group of ten. I love how many times I hear "oh, hey, we can make this at home!"

Verdict: yummy!

Sweet Snacks: Rolled-Up French Toast

On the menu for April's Sweet Snacks program: Rolled-up French Toast.

Here's how we did it. (Click here to learn more about how I cook with the kids.)

Start with a piece of white bread and a rolling pin. 

Roll it till it's flat flat flat. 

Spread it with your choice of topping. I offered cream cheese, flavored cream cheese, jelly, and cinnamon sugar. You can do peanut butter, too, but I worry about allergies so I stay away from it unless it is absolutely necessary to have it (we used it when we made Muddy Buddies, for example, but I made extra sure everyone knew that it was coming). 

Cinnamon sugar. Possibly more than strictly necessary...?

Next, make the egg dip. Mix 2 eggs and 3 tablespoons of milk in a bowl. Whisk until it's combined. 

Then roll your bread into a tight roll, dip it in the egg mixture, and place it (seam-side down) in your trusty skillet (my skillet is the awesomest. Go my skillet.)

Biggest challenge: remembering which roll belonged to which child.

Carefully turn the roll as it browns to make sure all the sides get cooked. 

When it's done, put it on a plate and sprinkle with powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar. 

Super simple, delicious, and the ingredients were relatively inexpensive, too. Over the next few days, I received several reports of the kids making these at home for breakfast. Yum!

Sweet Snacks: Popcorn

As I was running through ideas for my Sweet Snacks program (check this post for a run-down of how I cook with my kids), I came across the idea of flavored popcorn in one of the cookbooks. A little bit of googling revealed a world of flavored popcorn that I could never have imagined (seriously, google it. It's astounding).

I narrowed it down to four options based on what I thought the kids would like, what might be a little different for them, and what took the simplest ingredients. Here's what I picked: cinnamon sugar, parmesan cheese, ranch, and rocky road.

Here are the ingredients you'll need for the toppings:

Not pictured: sugar. We mixed our own cinnamon sugar - you can always buy premixed if you prefer. 

The popcorn itself is just needs some vegetable oil and popcorn kernels.

I pulled out my trusty skillet (is there anything it can't do?) and we went to work.

First, put 1/4 cup of oil in the skillet.

Throw a few kernels in the oil and cover it. 

Wait. Use this time to talk about kernels vs. popped corn or microwave popcorn vs. the kind we are making or which kernel you think will pop first. 

When one pops, cover the bottom of the pan with kernels. Cover the skillet. 

It will start to pop pop pop and be oh, so very fun. Once the popping slows down, turn the heat off and wait a minute or so. Take the lid off (carefully! Some kernels may still be popping!). 

We divided our popped corn into four large bowls with lids and added the toppings. 

Ranch Flavor: 

Butter

Ranch dressing mix

Chives

Cinnamon Sugar Flavor:

Butter

Cinnamon sugar

Rocky Road Flavor: 

Butter

Chocolate Chips

Marshmallows

Parmesan Cheese Flavor: 

Butter

Parmesan Cheese

Put the lids on the bowls and SHAKE!

Delicious.

For those keeping score at home, the Ranch dressing was far and away the parent favorite while the kids were totally enamored with Rocky Road. 

To each his own... popcorn.