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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Reading Theme Challenge

This weeks reading challenge is all about the Chinese New Year. Yes, I'm a day late celebrating the holiday but that's okay! Check out, Teaching Tiny Tots blog for more information if you would like to join in all the fun.

The batteries in my camera are dead which normally wouldn't be a big deal. But due to the ICE strom! I'm not going anywhere! I'm not sure if I could even pull out of my drive way without sliding all over the place. I'm sad about this about this but I can't do much about it. I need to work on next time building up my supply of batteries for emergencies.

Note:
Well, we ended up spending most of the day celebrating the Chinese New Year! All of the books we read were awesome. I ended up coming away with a lot of new information. I really liked all the books. Sam and the Lucky Money was by far my favorite book. It ends on a really nice note. The only bad thing, my tape player ended up eating up the cassesste tape that went with the book. Now, I'm going to have to pay to replaced the damaged tape. Oh, well.

The easy Chinese Moon Cookies were awesome. I didn't know how they would turn out but they were really good. Leah loved this activity. She even tried to roll a ball of dough in her little hands and she especially loved pushing her thumb into the cookies. They don't taste like real chinese moon cakes but they taste really good!

Lastly, the boys really like viewing youtube videos of New Year celebrations in China. Overall, a great reading challenge for the Scheele family.



Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn

My First Chinese New Year by Karen Katz
Happy New Year by Demi
Chinese New Year

Craft Ideas

For some really cool craft ideas check out dltk-kids website for Chinese New Year crafts!

By the Chinese Calendar
2009 is the Year of the Ox,
which is also known by its formal name of Ji Chou. 己丑
(Year begins on 1/26/2009)
(First Day of the Year of the Ox falls on 1/26/2009) New Year Graphics

Auspicious cranes dancing to bring spring back to earth.

Red Dragon
A pair of dragons on a painted lacquer brush-pot, Wan-li period (1573-1620), Ming dynastry, h. 13 in. (176k)




Easy Chinese Moon Cakes

Ingredients:
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup salted butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup strawberry (or your favorite) jam (traditionally
red bean paste is used so if you want a more authentic
version, you can use a can of red bean paste instead of
the jam).
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine the butter, sugar and 1 egg yolk and stir.
3. Mix in the flour.
4. Form the dough into one large ball and wrap it in
plastic wrap.
5. Refrigerate dough for half an hour.
6. Unwrap the chilled dough and form small balls in the
palms of your hand.
7. Make a hole with your thumb in the center of each

mooncake and fill with about half a teaspoon of jam.
8. Brush each cake with the other beaten egg yolk and place on a cookie sheet. (We didn't have a brush to
do this, so skipped the brushing step)
9. Bake for about 20 minutes or just until the outside edges are slightly brown
10. Makes 24

3 comments:

Mozi Esme said...

I like the cookie idea! The first cookies I ever made with Esme - when she was about 15 months - were thumbprint cookies. The idea was for her to help roll the balls and then press thumbprints in them. What fun! She was very consciencious about the thumbprints but made donut holes in most cases. She finally just ate the jam while I quickly made something resembling thumbprint cookies without assistance...

Lara said...

Ya, the cookie idea was really cool. The kids loved rolling the cooking into little balls and loved pressing their little thumbsprints into them. The cookie actually tasted really good.

Anonymous said...

sounds like a great day!!!!

i've been really bad this week we've done lots of mommy school but i hardly took any pictures!!!