Abby's Great Brain Project

Abby worked hard on a project for school called "The Great Brain." She chose to learn more about baking. With the help of her mentor (aka: Mom) we read up on the different kinds of leaveners used in breads, baked many things using those leaveners, toured BYU bakery, and at the end Abby shared her knowledge in a presentation she gave to her 2nd grade class. Together Abby and I baked chocolate chip cookies, snowball cookies (twice), white bread, and banana bread. At the class presentation she showed them many of the different tools used in baking, demonstrated how to proof yeast, and gave the kids a taste test of foods made with each kind of leavener. She gave samples of chocolate chip cookies, sourdough bread, cinnamon raisin bread, pound cake, banana bread, and pita bread. Here is the paper she wrote for her project.

Abby's Great Brain Project: BAKING

The reasons I picked baking are that I want to be a good baker and I think it is fun to bake. There are many things to know about baking. I will share with you some of the things I have learned while I studied this subject.

There are many tools used in baking. Some of them are: measuring cups and spoons, pans, mixing bowls, spatulas, cooling racks, and an oven. Measuring cups and spoons help you to measure your ingredients correctly. The oven can be put on different temperatures. That is important because you need the right temperature for different foods.

I went to the BYU bakery. My uncle works there. He was able to show me the big oven. The oven has six shelves. The shelves rotate around and around like a ferris wheel when you press a lever. The oven can bake ninety-six loaves of bread at a time. There is a mixer that I saw there. It was huge! It can hold 130 pounds of dough. That makes 86 loaves of bread! There was a machine that had a conveyor belt that had rollers on it that flattened dough. Then there was another machine that cut the dough into dough shapes when you move the lever back and forth. My mom and I got to taste green, mint frosting out of an enormous bowl. There was also a machine that filled cream puffs with custard. I got one to taste but I dropped it on the floor on accident.

Different ingredients are used in making different baked goods. Some ingredients used are: flour, salt, sugar, eggs, oil, butter, vanilla, baking soda, baking powder, yeast and sponge. Not the kind of sponge that you clean your counter with. This kind of sponge is yeast that you grow yourself. You can make all kinds of things from these ingredients like cookies, cakes, batter breads, and yeast breads. The last four ingredients that I named are called leaveners. Leaveners make bubbles in bread, cookies, and cake. The bubbles make them rise.

Baking soda is a chemical compound. Baking powder is baking soda mixed with cream of tartar and cornstarch. Yeast is a plant that is not green. To make it rise it needs to be fed sugar. Sponge is a mixture of ingredients that you leave out on your counter so that the yeast spores in the air can come and grow there.

3500 years ago in Egypt they made bread with yeast. Before the Egyptians discovered baking with yeast, all bread was flat and hard as a rock. On the walls of pyramids there were drawings and messages that showed the people making bread. In the tombs of the pharaohs they would put things for the afterlife that they would need. One of those things was bread shaped like a servant because they thought he would need servants in the afterlife too. They had forty kinds of bread. They recently found a bowl with bread in it that was 3500 years old that looked a lot like it did right after it was made. I am thankful for the Egyptians discovery of baking with yeast.

I had a lot of fun baking and learning about baking. I hope you will too.

Abby's School Poem

Abby recited a poem in front of her 2nd grad class entitled "I Have a Baby-sitter Here With Me. This poem can be sung to the song "I Have a Little Baby Bumblebee," but she didn't sing it.

I Have a Baby-sitter Here With Me

I have a baby-sitter here with me

She's on the phone while she's watching TV

I thought she was supposed to play with me

Now.....she's hungry!

My baby-sitter's gonna raid the snacks

Cookies, candy, a box of Cracker Jack

She chomped so fast that right before my eyes

She....ate the prize!

Wait till my parents come home, what a fit

Bet they'll never ask her back to sit

Oh no, what am I saying? I'd miss her

She's.....my sister!

Abby wore her pajamas and brought a pizza box and some papers wadded up like garbage. Mrs. Paice, her 2nd grade teacher, is putting the microphone around her neck so the class can hear her. She spoke plainly and confidently and was hardly even nervous!

Tour of the BYU Bakery

For Abby's Great Brain Project at school she decided to learn about baking because she can't wait to bake things all by herself. She aspires to be a baker one day. Abby's Uncle Keith is a baker at BYU so he pulled some strings at work and we got to go tour the bakery. This is an enormous oven with six rotating shelves. They rotate just like a ferris wheel when you press on a lever so you can fill the shelves with baking pans. The oven can bake 96 loaves of bread all at once!

This is a machine that rolls dough out flat in seconds.

This is an ENORMOUS mixer that can hold 130 pounds of dough!

This machine takes a round, flat piece of dough and cuts them into rolls in seconds.

This is a mixing bowl that mixed mint frosting in it just minutes earlier. This mint frosting is layered on the delicious BYU mint brownines. Abby's tastebuds liked it!

Here's Abby on the outside of the building after our tour. We had a great time touring the BYU baking facility. Uncle Keith was so nice to show us how to use the tools of his trade. They are building a newer facility that should be done in a few months. We hope to tour that one too!

Betsy Ross

I got to participate in the Kindergarten Kindy 500 rotatation playing the part of Betsy Ross. I told the children about the first flag that had a circle of 13 stars representing the 13 colonies. We talked about places that the flag flies and how we take good care of it just like we would take good care of something that is special to us. At the end I got a litte teared up when I looked into their little faces and told them that the flag is an IMPORTANT reminder for us to be united because when we work together we are STRONG. Some of them got teared up too. It was so cute. I love the innocence of children and how they can grasp concepts that we sometimes think are over their heads. I wore my Mother's pioneer dress that she wore on her mission in Nauvoo, IL. I couldn't get my hair into an attractive looking bun, and try I DID. But I'm pretty sure that Betsy Ross wasn't a blonde either.

Kindy 500

All kindergarten classes in Spanish Oaks Elementary participated in the Kindy 500. Each child, with the help of their parents, was to make a vehicle to "drive" through the hallways for a short parade. Then they were to drive their vehicles to different parts of the school and learn about some of our country's national symbols. The symbols they learned about were: the Bald Eagle, Mount Rushmore, the American Flag, the Statue of Liberty, Lincoln Memorial, and the White House.

When I asked Bastian what vehicle he wanted he said, "I want a mother ship!" He liked the mother ship on StarFox, an old video game that we no longer have. I searched the web to find a design to work from but to no avail. I let Bastian know that we might have to think of something else.....like a truck, perhaps. He said, "No. Let's make the Millennium Falcon." Off to the computer we went. We found the famous Star Wars spaceship with ease and we were well on our way to drawing up the design when Bastian got sick. He had a temperature of 102 and was sleeping the day away while I cut out the ship and designed the blaster gun and satellite.
Here is what Bastian did while I worked on the Millennium Falcon. Look at those RED cheeks! He wanted to help more but was physically unable.

The next day Rob sprayed the design in the garage.

Bastian was feeling a little better during the painting phase. He and Weston played around in the garage for a bit.

Bastian helped spray paint his spaceship.

The next day Bastian seemed to be feeling much better. He definitely didn't want to miss the Kindy 500. Here he is with his class. Bastian is in Mrs. Olsen's kindergarten class.

Bastian was assigned the state of Arizona as the state his vehicle is licensed in. We made this personalized plate from Arizona. We love Arizona because Aunt Shelly and Uncle Alan live there. Our family loves to visit them.

He had a great time and loved his spaceship. After school his fever returned. We took him to the doctor and they said he had pneumonia! We got the prescribed meds and I took good care of him until he was better. I am secretly soooo glad he didn't have a fever the morning of the Kindy 500. He would've been so disappointed!

Science Fair

Hayden and Kaden Nelson did their project together. We decided on "The Can Crusher Experiment."
As you can see Hayden makes an AWESOME mad scientist. Here is how the experiment is done.
Step 1. Start by rinsing out the soda cans to remove any leftover soda goo.
Step2. Fill a bowl with cold water (the colder the better).

Step 3. Add one generous tablespoon of water to the empty soda can (just enough to cover the bottom of the can).

Step 4. Place the can on the burner of the stove while it is in the “OFF” position. It’s time for that adult to turn on the burner to heat the water. Soon you’ll hear the bubbling sound of the water boiling and you’ll see the water vapor rising from the can. Continue heating the can for one more minute.
Step 5. It’s important to think through this next part before you do it. Here’s what should happen: you’re going to use the tongs to lift the can off of the burner, turn it upside down, and plunge the mouth of the can down into the bowl of cold water. Get a good grip on the can near its bottom with the tongs held so that your hand is in the palm up position. Using one swift motion, lift the can off the burner, turn it upside down, and plunge it into the cold water. Don’t hesitate… just do it!

Step 6. Wow... and you thought that you had nerves of steel. The can literally imploded. How does that work?
Step 7. Don’t just sit there... get back to that stove and do it again! Each time you repeat the experiment, carefully observe what is happening in order to try to figure out how it works.

How does it work?Let’s start by clearing up the big misconception. That “stuff” coming out of the can when you heat it on the stove is NOT steam. Contrary to popular belief, you cannot see steam. Why? Because steam is a colorless, invisible gas that is 400 degrees F. If you were to accidentally touch steam, you would be faced with severe burns. What is that gas that we see? It’s called water vapor.
Here’s the real scoop on the science of the imploding can: Before heating, the can was filled with water and air. By boiling the water, it changed states from a liquid to a gas. This gas is called water vapor. The water vapor pushed the air that was originally inside the can out into the atmosphere. When the can was turned upside down and placed in the water, the water vapor condensed and turned back into the water. Water molecules in the liquid state are many, many times closer together than molecules in the gas state. All of the water vapor that filled up the inside of the can turned into only a drop or two of liquid, which took up much less space. This small amount of water cannot exert much pressure on the inside walls of the can, so the pressure of the air pushing from the outside of the can is great enough to crush it. The sudden collapsing of an object toward its center is called an implosion. Hey, air pressure is powerful!

Invention Convention

For 2nd grade invention convention Abby made a hover craft. She started with a sketch of the model and we went from there. It turned out pretty great. It came with a cup and plate holder and a wireless steering wheel.

Those gold shiny pieces on the floor are the gas and brake pedals.

Abby let Hayden add some finishing touches on the steering wheel. He included the gas gauge, speedometer and hyper speed button.

Kindergarten Show and Teach

Bastian chose to make chocolate chip cookie dough for his kindergarten show and teach. He did a great job reading the directions and putting all the ingredients in the Bosch. At the end he gave everyone a cookie that he had made the night before. He was a great speaker and didn't get nervous at all. After each ingredient was added, he turned on the beaters and counted to 10 in his mind.

Great job on your outstanding teaching abilities and your great baking skills, Bastian!

The Letter P

I was so pleased that Bastian got his homework out and finished it by himself. When I checked on it, this is what I found. Yes, on the left is the mound of poo and on the right is the stream of pee. I contemplated leaving it, as he did think of these things AND spelled them on his own, but in the end I couldn't do it.

Hayden's Delicious State Map

For a state project at school Hayden made a 3 dimensional map of Washington. Hayden chose this state because it is the state I grew up in and because many people we love live in Washington.
The Cascade Mountain Range is depicted using rectangles of Hershey's candy bar. The Columbia Basin is dusted with Nestles Chocolate Quick powder.

Seattle is near where my sister, Teresa Collette, and her family (Barry, Ryan, Sean, Jill and Chad) live and where my nephew, Nathan Glaus, and his family (Joy and Oliver) lives.

Colville is my hometown. My sweet father is buried there. It is also home to the best sub sandwich shop, Mr. Sub.

The Tri-Cities is where my sister, Krista Salisbury, and her family (John, Kelsey, Lindsey, Justin, Jenna, and Jared) live.

It was great sharing memories of this great state with Hayden. It was a wonderful place to grow up!

Joyful at Joy School

E is for Elephant. That is what we learned in Joy School in September. We also talked about the families that our Heavenly Father sent us to and how much they love us. Here are the boys in our group: Weston, Ben Gunderson, Isaac Bradshaw.Here are the girls in our group: Jaeda Sannar, Alexandra Finlayson, and Audrey Arndt.

Joy School is held once a week. We mothers rotate as the teacher for the week. Each week we focus on a letter, number, color, shape and value based theme. Some of our themes are: Identity and Families, Bodies and Health, Gratitude, Sharing, Service, Countries, Customs, Traditions, Choices, etc. Each child has a carpet with thier name on it where they get to sit during circle time. Thier conversations are so fun to listen to. Just last week they talked about underwear and diapers while they colored. I tried not to rudely interupt their converstion with spouts of loud laughter.

They all get along so well. Our schedule is as follows:

9:30-9:45 Arrival and Into Activity (puzzles, books, toys, sensory activity, manipulation tools, crayons, stickers, etc.)

9:45-9:50 Clean Up From Intro Activity

9:50-10:05 Circle Time (letter, number, color, shape weather, value based theme, and related activities)

10:05-10:15 Snack Time/Clean Up

10:15-10:30 Singing Time/Story Time

10:30-10:50 Art Project/Science Experiments/Game/Hands on Activity and Clean Up

10:50-11:00 Circle Time/Review

11:00 Moms come to pick up